Re: 2.1.11 cfexecd runs update.conf immediately, ignoring SplayTime

[Jim Wight]

On Tue, 2004-11-16 at 14:00, Mark Burgess wrote:
> No - you need splaytime in update.conf if you want it apply there.

You mustn't have read my message closely enough. I said that it happened
irrespective of SplayTime being set in update.conf. I haven't changed my
update.conf, but the behaviour is different at 2.1.11. That's the whole
thrust of my bug report. cfengine is not behaving as previously - or as
documented.

With cfexecd running in daemon mode and cron configured to run cfexecd I
have monitored processes on two machines (running 2.1.8 and 2.1.11) and
traffic to the cfengine port on the server (using tcpdump).

Nothing happens at the server when the 2.1.8 machine's daemon schedules
a run or a cron job starts. It's only after update.conf's SplayTime has
elapsed that I see any traffic from it to the server. And I only see a
single cfagent process on the machine per run.

When the two events happen on the 2.1.11 machine, there is an immediate
burst of activity on the server involving that machine, and I can see a

cfagent -Q smtpserver, .... -D from_cfexecd

process running on it, followed, when it has completed, by the normal
cfagent process, which then sleeps according to SplayTime in
update.conf. The files that get copied by update.conf have already been
copied.

Would anyone else care to confirm what I'm seeing?

Jim

> On Tue, Nov 16, 2004 at 09:18:14AM +0000, Jim Wight wrote:
> > I don't know whether this came in at 2.1.11 - I haven't upgraded since
> > 2.1.8, and it wasn't there then - but in investigating 2.1.11 I notice
> > that when cfexecd is started in daemon mode, when a run is scheduled in
> > daemon mode, and when cron fires up cfexecd in non-daemon mode, cfagent
> > immediately contacts the server (if update.conf is configured to do
> > that) irrespective of any SplayTime settings in update.conf.
> > 
> > It's only after 
> > 
> > /var/cfengine/bin/cfagent -Q 
> > smtpserver,sysadm,fqhost,ipaddress,EmailMaxLines,EmailFrom,EmailTo -D 
> > from_cfexecd
> > 
> > has been run that a normal (no arguments) cfagent run goes to sleep,
> > obeying SplayTime.
> > 
> > This is not good news for servers if all clients spring into action at
> > the same time.
> > 
> > An oversight, surely.
> > 
> > Jim
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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