Rudder

I am using a new installation 4.1-beta3. I don't know why the server relay package is also installed. I assume it does that by default?

[root@rserver ~]# yum list rudder-server*
Loaded plugins: product-id, rhui-lb, security, subscription-manager
This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register.
Installed Packages
rudder-server-relay.x86_64 1398866025:4.1.0.beta3-1.EL.6 @Rudder_4.1
rudder-server-root.noarch 1398866025:4.1.0.beta3-1.EL.6 @Rudder_4.1
Available Packages
rudder-server-relay.i686 1398866025:4.1.0.beta3-1.EL.6 Rudder_4.1

Hello Hamlyn,

As François mentionned, MOTD is a "unique" Technique, meaning you can have only one at a time on a given node; historically, it managed the motd file as a whole, so didn't leave room for partial editing; plus in earlier version of Rudder, changes were not easy to see.
And we kept the "unique" flag over the time.

That being said, you applied directives based on a unique technique on two different rules - so there's been erasure of one of them at policy generation time. That why you get a spinning wheel on the second Rule: no directives are effectively applied to this rules, so there is no compliance, so spinning wheel.

Erasure is made based on Directive priority, and for equal priority based on the Directive name - so a Directive with highest priority will win over a Directive with lower priority.
For your maintenance case, the correct solution would be to have the Directive that sets the MOTD message for maintenance with priority "0", so that this one will be taken into account for node in maintenance mode; and leave the standard one with priority 5 (and make it manage the whole file, so that when a node is not in maintenance mode anymore, it will remove the maintenance message)

And in case you missed the Priority field, it is in the Directive form, between the Description and Policy Mode

Does it make sense ?

Yes thank you, this worked very well. Have you ever considered adding a button at the bottom or top of each directive labeled something like "Tips" or "Tips for this Directive" which would include mini use cases or the explanation you gave? Alternatively (or in addition to), a section in the documentation for "Directive Tips" would be great. I know there is a use-case section, but that seems to be more for the overall product than directive-specific.