NAME

pfacter - Collect and display facts about the system

SYNOPSIS

pfacter [option]... [fact] [fact]...

OPTIONS

--debug

Print debugging information while working.

--help

Display a short usage synopsis.

--version

Display the current version/release of pfacter.

--moduledir

Specifies the extensible module location; if no specific facts are specified, the entire moduledir directory will be read and acted upon.

This (at the most basic level) addes a path to perl's @INC array; as an example, if moduledir is specified as "/etc/pfacter/modules" (the default), a module named Pfacter::thirdparty would be loaded from a module located at /etc/pfacter/modules/Pfacter/thirdparty.pm.

--multi

Allows for multi-valued facts (ipAddress, macAddress, memory, etc) to be displayed as such (both locally and in LDAP).

--write

Write any new or changed host facts to LDAP. Requires that either a configuration file be specified, or a username, password, and server address be provided on the command line.

The following flags are used in conjunction with the --write option:

--configfile <configfile>

The file containing configuration information (username, password, LDAP server address, etc). Format is:

$option: "value"

Anything specified on the command-line (such as moduledir, LDAP connection information, etc) can be specified in this configuration file.

For LDAP authentication, the configfile would contain something like:

$username: "pfacter"
$password: "pf4ct3r"
$server:   "ldap.company.com"

If you use the configfile option it is also possible to specify multiple LDAP servers to attempt binds against. Simple change the format to:

@server:   "ldap1.company.com ldap2.company.com ldap3.company.com"

...and Net::LDAP will attempt to bind to each host in order until a successful connection is made. This is not possible if the server is specified on the command line.

The configfile flag is the most secure (and preferred) method for storing connection and authentication information. It is however possible to pass configuration information via the command line with the following three flags:

--username <username>

The name of the LDAP user to bind as.

--password <password>

Password.

--server <server>

The IP address or name of the LDAP server.

Refer to the examples for more information regarding the syntax/use of the username, password, and server flags.

--base <base DN>

If not specified, the base DN is guessed based on the domain.

--ssl

Connect securely (with SSL, obviously) to the LDAP server.

--xml

Print all output in XML format.

--yaml

Print all output in YAML format.

EXAMPLES

pfacter kernel kernelrelease kernelversion

Print information about the kernel, kernel release, and kernel version.

pfacter --write --configfile /etc/pfacter.conf

Print all facts and write any changes to LDAP. Uses the authentication information stored in /etc/pfacter.conf.

pfacter --write --username uid=pfacter,ou=People,dc=company,dc=com --password pf4ct3r --server ldap.company.com --ssl ipaddress macaddress

Print IP address and MAC address facts. Write any changes to LDAP using the specified connection and authentication information. Use SSL.

AUTHOR

Scott Schneider <sschneid@gmail.com>