[Error after after upgrading to 3.7] Evaluation Error: Illegal Resource Type expression, expected result to be a type name, or untitled Resource, got Type[Class]

[Juan Sierra Pons]

Hi,

I am using a mix of the following two blog post:

[1] A modern Puppet Master from scratch

[2] Puppet Infrastructure

After upgrading to 3.7 I am getting the following error message

Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on
SERVER: Evaluation Error: Illegal Resource Type expression, expected
result to be a type name, or untitled Resource, got Type[Class] at
/etc/puppet/environments/production/site/profiles/manifests/base.pp:5:3
on node server3.example.com
Warning: Not using cache on failed catalog
Error: Could not retrieve catalog; skipping run

With 3.6 it worked like a charm.

The base.pp is like this:

class profiles::base {
anchor { 'profiles::base': }
Class { require => Anchor['profiles::base'] }
users { users: }
}

Is anyone getting the similar errors?

Thanks for your time

Best regards

[1] http://stdout.no/a-modern-puppet-master-from-scratch/

[2] http://terrarum.net/blog/puppet-infrastructure.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Juan Sierra Pons ju...@elsotanillo.net
Linux User Registered: #257202
Web: http://www.elsotanillo.net Git: http://www.github.com/juasiepo
GPG key = 0xA110F4FE
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[Henrik Lindberg]

On 2014-12-09 14:57, Juan Sierra Pons wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am using a mix of the following two blog post:
>
> [1] A modern Puppet Master from scratch
>
> [2] Puppet Infrastructure
>
> After upgrading to 3.7 I am getting the following error message
>
> Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on
> SERVER: Evaluation Error: Illegal Resource Type expression, expected
> result to be a type name, or untitled Resource, got Type[Class] at
> /etc/puppet/environments/production/site/profiles/manifests/base.pp:5:3
> on node server3.example.com
> Warning: Not using cache on failed catalog
> Error: Could not retrieve catalog; skipping run
>
> With 3.6 it worked like a charm.
>

From the error message, I think you are using the future parser.
Did you use the future parser on 3.6 as well?

> The base.pp is like this:
>
> class profiles::base {
> anchor { 'profiles::base': }
> Class { require => Anchor['profiles::base'] }
> users { users: }
> }
>

It looks like your intention is to set the default for every class in
the entire system to have a require of Anchor['profiles::base']. Is that
true, or are you trying to achieve something else?

Read more about containment here:
https://docs.puppetlabs.com/puppet/latest/reference/lang_containment.html

- henrik

--

Visit my Blog "Puppet on the Edge"
http://puppet-on-the-edge.blogspot.se/

[jcbollinger]

On Monday, September 15, 2014 9:23:08 AM UTC-5, Henrik Lindberg wrote:

On 2014-12-09 14:57, Juan Sierra Pons wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am using a mix of the following two blog post:
>
> [1] A modern Puppet Master from scratch
>
> [2] Puppet Infrastructure
>
> After upgrading to 3.7 I am getting the following error message
>
> Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on
> SERVER: Evaluation Error: Illegal Resource Type expression, expected
> result to be a type name, or untitled Resource, got Type[Class] at
> /etc/puppet/environments/production/site/profiles/manifests/base.pp:5:3
> on node server3.example.com
> Warning: Not using cache on failed catalog
> Error: Could not retrieve catalog; skipping run
>
> With 3.6 it worked like a charm.
>

In the sense that catalogs were compiled without error, perhaps.  The example does not perform proper containment, however: to do containment with Anchor resources you need two per containing class, one to serve as a lower bound and another to serve as an upper bound (see Henrik's link).  The example code and the terrarun tutorial on which it is based miss the latter, leaving no containment whatever.  You could just delete the anchor resources and Class defaults without meaningfully changing the semantics of the manifests.

Furthermore, using resource defaults for this purpose is tricky and prone to failure because the default is ignored for any class that is declared with its own specific require parameter.

 

 From the error message, I think you are using the future parser.
Did you use the future parser on 3.6 as well?

> The base.pp is like this:
>
> class profiles::base {
>     anchor { 'profiles::base': }
>    Class { require => Anchor['profiles::base'] }
>    users { users: }
> }
>

It looks like your intention is to set the default for every class in
the entire system to have a require of Anchor['profiles::base']. Is that
true, or are you trying to achieve something else?

Remember that resource defaults are dynamically scoped.  The code is trying to make every class declared by the given profile class have have the Anchor as a require.  The model on which it is based proposes that several of these classes might be declared, all chained together.  I think the idea is that they could thereby get away with only one anchor apiece, but that doesn't work.  For example, Puppet could choose to apply all the (non-class) resources declared directly by the profile classes first, including the anchors, and then all the other classes in any order.
 

 

Read more about containment here:
https://docs.puppetlabs.com/puppet/latest/reference/lang_containment.html

+1


I observe also that Puppet has suffered for years from confusion among users, among developers, in documentation, and even in code about whether (or in what sense) classes are resources.  Starting with the introduction of parameterized classes, there was a push -- largely originating at PL, I think -- to cast the class as just another resource type.  Thankfully, that seems to have waned, because however much the DSL can present classes in the same mold as ordinary resources, they manifestly are not ordinary resources.  More than a few bugs were reported around this, some without any possibility of a fully satisfactory resolution.

It seems the future parser / type system may be swinging even more back the other way.  As a longtime critic of the conflation of classes and resources, I am just fine with that.  The future parser and Puppet 4 docs should certainly discuss the matter, though.


John

[Juan Sierra Pons]

Hi guys,

From your comments I see that there are 2 issues here the parser and
the anchor. For clarity shake I have deleted the anchor resources and
Class defaults as I don't fully understand the purpose of if they have
meaning on my environment, even after reading the link you provided.
After this all the manifest seem to behave as before.

My puppet.conf working configuration with 3.6 was like this:

[...]
parser = future
evaluator = current
[...]

I needed the parser and the evaluator set like this to get some piece
of code from the [1] terrarum blog to work:

$trusted_networks = hiera_array('trusted_networks')
$trusted_networks.each |$network| {
firewall { "003 allow all traffic from ${network}":
proto => 'all',
source => $network,
action => 'accept',
}
}

On the other side I have comment out the parser and evaluator lines
because they are giving problems with other modules too:

Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on

SERVER: This Type-Name is not productive. A non productive construct
may only be placed last in a block/sequence at
/etc/puppet/environments/production/modules/postgresql/manifests/server/database.pp:73:3
on node server.example.com

So as far as I know my systems is as it was with 3.6 but the
trusted_networks are not being applied as they need the parser =
future.

Thank your for your time

Best regards

[1] http://terrarum.net/blog/puppet-infrastructure.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Juan Sierra Pons ju...@elsotanillo.net
Linux User Registered: #257202
Web: http://www.elsotanillo.net Git: http://www.github.com/juasiepo
GPG key = 0xA110F4FE
Key Fingerprint = DF53 7415 0936 244E 9B00 6E66 E934 3406 A110 F4FE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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[jcbollinger]

On Tuesday, September 16, 2014 12:26:24 PM UTC-5, Juan Sierra Pons wrote:

Hi guys,

From your comments I see that there are 2 issues here the parser and
the anchor. For clarity shake I have deleted the anchor resources and
Class defaults as I don't fully understand the purpose of if they have
meaning on my environment, even after reading the link you provided.
After this all the manifest seem to behave as before.

My puppet.conf working configuration with 3.6 was like this:

[...]
parser       = future
evaluator   = current
[...]

Please be aware that the future parser is basically a beta / technology preview.  It is not guaranteed to be consistent even between minor Puppet versions, and I really wouldn't recommend enabling it on production systems.

 

I needed the parser and the evaluator set like this to get some piece
of code from the [1] terrarum blog to work:

If the terrarun examples you linked to earlier are characteristic of that blog's technical quality, then I am not very impressed.  If they are recommending using the future parser without warning you about the implications then I am not impressed at all.

 

$trusted_networks = hiera_array('trusted_networks')
$trusted_networks.each |$network| {
  firewall { "003 allow all traffic from ${network}":
    proto  => 'all',
    source => $network,
    action => 'accept',
  }
}

The future parser does make things like that easier, which is a big part of why it's being developed, but they are not impossible with Puppet 3's default parser.  The old-school way to perform code that particular bit of configuration would go something like this:

some.pp:
----
# ...

$trusted_networks = hiera_array('trusted_networks')

my_module::trusted_network_firewall { $trusted_networks: }
# ...

modules/my_module/manifests/trusted_network_firewall.pp
----
define my_module::trusted_network_firewall () {
  some_module::firewall { "003 allow all traffic from ${title}":

    proto  => 'all',
    source => $title,
    action => 'accept',
  }
}

 

On the other side I have comment out the parser and evaluator lines
because they are giving  problems with other modules too:

Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on
SERVER: This Type-Name is not productive. A non productive construct
may only be placed last in a block/sequence at
/etc/puppet/environments/production/modules/postgresql/manifests/server/database.pp:73:3
on node server.example.com

So as far as I know my systems is as it was with 3.6 but the
trusted_networks are not being applied as they need the parser =
future.

Henrik would know for sure, but if your code worked in 3.6 (with the future parser) but broke in 3.7 (still with the future parser) then it seems reasonable to attribute that to changes in the future parser.  Certainly the error message you first reported points that direction.  As I already said, the future parser should not be assumed stable.  (You should be able to rely on its stability once it is released as the standard parser in Puppet 4, however.)


John

[Henrik Lindberg]

The error in question is not coming from this part of the code afaict,
and it looks ok to me.

below, it is shown that the error is from:
/etc/puppet/environments/production/modules/postgresql/manifests/server/database.pp:73:3

Where there must be a construct that the new more strict validator does
not like. The error is about "non productive expression" which means
that expressions without side effects that are placed in a sequence are
no longer allowed because they are typically the result of typos or
having written something that is believed to have a particular meaning,
but it does not.

Suggest reporting the issue against the postgresql module.

>
> The future parser does make things like that easier, which is a big part
> of why it's being developed, but they are not impossible with Puppet 3's
> default parser. The old-school way to perform code that particular bit
> of configuration would go something like this:
>
> some.pp:
> ----
> # ...
> $trusted_networks = hiera_array('trusted_networks')
> my_module::trusted_network_firewall { $trusted_networks: }
> # ...
>
> modules/my_module/manifests/trusted_network_firewall.pp
> ----
> define my_module::trusted_network_firewall () {
> some_module::firewall { "003 allow all traffic from ${title}":
> proto => 'all',
> source => $title,
> action => 'accept',
> }
> }
>
>
> On the other side I have comment out the parser and evaluator lines
> because they are giving problems with other modules too:
>
> Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on
> SERVER: This Type-Name is not productive. A non productive construct
> may only be placed last in a block/sequence at
> /etc/puppet/environments/production/modules/postgresql/manifests/server/database.pp:73:3
>

> on node server.example.com <http://server.example.com>

>
> So as far as I know my systems is as it was with 3.6 but the
> trusted_networks are not being applied as they need the parser =
> future.
>
>
>
> Henrik would know for sure, but if your code worked in 3.6 (with the
> future parser) but broke in 3.7 (still with the future parser) then it
> seems reasonable to attribute that to changes in the future parser.
> Certainly the error message you first reported points that direction.
> As I already said, the future parser should not be assumed stable. (You
> should be able to rely on its stability once it is released as the
> standard parser in Puppet 4, however.)
>

One change in 3.7 is that the "evaluator = current" has no effect, it is
now using both the new parser and the new evaluator when --parser future
is used. This is done because the old evaluator will go away in 4.0 and
we want to ensure that the new evaluator gets exposure to the real world.

- henrik

>
> John
>
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