Puppet's filebucket serves as a versioned backup system for files managed by Puppet. When Puppet makes changes to files on managed nodes, it stores the original content in a filebucket before applying modifications. This provides an essential safety net for configuration management.

To store filebucket data on a single Puppet master server, configure your Puppet master's puppet.conf:

[master]
filebucket = puppet
server = puppetmaster.example.com

For clients to use this centralized bucket:

[agent]
filebucket = puppet
server = puppetmaster.example.com

When declaring file resources that should use the filebucket:

file { '/etc/important_config':
  ensure  => file,
  source  => 'puppet:///modules/mymodule/important_config',
  backup  => 'puppet',
}

To ensure secure transfers between client and master:

• Use standard Puppet PKI infrastructure (SSL/TLS)
• Configure auth.conf to properly authorize filebucket access
• Set appropriate filesystem permissions on the bucket directory

To list contents of the filebucket:

puppet filebucket list -l --bucket /var/lib/puppet/clientbucket

To retrieve a specific file version:

puppet filebucket get /var/lib/puppet/clientbucket/md5/d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e

Create a custom script to remove files older than 30 days:

find /var/lib/puppet/clientbucket -type f -mtime +30 -exec rm -f {} \;

Or implement a more sophisticated solution with log rotation:

/var/lib/puppet/clientbucket/*.log {
    daily
    rotate 7
    compress
    delaycompress
    missingok
    notifempty
}

For production environments, consider this enhanced configuration:

[master]
filebucket = main
server = puppetmaster.example.com
bucketdir = /opt/puppetlabs/server/data/puppetserver/bucket
bucket_restrictions = filebucket

[agent]
filebucket = main
report = true

---

Puppet's filebucket serves as a versioned backup system for files managed by Puppet. When configured properly, it provides:

• Version control for all file resources
• Disaster recovery capabilities
• Audit trail of file changes

To configure a centralized filebucket on your Puppet master, add these settings to puppet.conf:

[master]
filebucket = puppet
bucketdir = /opt/puppetlabs/server/data/puppetserver/bucket
rest = true

For clients to use this centralized bucket:

[main]
filebucket = main:server = puppet

Ensure encrypted communication between clients and master:

[master]
ssl_client_header = SSL_CLIENT_S_DN
ssl_client_verify_header = SSL_CLIENT_VERIFY

Verify your certificates are properly configured:

puppet cert list --all

Common operations with examples:

# Backup a file
puppet filebucket backup /etc/ntp.conf --bucket server://puppet

# Retrieve file by content checksum
puppet filebucket get md5/123abc456def --bucket server://puppet

# Diff between versions
puppet filebucket diff md5/123abc md5/456def --bucket server://puppet

Create a custom script for maintenance:

#!/bin/bash
# Prune files older than 90 days
find /opt/puppetlabs/server/data/puppetserver/bucket -type f -mtime +90 -delete

# Generate audit report
puppet filebucket list --bucket server://puppet > filebucket_audit_$(date +%F).log

If files aren't backing up:

# Debug filebucket operations
puppet agent -t --debug --logdest syslog

# Verify bucket permissions
ls -la /opt/puppetlabs/server/data/puppetserver/bucket