Referring to http://docs.puppetlabs.com/mcollective/reference/basic/gettingstarted_debian.html from 2013-02-21
Download:
- The packages from http://downloads.puppetlabs.com/mcollective/ are older than the ones from http://apt.puppetlabs.com/ -> clarify which ones should be used
- Debian/wheezy provides mcollective packages in the official repos: http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=mcollective
ActiveMQ:
- "Place the following in your ActiveMQ configuration path as activemq.xml.": the linked configuration file (http://github.com/puppetlabs/marionette-collective/raw/master/ext/activemq/examples/single-broker/activemq.xml) provides different configuration settings than what's visible on the config file provided on the webpage, e.g. the "<import resource="jetty.xml"/>" causes headaches in certain setups where the path to jetty.xml can't be determined
- Debian's mcollective v2.0.0+dfsg-2 package provides /usr/share/doc/mcollective/examples/activemq.xml which (once you're aware of http://bugs.debian.org/701079) works for Debian systems better than any other mentioned/provided configuration file on the website -> mention this file and maybe also ship it in the package provided by puppetlabs
- Debian's mcollective v2.0.0+dfsg-2 package provides /usr/share/doc/mcollective/README.Debian with quite decent instructions to get ActiveMQ going, e.g. also mentioning log4j.properties to get log files at all -> mention this file and maybe also ship it in the package provided by puppetlabs
Misc:
- "ps -auxw|grep java" should be "ps auxw|grep java" (at least when talking about Debian/Ubuntu systems)
MCollective:
- "apt-get install mcollective mcollective-client mcollective-common" -> the mcollective-client package already depends on mcollective-common, no need to explicitly install it
- Without having Debian preseeding in-place to instruct mcollective settings the mcollective package installations fails (in certain situations?)
- Installation as well as running upstream package v2.2.3-1 still fails with ruby 1.9: http://projects.puppetlabs.com/issues/16572 (5 months old now)
- "gem install stomp" -> "apt-get install libstomp-ruby" when using an older version of mcollective on squeeze/wheezy, when using mcollective >=2.0.0 with the activemq connector you need ruby-stomp >=1.2.2-2 (http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/r/ruby-stomp/ruby-stomp_1.2.2-2_all.deb), see http://projects.puppetlabs.com/issues/15119 - the ruby-stomp package from wheezy also works fine on squeeze
- /etc/mcollective/{client,server}.cfg examples use "connector = activemq", but http://docs.puppetlabs.com/mcollective/reference/basic/configuration.html still mentions "stomp" as sample (even though stomp connector will go away after 2.2.x AFAICS) and the "stomp.example.net" adds just more confusion for the beginner
- /etc/mcollective/{client,server}.cfg examples: uses "plugin.activemq.1.host" etc but this doesn't work, should be instead:
connector = activemq
plugin.activemq.pool.size = 1
plugin.activemq.pool.1.host = stomp.example.net
plugin.activemq.pool.1.port = 61613
plugin.activemq.pool.1.user = mcollective
plugin.activemq.pool.1.password = marionette
PS: My final setup is using activemq 5.6.0+dfsg-1 + mcollective{,-client,-common} 2.2.3-1 on a Debian/wheezy system and mcollective{,-client,-common} 2.2.3-1 on Debian/squeeze systems, but mcollective* 2.0.0+dfsg-2 from wheezy seems to work just fine on squeeze systems as well.