Is an agentless master node is also a device managed by a Puppet?

Question

I confess, that I am NOT new to Puppet. Furthermore, the question is rather theoretical (NO much practical value for the most people). I am just in charge to write documentation at the moment.

What makes me uncomfortable is the following part of definition of a puppet node from (https://docs.puppet.com/references/glossary.html#node):

"A node is a device managed by Puppet. Some nodes are masters, which compile manifests into catalogs; most nodes, including most masters, are agents, which receive catalogs and apply them to the node during a Puppet run. ..."

Is there some internal contradiction in the above? Or do I understand the term "managed" too narrowly (as applied only to resources on an agent node)?

Answer 1

Is there some internal contradiction in the above? Or do I understand the term "managed" too narrowly (as applied only to resources on an agent node)?

It does seem a bit contradictory, yes, in the sense that on one hand it says that a "master" is a type of "node" and that nodes are managed by Puppet, but on the other hand it allows that masters are not necessarily also agents, and therefore not necessarily managed by Puppet (in any plausible sense of the term "managed", which the glossary does not itself define).

In my experience, the term "node" is most often used in Puppet context in the sense of "a device for which there exists a node definition." There's only a hair of difference between that and "a device managed by puppet", so maybe the glossary's definition came from that direction. To the extent that the glossary aims to include other computing devices as well, however, I'd say a better base definition would be "A computing device with a distinct, persistent identity".