Rudder - Management

Client-server communication

Configure the networks from which nodes are allowed to connect to the Rudder policy servers to get their updated configuration policy.

You can add as many networks as you want, the expected format is: NetworkIP/mask, for example "42.42.0.0/16".

Security

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Protocol

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Change audit logs

If enabled, prompt users to enter a message explaining the reason for each configuration change they make.
These messages will be stored in each Event log and as the commit message for the underlying git repository in

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Change Requests (validation workflow)

If enabled, all changes to configuration (Directives, Rules, Groups and Parameters) will be submitted for validation via a Change Request.
A new Change Request will enter the Pending validation status, then can be moved to Pending deployment (approved but not yet deployed) or Deployed (approved and deployed) statuses.

Only users with the validator or deployer roles are authorized to perform these steps (see /opt/rudder/etc/rudder-users.xml).

If disabled, all changes to configuration will be immediately deployed.

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Modified files

Every time Rudder modifies a file (by file editing or copying from a remote source), a backup is created on the agent under /var/rudder/modified-files/.

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Logging

All nodes in Rudder send reports via syslog to this Rudder root server. These logs are stored in an SQL database in order to determine compliance information displayed in this web interface. However, it can be useful to also store this information in a plain text log file, for example for statistics or debugging purposes. The option below enables this.

Also, the full output from each agent run is stored in a file under /var/rudder/cfengine-community/outputs/. These files are automatically removed to save on disk space. You can configure the retention time (Time To Live) they are kept for here.

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Usage survey participation

To help the Rudder team continue to improve this software day after day, we are running a survey to collect usage statistics.

These statistics are submitted anonymously, and include overall statistics about your instance of Rudder (number of Rules, Directives, Nodes, etc). No potentially-sensitive data is included (only stock Rudder-provided techniques are examined, no hostnames, etc). We highly value your privacy, as we do our own, so we will never share individual submissions (only globally compiled statistics).

If you want to check the information that is sent, just run /opt/rudder/bin/rudder-metrics-reporting -v on your Rudder server. This won't send any information without your consent.

This information is very valuable to the development team, as it helps us focus on the features that matter most and better understand what our users care about. Please consider participating in the survey!

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Display compliance and recent changes columns on rule summary
In directive configuration page, we have the possibility to choose rules for the directive. The rule are presented in a summary table which look alike the one in rule page. For performance on aesthetic reason, you may want to hide compliance and recent changes columns on that table. The column will still be displayed on the rule page.
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Display changes graphs

In Rules table, we display a graph for each Rule showing its activity (number of repaired reports).

Unfortunately, some browsers (especially Firefox) have trouble displaying them and make Rule pages almost unusable.

If you experience slow loading of Rules pages, you can disable this feature here.

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Enable script evaluation in Directives

If enabled, all password fields can contain a JavaScript expression. These expressions are evaluated during promise generation, and can therefore provide unique values for each node. Read the script documentation for more information.
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Clear policy caches

Clear cached data. This will trigger a full policy update, and regenerate all promise files.

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Manage dynamic groups

Groups in Rudder can be static (fixed list of nodes) or dynamic (the list of nodes is built from a search query).

To take into account new nodes and changes to their inventory, dynamic groups must be reloaded regularly.

Currently, Rudder will automatically do this reload every 5 minutes (see /opt/rudder/etc/rudder-web.properties).

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Manage Technique library

Techniques in Rudder are read from the filesystem (in /var/rudder/configuration-repository/techniques).

To take into account new Techniques and changes, the Technique library must be updated regularly.

Currently, Rudder will automatically do this update every 5 minutes (see /opt/rudder/etc/rudder-web.properties).