Initiate a client update from master

[the_fonz]

Hi Guys,

I'm just getting my head around Puppet. At the moment I'm using Puppet to manage an Apache config file across webservers on some test servers. I have this all setup and am using Puppet to initiate a graceful Apache restart after the file is updated from the Puppet Master.

What I'd like to do is force the clients to check in as soon as the files is changed rather than wait the default 30 minutes. I appreciate that I could schedule a regular cron to start the client --onetime or increase the client check-in time. 

However, if I make a change to my httpd.conf file on the Puppet Master, I'd like to force the modified file to the clients in a staggered fashion rather than wait for the clients to pick up the change.

I have looked at Mcollective but I"m not sure if there is an alternative way just using Puppet?

I understand the default is for clients to pull config changes rather than have them pushed from a master, but I really need to the ability to force a client checkin rather than wait for it.

Thanks,

[the_fonz]

Well this rarely happens...  I think I've cracked it... I'm using puppetrun --host from the master force the client to check in for updated files. 

I had to add this to puppet.conf on the client

listen = true

Then add this to auth.conf on the client to allow the master to check for updates. 

path /run

method save

allow <puppetmaster FQDN>

and

path /

auth any

allow  <puppetmaster FQDN>