Getting started with CFEngine part 2 (installing the policy server & client)

For the purpose of this installation I've used CFEngine version 3.7.3 which is the latest version available as of this writing.

Installing the policy server (hub):

The packages for installation can be downloaded from the CFEngine official website.

On the website CFEngine recommends to use the 'quick start' approach for Linux distributions which I followed for my installation.

The version of CFEngine being used here is the full version of CFEngine Enterprise, but the number of hosts (nodes) is limited to 25.

System requirements:

CFEngine Policyserver

64-bit machine with a recent version of Linux. 2 GB of memory, and 100mb of disk space per host you plan to connect to. Port 5308 needs to be open. Hostname must be set

Download and Install CFEngine Policyserver:

Run the following command to download and automatically install CFEngine on a fresh 64-bit Linux machine

wget http://s3.amazonaws.com/cfengine.packages/quick-install-cfengine-enterprise.sh  && sudo bash ./quick-install-cfengine-enterprise.sh hub

The above command although looks simple but will fail miserably if the pre-requisites are not in place.

Ensure that your /etc/hosts file is populated appropriately else the install will fail with the following error:

HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK

Length: 46561674 (44M) [application/x-redhat-package-manager]

Saving to: ‘cfengine-nova-hub-3.7.3-1.x86_64.rpm’

100%[====================================================================================================================================================>] 46,561,674  61.8KB/s   in 16m 25s

2016-04-24 00:43:57 (46.2 KB/s) - ‘cfengine-nova-hub-3.7.3-1.x86_64.rpm’ saved [46561674/46561674]

hostname: Name or service not known

hostname -f does not return a valid name, but this is a requirement for generating a

SSL certificate for the Mission Portal and API.

Please make sure that hostname -f returns a valid name (Add an entry to /etc/hosts or

fix the name resolution).

error: %pre(cfengine-nova-hub-3.7.3-1.x86_64) scriptlet failed, exit status 1

error: cfengine-nova-hub-3.7.3-1.x86_64: install failed

Next, you need to have some dependencies installed else the install fails giving mysterious errors liek this:

2016-04-24 01:29:38 (54.0 KB/s) - ‘cfengine-nova-hub-3.7.3-1.x86_64.rpm.1’ saved [46561674/46561674]

error: unpacking of archive failed on file /var/cfengine/bin/pg_dump;571c59c2: cpio: read failed - No such file or directory

error: cfengine-nova-hub-3.7.3-1.x86_64: install failed

The following are the pre-requisite packages:

1. openssl 
2. openssl-devel 
3. flex 
4. pcre 
5. pcre-devel 
6. openldap 
7. gcc 
8. tokyocabinet

In my case the installation still failed with 'pg_dump;571c59c2: cpio: read failed". I later found out that it was a backup utility related to PostgresSQL. So I installed it.

After this the installation finally succeeded:

[root@dockertest ~]# rpm -ivh cfengine-nova-hub-3.7.3-1.x86_64.rpm

Preparing...                          ################################# [100%]

Updating / installing...

   1:cfengine-nova-hub-3.7.3-1        ################################# [100%]

I didn't use the script this time because the script detects the distro & donloads & installs the rpm.

Since I already had the rpm downloaded I skipped the script.

Once installed, the policyserver needs to bootstrap to itself. Run the bootstrap command as follows:

/var/cfengine/bin/cf-agent --bootstrap <IP address>

[root@dockertest ~]# /var/cfengine/bin/cf-agent --bootstrap 192.168.44.179

R: Bootstrapping from host '192.168.44.179' via built-in policy '/var/cfengine/inputs/failsafe.cf'

R: This host assumes the role of policy server

R: Updated local policy from policy server

R: Started the server

R: Started the scheduler

notice: Bootstrap to '192.168.44.179' completed successfully!

Installing the CFEngine client:

System requirements:

CFEngine Hosts (clients)

32/64-bit machines with a recent version of Linux. 20 mb of memory, and 20mb of disk space. Port 5308 needs to be open.

CFEngine provides a script for the client install as well which I used here:

wget http://s3.amazonaws.com/cfengine.packages/quick-install-cfengine-enterprise.sh  && sudo bash ./quick-install-cfengine-enterprise.sh agent

After the install completes you'll need to bootstrap the client to the policy server with the following command:

/var/cfengine/bin/cf-agent --bootstrap <Policy server IP address>

[root@cfeclient ~]# /var/cfengine/bin/cf-agent --bootstrap 192.168.44.179

  notice: Bootstrap mode: implicitly trusting server, use --trust-server=no if server trust is already established

  notice: Trusting new key: SHA=dd2074ca7f7d0bbf00f666eea1f0aa3a8121fa2cb924cc6e4739ccef061ebbb3

R: Bootstrapping from host '192.168.44.179' via built-in policy '/var/cfengine/inputs/failsafe.cf'

R: This autonomous node assumes the role of voluntary client

R: Updated local policy from policy server

R: Started the server

R: Started the scheduler

  notice: Bootstrap to '192.168.44.179' completed successfully!

In the next tutorial I share some useful commands & process for logging in to the Mission control GUI.