Man Page: puppet ca

NAME

puppet-ca - Local Puppet Certificate Authority management.

SYNOPSIS

puppet ca action

DESCRIPTION

This provides local management of the Puppet Certificate Authority.

You can use this subcommand to sign outstanding certificate requests, list and manage local certificates, and inspect the state of the CA.

OPTIONS

Note that any setting that's valid in the configuration file is also a valid long argument, although it may or may not be relevant to the present action. For example, server and run_mode are valid settings, so you can specify --server <servername>, or --run_mode <runmode> as an argument.

See the configuration file documentation at https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/configuration.html for the full list of acceptable parameters. A commented list of all configuration options can also be generated by running puppet with --genconfig.

--render-as FORMAT: The format in which to render output. The most common formats are json, s (string), yaml, and console, but other options such as dot are sometimes available.
--verbose: Whether to log verbosely.
--debug: Whether to log debug information.

ACTIONS

destroy - Destroy named certificate or pending certificate request.: SYNOPSIS

puppet ca destroy

DESCRIPTION

Destroy named certificate or pending certificate request.
fingerprint - Print the DIGEST (defaults to the signing algorithm) fingerprint of a host's certificate.: SYNOPSIS

puppet ca fingerprint [--digest ALGORITHM]

DESCRIPTION

Print the DIGEST (defaults to the signing algorithm) fingerprint of a host's certificate.

OPTIONS --digest ALGORITHM - The hash algorithm to use when displaying the fingerprint
generate - Generate a certificate for a named client.: SYNOPSIS

puppet ca generate [--dns-alt-names NAMES]

DESCRIPTION

Generate a certificate for a named client.

OPTIONS --dns-alt-names NAMES - A comma-separated list of alternate DNS names for Puppet Server. These are extra hostnames (in addition to its certname) that the server is allowed to use when serving agents. Puppet checks this setting when automatically requesting a certificate for Puppet agent or Puppet Server, and when manually generating a certificate with puppet cert generate.

In order to handle agent requests at a given hostname (like "puppet.example.com"), Puppet Server needs a certificate that proves it's allowed to use that name; if a server shows a certificate that doesn't include its hostname, Puppet agents will refuse to trust it. If you use a single hostname for Puppet traffic but load-balance it to multiple Puppet Servers, each of those servers needs to include the official hostname in its list of extra names.

Note: The list of alternate names is locked in when the server's certificate is signed. If you need to change the list later, you can't just change this setting; you also need to:
- On the server: Stop Puppet Server.
- On the CA server: Revoke and clean the server's old certificate. (puppet cert clean <NAME>)
- On the server: Delete the old certificate (and any old certificate signing requests) from the ssldir.
- On the server: Run puppet agent -t --ca_server <CA HOSTNAME> to request a new certificate
- On the CA server: Sign the certificate request, explicitly allowing alternate names (puppet cert sign --allow-dns-alt-names <NAME>).
- On the server: Run puppet agent -t --ca_server <CA HOSTNAME> to retrieve the cert.
- On the server: Start Puppet Server again.
To see all the alternate names your servers are using, log into your CA server and run puppet cert list -a, then check the output for (alt names: ...). Most agent nodes should NOT have alternate names; the only certs that should have them are Puppet Server nodes that you want other agents to trust.
list - List certificates and/or certificate requests.: SYNOPSIS

puppet ca list [--[no-]all] [--[no-]pending] [--[no-]signed] [--digest ALGORITHM] [--subject PATTERN]

DESCRIPTION

This will list the current certificates and certificate signing requests in the Puppet CA. You will also get the fingerprint, and any certificate verification failure reported.

OPTIONS --[no-]all - Include all certificates and requests.

--digest ALGORITHM - The hash algorithm to use when displaying the fingerprint

--[no-]pending - Include pending certificate signing requests.

--[no-]signed - Include signed certificates.

--subject PATTERN - Only include certificates or requests where subject matches PATTERN.

PATTERN is interpreted as a regular expression, allowing complex filtering of the content.
print - Print the full-text version of a host's certificate.: SYNOPSIS

puppet ca print

DESCRIPTION

Print the full-text version of a host's certificate.
revoke - Add certificate to certificate revocation list.: SYNOPSIS

puppet ca revoke

DESCRIPTION

Add certificate to certificate revocation list.
sign - Sign an outstanding certificate request.: SYNOPSIS

puppet ca sign [--[no-]allow-dns-alt-names]

DESCRIPTION

Sign an outstanding certificate request.

OPTIONS --[no-]allow-dns-alt-names - Whether or not to accept DNS alt names in the certificate request
verify - Verify the named certificate against the local CA certificate.: SYNOPSIS

puppet ca verify

DESCRIPTION

Verify the named certificate against the local CA certificate.