Re: policy_server.dat IP to DNS

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On Mon, Oct 20, 2025 at 06:12:58AM -0700, Markus Rexhepi-Lindberg wrote:
> We have a lot of servers that was bootstrapped quite some time ago and they 
> have the IP address instead of the DNS address of the policy server in 
> their /var/cfengine/policy_server.dat file. Is there a recommended way to 
> migrate these to use the DNS address instead? I was thinking that perhaps a 
> simple bundle to update the file would suffice but I wanted to check with 
> the community first to find out if there is a better way.

Hi Markus,
The policy_server.dat file will include what is given to cf-agent --bootstrap. As of CFEngine 3.11 and newer it is possible to use a hostname.

This commit added this ability: https://github.com/cfengine/core/commit/1a45d2043615c3627069b893759e9b7d275b9938

Using a hostname has benefits and drawbacks.
The benefit is that the DNS entry could change and you could avoid having to rebootstrap to a different IP address. The caveat here is that long-running processes like cf-serverd may need a restart in order to do the name to IP translation.
Drawbacks of using a hostname are if DNS doesn't work out, which certainly is not uncommon.

I do think that using an IP address is a bit more reliable.
Instead of manipulating that file you could instead re-bootstrap with a command like cf-agent --no-lock --inform --bootstrap <newip>.

Let us know what you think and how you proceed.

-Craig

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