puppet: force service restart after configuration file was modified

Question

how can i ensure that if new version of configuration file is downloaded via puppet from master repository to one of managed servers relevant service is restarted.

typical scenario - let's say there is new munin or apache config. puppet client discovers it, overwrites local files... and... - how to make sure service is restarted / reloaded ?

thanks a lot!

Answer 1

An alternative to notify is subscribe:

file { "/etc/sshd_config":
    source => "....",
}

service { sshd:
    ensure => running,
    subscribe => File["/etc/sshd_config"],
}

The difference being that the relationship is described from the other end. For example, you might make apache subscribe to /etc/apache/httpd.conf, but you'd make a vhost file notify apache, as your apache class won't know about every vhost you have.

A similar dual-ended situation applies to require and before. It's just a matter of which makes more sense in the particular situation.

As Chad mentioned, if you find puppet constantly trying to start your service, then you need to add a pattern parameter, which is a regex to apply against the list of processes. By default puppet will do a stop and start to restart a service. If you add "hasrestart => true", then it will use the command specified in the "restart" parameter to restart the service.

Answer 2

it seems i've found something:

file { "/etc/sshd_config":
    source => "....",
    notify => Service[sshd]
}

service { sshd:
    ensure => running
}

we'll see how that will work. anyway your thoughts on the subject are welcome.

Answer 3

This works for Solaris 10 :)

class sun_cron_root {
    file { "/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root" :
            source => "puppet:///files/cron/sun/sun_cron_root"
            }

    service {
            "cron":
            provider => "smf",
            ensure => running,
            enable => true,
            hasrestart => true,
            subscribe => File["/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root"]
            }

}