Pabawi

Classic Infrastructures Command & Control Awesomeness Pabawi is a web frontend for infrastructure management, inventory and remote execution. It currently provides integrations with Puppet, Bolt, PuppetDB, and Hiera. It supports both Puppet Enterprise and Open Source Puppet / OpenVox. It provides a unified web interface for managing infrastructure, executing commands, viewing system information, and tracking operations across your entire environment.

Table of Contents

• Security Notice
• Features
  • Core Capabilities
  • Advanced Features
• Project Structure
• Screenshots
• Prerequisites
  • Bolt Integration
  • PuppetDB Integration
  • PuppetServer Integration
  • Hiera Integration
• Installation
  • Via NPM
  • Using Docker Image
• Configuration
• Troubleshooting
• Development and Contributing
• Roadmap
  • Planned Features
  • Version History
• License
• Support
  • Documentation
  • Getting Help
• Acknowledgments

Security Notice

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Currently Pabawi is designed for local use by Puppet administrators and developers on their workstations.

• No Built-in Authentication: Pabawi currently has no user authentication or authorization system
• Localhost Access Only: The application should only be accessed via localhost or 127.0.0.1
• Network Access Not Recommended: Do not expose Pabawi directly to network access without external authentication
• Production Deployment: If network access is required, use a reverse proxy (nginx, Apache) with proper authentication and SSL termination
• Privileged Operations: Pabawi can execute commands and tasks on your infrastructure, based on your Bolt configurations - restrict access accordingly

For production or multi-user environments, implement external authentication through a reverse proxy before allowing network access.

Features

Core Capabilities

• Multi-Source Inventory: View and manage nodes from Bolt inventory and PuppetDB
• Command Execution: Run ad-hoc commands on remote nodes with whitelist security
• Task Execution: Execute Bolt tasks with parameters automatic discovery
• Package Management: Install and manage packages across your infrastructure
• Execution History: Track all operations with detailed results and re-execution capability
• Node Facts: View comprehensive system information from Puppet agents
• Puppet Reports: Browse detailed Puppet run reports with metrics and resource changes
• Catalog Inspection: Examine compiled Puppet catalogs and resource relationships
• Event Tracking: Monitor individual resource changes and failures over time
• Catalogs diff: Compare and show differences in catalogs from different environments
• Hiera Data Browser: Explore hierarchical configuration data and key usage analysis

Advanced Features

• Re-execution: Quickly repeat previous operations with preserved or modified parameters
• Expert Mode: View complete command lines and full output for debugging and auditing
• Real-time Streaming: Monitor command and task execution with live output
• Multi-Source Architecture: Seamlessly integrate data from multiple backend systems
• Graceful Degradation: Continue operating when individual integrations are unavailable

Project Structure

pabawi/
├── frontend/          # Svelte 5 + Vite frontend
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/    # UI components
│   │   ├── pages/         # Page components
│   │   └── lib/           # Utilities and stores
│   ├── package.json
│   └── vite.config.ts
├── backend/           # Node.js + TypeScript API server
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── bolt/          # Bolt integration (temp)
│   │   ├── integrations/  # Plugin architecture
│   │   │   ├── bolt/      # Bolt plugin
│   │   │   ├── puppetdb/  # PuppetDB integration
│   │   │   ├── puppetserver/ # Puppetserver integration
│   │   │   └── hiera/     # Hiera integration
│   │   ├── database/      # SQLite database
│   │   ├── routes/        # API endpoints
│   │   └── services/      # Business logic
│   ├── test/              # Unit and integration tests
│   ├── package.json
│   └── tsconfig.json
├── docs/              # Documentation
└── package.json       # Root workspace configuration

Screenshots

📸 View Complete Screenshots Gallery - Comprehensive visual documentation of all Pabawi features and interfaces.

To have an idea of Pabawi awesomeness, here some random screenshots

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• npm 9+
• Container engine (when used via container image)

Bolt Integration

• Bolt CLI installed
• A local Bolt project directory
• Any required SSH keys used in Bolt configuration
• For details: Bolt Setup

PuppetDB Integration

• Network access to PuppetDB port 8081
• A local certificate signed by the Puppet CA used by PuppetDB
• For details: PuppetDB Setup

PuppetServer Integration

• Network access to PuppetServer port 8140
• A local certificate signed by the Puppet CA used by PuppetServer
• For details: PuppetServer Setup

Hiera Integration

• A local copy of your control-repo, with any external modules in Puppetfile
• If PuppetDB integration is not active, node facts files must be present on a local directory
• For details: Hiera Setup

Installation

Via NPM

To run pabawi locally you need NPM installed. Then:

# Clone the pabawi repo
git clone https://github.com/example42/pabawi
cd pabawi

# Install all dependencies
npm run install:all

# Create your configuration file in:
backend/.env

# Run Pabawi
npm run dev:fullstack

This will start the application at http://localhost:3000.

Using Docker image

To start Pabawi with Docker Compose using the default configuration:

# HINT to keep things simple: Create a dedicated directory where to place:
# data dir for SQLite
# certs dir for puppetdb / puppetserver integration
# control-repo dir for hiera integration
# bolt-project dir for Bolt integration (could also be your control-repo dir) 
mkdir pabawi/
cd pabawi
# Create your configuration file in your current directory (paths in .env are relative to the container)
vi .env

# Run the example42/pabawi image mounting your pabawi dir 
docker run -d \
  --name pabawi \
  --user "$(id -u):1001" \
  -p 127.0.0.1:3000:3000 \
  -v "$(pwd)/pabawi:/pabawi" \
  --env-file ".env" \
  example42/pabawi:latest

This will start the application at http://localhost:3000.

For comprehensive Docker deployment instructions including all integrations, see the Docker Deployment Guide.

Configuration

Pabawi uses a .env file for configuration. Use backend/.env.example as reference.

For detailed configuration options including Bolt, PuppetDB, PuppetServer, and Hiera integration settings, please refer to the Configuration Guide.

For API details, see the Integrations API Documentation.

Troubleshooting

For solutions to common issues including installation, configuration, and integration problems, please refer to the comprehensive Troubleshooting Guide.

Development and Contributing

For development and contributions guidelines check the Development Guide.

For details of the repository files and configurations check the Repository Structure document.

Roadmap

Planned Features

• Additional Integrations: Ansible, Tiny Puppet
• Additional Integrations (to evaluate): Terraform, AWS CLI, Azure CLI, Kubernetes, Choria, Icinga
• Scheduled Executions: Cron-like scheduling for recurring tasks
• Custom Dashboards: User-configurable dashboard widgets
• RBAC: Role-based access control and user/groups management
• Audit Logging: Comprehensive audit trail
• CLI: Command Line tool

Version History

• v0.5.0: Report filtering, puppet run history visualization, enhanced expert mode with frontend logging
• v0.4.0: Hiera integration, puppetserver CA management removal, enhanced plugin architecture
• v0.3.0: Puppetserver integration, interface enhancements
• v0.2.0: PuppetDB integration, re-execution, expert mode enhancements
• v0.1.0: Initial release with Bolt integration

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support

Documentation

Getting Started

• Technical Summary - High-level technical overview and goals
• Architecture Documentation - System architecture and plugin design
• Repository Structure - Guide to repository files and configuration
• Configuration Guide - Complete configuration reference
• User Guide - Comprehensive user documentation
• API Documentation - REST API reference

API Reference

• Integrations API Documentation - Complete API reference for all integrations
• API Endpoints Reference - Quick reference table of all endpoints
• Authentication Guide - Authentication setup and troubleshooting
• Error Codes Reference - Complete error code reference

Integration Setup

• Bolt Setup - Bolt configuration guide
• Hiera Setup - Hiera configuration guide
• PuppetDB Integration Setup - PuppetDB configuration guide
• Puppetserver Setup - Puppetserver configuration guide
• PuppetDB API Documentation - PuppetDB-specific API endpoints

Additional Resources

• E2E Testing Guide - End-to-end testing documentation
• Troubleshooting Guide - Common issues and solutions
• Development - Development and contributing

Getting Help

1. Check the documentation
2. Review Troubleshooting Guide
3. Enable expert mode for detailed diagnostics
4. Search existing GitHub Issues
5. Create a new issue with:
   • Version information
   • Configuration (sanitized)
   • Steps to reproduce
   • Error messages and logs

Acknowledgments

Pabawi builds on excellent open-source projects:

• Puppet/OpenVox: The king of (classic) configuration management tools
• Puppet Bolt: Remote task execution engine
• PuppetDB: Centralized Puppet data storage
• Svelte 5: Reactive UI framework
• Node.js: Backend runtime
• TypeScript: Type-safe development
• SQLite: Embedded database

Special thanks to all contributors and the Puppet community.