Client modes

Dryrun mode

Dryrun mode (-n) prevents the client from making changes, but gives you some insight into the state of the machine. This mode is also useful if you simply want to gather data from the client into the reporting system.

Interactive mode

The client can be run interactively (-I) so that you are able to step through each operation in order to see what the client is doing.

Paranoid mode

Paranoid mode creates a backup of a local configuration file before Bcfg2 replaces the file. This allows for easier recovery by the local administrator.

How do I use it?

1. In the Bcfg2 repository, put paranoid=’true’ in the info.xml file.
2. On the client, create /var/cache/bcfg2 (or specify an alternate path in the [paranoid] section of /etc/bcfg2.conf).
3. On the client, run bcfg2 with the -P option (alternatively, you can set paranoid to true in the [client] section of bcfg2.conf).

This will save a copy of the replaced file in /var/cache/bcfg2, but it’ll be named as the path to the file with /’s replaced by _’s. For example, the old /etc/hosts will be named /var/cache/bcfg2/etc_hosts.

Extra configuration

New in version 1.0.0.

Here is an example of how to use some of the extra paranoid features available. For the following section in bcfg2.conf (client-side):

[paranoid]
path = /my/custom/backup/path
max_copies = 5

You will have the file backups store in /my/custom/backup/path. This will also keep the five most recent backups of files.

Altering the global metadata to enable paranoid mode for all files

You may also want to just globally enable the paranoid attribute for all files distributed to clients from your Bcfg2 server. You can accomplish this by adding a global metadata override in your bcfg2.conf (server-side) with the following syntax:

[mdata]
paranoid=true

This will override the default value of “paranoid=false” and change it to “true” which will cause every file you add or update in your Bcfg2 repo to backup on the client as specified in your client config.

Overall client service mode

New in version 1.0.0.

Overall client service mode. Specified on the client using -s <service mode>.

• default
  • perform all service manipulations
• disabled
  • perform no service manipulations
• build
  • attempt to stop all services started
  • deprecates/replaces -B