Rudder

Thank you for reporting John.

In fact the technique is not automatically deleted from Rudder. I will add a way to automate this.

for now, you can manually delete the technique:

cd /var/rudder/configuration-repository
# A 'git status' would show that cfengine files were deleted, but it was not commited, so rm the files
git rm -r ncf/50_techniques/my_technique techniques/ncf_techniques/my_technique
git commit -m "delete my_technique" 
# Reload technique library
curl -s -f -k "https://localhost/rudder/api/techniqueLibrary/reload" 

I will add ncf-hooks that delete the files automatically. and reload Rudder technique library

This is still happening.
When a directive created from the deleted technique is configured on a node, running "rudder agent run" leads to:

Rudder agent 3.1.19.rc1.git201704040733 (CFEngine Core 3.6.5)
Node uuid: root
2017-04-04T12:04:20+0200    error: Bundle 'vim_install' listed in the bundlesequence is not a defined bundle
2017-04-04T12:04:20+0200    error: Fatal CFEngine error: Errors in promise bundles: could not verify bundlesequence
error    Rudder agent was interrupted during execution by a fatal error
         Run with -i to see log messages.

## Summary #####################################################################
error:        1
execution time: 0.65s
################################################################################

But nothing in the UI let you thing that there a problem (no error in generation, after delete, etc). And you can even create again new directive from the deleted technique, without any error!
Moreover, the compliance is only in "no answer", so we need to go the node to understand the problem.

You have to delete all directives from that technique by hand to make rudder agent works again.

I'm setting the severity to major, because of the potential silent breaking of all nodes with the directive, and a not so easy diagnosis for the problem.

This must be tested again. In 4.1, it seems that the directive is disabled (or at least not accessible in the UI) when the ncf technique is deleted, and so the policy generation is not broken. (and so, Minor in place of major).

In all cases, we must add some warning regarding the usage of the technique before deleting it.

As of 7.0 at least, it is not the case anymore.