Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Module Description - What the module does and why it is useful
3. Setup - The basics of getting started with hitch
   • What hitch affects
   • Setup requirements
   • Beginning with hitch
4. Usage - Configuration options and additional functionality
5. Reference - An under-the-hood peek at what the module is doing and how
6. Limitations - OS compatibility, etc.
7. Development - Guide for contributing to the module

Overview

This module installs and configures the Hitch TLS proxy, and adds a define to add domains.

Module Description

This module installs the hitch package, and controls the hitch service and the configuration file.

There is a defined type to add domains with key, certificate, as well as an optional certificate chain and dh parameter. The TLS files are concatenated into one PEM file, and added to the configuration file.

Setup

What hitch affects

• Package "hitch"
• Service "hitch"
• Directory "/etc/hitch"
• Configuration file "/etc/hitch/hitch.conf"
• A PEM file inside /etc/hitch for each domain, with TLS key, certificate, ca certificate chain, and dh parameters.

Setup Requirements

The module requires that the "hitch" package is available in a reachable package repository.

• If osfamily is RedHat, the module adds the epel-release package with ensure_packages

• If osfamily is Debian, you are expected to provide a repository containing the "hitch" package.

Beginning with hitch

To start using hitch, you need to include the hitch class, and add at least one hitch::domain.

include ::hitch
hitch::domain { 'example.com':
  key_source  => '/tmp/key',
  cert_source => '/tmp/cert.pem',
}

When configured with this module, hitch will listen by default on all interfaces, port 443/TCP for both IPv4 and IPv6, and forward TCP connections to localhost, port 80.

Usage

When using hitch with varnish or nginx, one can provide information about the connecting client, like the connecting IP Address and port, to varnish by using the PROXY protocol. The backend should be configured with an additional listening port for this protocol.

class { '::hitch':
  write_proxy_v2 => 'on',
  backend        => '[::1]:6086'
}

In case of varnish, add an extra "-a" parameter for a separate listening port:

-a '[::1]:6086,PROXY'

…to have it listen on port 6086, using the PROXY protocol instead of the HTTP protocol.

For more information about the PROXY protocol, see http://www.haproxy.org/download/1.5/doc/proxy-protocol.txt

Reference

class: hitch

This class installs hitch, and manages the service and configuration file. To start, hitch requires at least one hitch::domain.

Parameters

• frontend: The listening port for hitch. (optional, default is the https port)

• ciphers: The cipher list used for the encryption. (optional, default is strong ciphers with forward secrecy)

• backend: The address and port for the backend. (optional, default is the http port on the local host)

• write_proxy_v2: If set to "on", use the PROXY protocol instead of HTTP for the backend connection. (optional, default "off")

• package_name: The name of the package to be installed (optional, default is osfamily specific)

• service_name: The name of the service (optional, default is osfamily specific)

• file_owner: The owner of the files and directories used to configure hitch. (optional, default "root")

• config_file: Path to the hitch configuration file (optional, default is "/etc/hitch/hitch.conf")

• config_root: Path to the root directory of the hitch configuration (optional, default is "/etc/hitch")

• purge_config_root: If true, remove all unknown files in the config_root (optional, default false)

• dhparams_file: Path the the dhparams file (optional, default is /etc/hitch/dhparams.pem)

• dhparams_content: A string containing the default dhparams used in all domain PEM files. (optional. If not set, a dhparams file will be generated on the host.)

• domains: A hash used to create hitch::domain resources, for use with hiera. (optional, default {})

define: hitch::domain

Configure a domain in hitch.conf, and generate the PEM file used to hold all the TLS keys, certificates and parameters.

Parameters

• ensure: set the desired state of the resource. (optional, valid values are absent or present, default is present)

One of key_content and key_source is required.

• key_content: a string containing the TLS key (no default)
• key_source: source to the TLS key, either a file, or a puppet uri (no default)

One of cert_content and cert_source is required.

• cert_content: a string containing the TLS certificate (no default)
• cert_source: source to the TLS certificate, either a file, or a puppet uri (no default)

No more than one of cacert_content and cacert_source must be specified.

• cacert_content: a string containing the ca certificate chain (optional, no default)
• cacert_source: source to the ca certificate chain, either a file, or a puppet uri (optional, no default)

No more than one of dhparams_content and dhparams_source must be specified. If not specified, the dhparams of the hitch class is used instead.

• dhparams_content: a string containing the ca certificate chain (optional, default is the dhparams of the hitch class)
• dhparams_source: source to the ca certificate chain, either a file, or a puppet uri (optional, default is the dhparams of the hitch class)

Limitations

Hitch is available in EPEL 7 for OS Family RedHat, and will be available in Debian 9.

Development

Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for contributing to the development of this module.