This module installs and manages the Dropsonde Puppet telemetry client. See the documentation on its repository page for information about the project.

1. Description
   • What this module manages
2. Usage - Configuration options
3. Limitations
4. Development - Guide for contributing to the project

We both know that you hate telemetry as much as I do. So what makes this different? At its core, the purpose and design of this module is for your own benefit as much as it is for ours. Think back to the time you last visited the Forge to find a module. Chances are that you discovered many modules that claimed to solve your problem and it was relatively difficult choosing between them. Surfacing usage data in a way that lets you signal approval simply by using a module is the primary goal of this project.

This means that the best way for you to help yourself find new modules is to install this telemetry tool and, along with your peers, share your module usage data.

• Installs the dropsonde gem.
• Manages configuration at /etc/puppetlabs/telemetry.yaml.
• Manages a weekly cronjob to submit the report at a time randomized for each infrastructure.

The simplest use case is just to declare the module and accept defaults:

include dropsonde

If you prefer, you can configure several settings, such as:

class { 'dropsonde':
  disable => ['puppetfiles', 'modules'],
  seed    => 'banana pancakes'
}

The full list of options is:

• disable
  • An array of metrics that you don't want to report. See the available settings by running /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/dropsonde list.
• enable
  • An array of metrics that you allow to report on. All other metrics will be skipped. See the available settings by running /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/dropsonde list.
• update
  • Set to false to prevent the tool from automatically updating its list of names of public Forge modules. Only do this if you're behind a firewall that blocks access to the Forge and you're planning on manually updating this periodically yourself.
• cachepath
  • The list of public Forge modules is normally stored in Puppet's vardir. You may set the path to a different directory here if you'd like.
• ttl
  • How many days before the tool updates the list of public Forge modules.
• seed
  • If you'd like to change your Site ID then make up and enter a random number or string here.
• use_cron parameter
  • Enable/disable cron functionality(true/false enable/disable cron job creation)

    Note: The use_cron parameter is set to true by default as the module will configure and set a cron job for the dropsonde gem to gather the required information periodically. We have decided to allow users to disable the cron functionality to be able to use this module and the dropsonde gem with different other schedulers. In the example bellow we disable cron as we decided to install the gem on a puppetserver machine where the integrated scheduler will assure the required functionality. Here is how you disable the cron functionality: class { 'dropsonde': use_cron => false, }. include dropsonde or class { 'dropsonde': } will set a cron job for dropsonde gem.

This module is currently only tested on Puppet supported platforms.

There's very little interesting development going on with the module, but we'd love to get your help on gathering the right metrics and aggregating them in ways that provide the most community benefits without compromising privacy.

• Telemetry Client
• Aggregation Queries