Puppet run fails after enabling package data collection (“package_inventory_enabled”) in Puppet Enterprise

After enabling package data collection using the package_inventory_enabled parameter, Puppet runs fail with No such file or directory error messages.

Error messages and logs

When running Puppet on a node, you get the following errors:

Could not set 'present' on ensure: No such file or directory @ rb_sysopen - /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache/state/package_inventory_enabled at /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/modules/puppet_enterprise/manifests/profile/agent.pp:77

Could not set 'present' on ensure: No such file or directory @ rb_sysopen - /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache/state/package_inventory_enabled at /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/modules/puppet_enterprise/manifests/profile/agent.pp:77

Wrapped exception: No such file or directory @ rb_sysopen - /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache/state/package_inventory_enabled

change from absent to present failed: Could not set 'present' on ensure: No such file or directory @ rb_sysopen - /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache/state/package_inventory_enabled at /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/modules/puppet_enterprise/manifests/profile/agent.pp:77

Source: /Stage[main]/Puppet_enterprise::Profile::Agent/File[/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache/state/package_inventory_enabled]/ensure

File: /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/modules/puppet_enterprise/manifests/profile/agent.ppLine: 77

Version and installation information

PE version: All supported versions
OS: Unix
Installation type: Standard, large, extra-large

Note: If you’re already using the puppetlabs-support_tasks module, update it to the latest version.

Solution

This issue occurs when statedir is not set to the default location, /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache/state in puppet.conf. The default location of these directories changed in PE 2015.2. If you upgraded from an older version of PE, statedir,vardir, and rundir might be set to something other than the default location.

You can fix this manually or by installing a module and using a task. You can only complete the task-based solution on Unix nodes.

To use a task to fix the issue:

Note: If you’re already using the puppetlabs-support_tasks module, update it to the latest version.

Resolve the error by installing a module and using a task to remove the vardir, statedir, and cachedir settings from puppet.conf. You can only complete the task-based solution on Unix nodes.

1. Download and install the puppetlabs-support-tasks module which includes the task for this solution.

2. In the console, in the Orchestration section, click Tasks. Click Run a task in the upper right corner of the Tasks page. Under Tasks select support_tasks:st0236_set_cache_paths_to_default. In the Code environment field, select the environment where you installed the module. This defaults to production. Under Select targets select a PQL query, node list, or node group to select the affected nodes. Click Run task.

   The task can exit with the following outputs:

   • success - parameters reset to default: Parameters were changed to default.
   • success - No changes necessary: Parameters were already default, no changes were made.
   • sucess - Not an agent node: The task ran on infrastructure nodes, and exited with no change to parameters.
   • fail - unable to reset parameters: The task exited with no change to parameters.

To manually fix the issue:

On one node or a handful of nodes

In puppet.conf, change the location for each directory to its default value.

On each affected agent node:

1. Edit /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/puppet.conf to remove the following settings: vardir, rundir, and statedir.

2. Restart the puppet service:

   puppet resource service puppet
   ensure=stopped puppet resource service puppet ensure=running

3. To verify that the issue has been resolved, run puppet agent -t

On many nodes

Manage the location of vardir, rundir, and statedir using the puppetlabs-inifile module.

1. Install or add puppetlabs-inifile to your deployment.

2. Add the following to a class.

   $puppet_conf = '/etc/puppetlabs/puppet/puppet.conf'
   ini_setting { 'puppet.conf remove vardir':
     ensure  => absent,
     path    => $puppet_conf,
     section => 'main',
     setting => 'vardir',
   }
   ini_setting { 'puppet.conf remove rundir':
     ensure  => absent,
     path    => $puppet_conf,
     section => 'main',
     setting => 'rundir',
   }
   
   ini_setting { 'puppet.conf remove statedir':
     ensure  => absent,
     path    => $puppet_conf,
     section => 'main',
     setting => 'statedir',
   }

3. Add the class to a node group with the affected nodes in it.