Managing node groups

A node group is a logical grouping of nodes that share a common set of characteristics and settings. We associate a type with each node group. The following are the available node group types.

• Regular - This is for physical nodes outside the management plane.
• Virtual - This is for virtual nodes, such as KVM virtual machines or Docker containers.
• Server - This is for nodes in the management plane or thin clients.

The node group is where most of a node's configuration is defined. Properties set on a node group apply to every node in it, and an individual node can override a value where the property allows it. Node groups are also a common way to target a change, for example when you run Puppet on every node in a group.

The following documentation walks you through creating and updating node groups.

• Creating a node group
• Updating a node group

For a description of the properties you can set on a node group, see Node group property reference. For how values set on a site, node group, and node combine, see Understanding configuration data.