Separating data (Hiera)

Hiera is a built-in key-value configuration data lookup system, used for separating data from Puppet code.

• About Hiera

  Puppet’s strength is in reusable code. Code that serves many needs must be configurable: put site-specific information in external configuration data files, rather than in the code itself.

• Getting started with Hiera

  This page introduces the basic concepts and tasks to get you started with Hiera, including how to create a hiera.yaml config file and write data. It is the foundation for understanding the more advanced topics described in the rest of the Hiera documentation.

• Configuring Hiera

  The Hiera configuration file is called hiera.yaml. It configures the hierarchy for a given layer of data.

• Creating and editing data

  Important aspects of using Hiera are merge behavior and interpolation.

• Looking up data with Hiera

• Writing new data backends

  You can extend Hiera to look up values in data sources, for example, a PostgreSQL database table, a custom web app, or a new kind of structured data file.

• Debugging Hiera

  When debugging Hiera, puppet lookup can help identify exactly what Hiera was doing when it raised an error, or how it decided to look up a key and where it got its value.

• Upgrading to Hiera 5

  Upgrading to Hiera 5 offers some major advantages. A real environment data layer means changes to your hierarchy are now routine and testable, using multiple backends in your hierarchy is easier and you can make a custom backend.