1. Overview
2. Module Description - What the module does and why it is useful
3. Usage - Configuration options and additional functionality
4. Limitations - OS compatibility, etc.

Facts (and a module) for identifying information about a system.

This module provides information about a node by breaking apart a structured hostname into usable facts. If the hostname is, or could not be structured, the module provides a mechanism for writing an informational file that will be read by facter on the next run.

For the facts to run on the agents, pluginsync must be enabled.

The module will provide 2 facts (cluster_name and node_number) from a structured hostname that help identify the system (we had hiera in mind when writing this).

The general hostname structure we use is [application name]-[tier]-[node number]. The cluster_name fact is based on application-name-tier, and the node_number fact is simply the node_number.

If the hostname isn't structured, the module can write out a file, the contents of which will be read in lieu of the hostname to generate the 2 facts.

To manage the file, the class can be declared as

class { 'system_role':
  application => 'test-application',
  tier        => 'prod',
  node_number => 0,
}

This module was developed and tested on Linux systems.

The concept used here is very simple, and can likely be translated to work on other systems incredibly easily.