Greetings, I am having an issue with Hiera again. Bangin my head on it for a few hours and not getting anywhere. Since this group was able to help last time, I have my fingers crossed you can help me again. :-D
I am trying to use JSON with Hiera this time. First, fully updated dev box. $ cat /etc/redhat-release Scientific Linux release 6.7 (Carbon) $ sudo yum update Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit, security Setting up Update Process No Packages marked for Update $ rpm -qa | egrep '(puppet|fact|hiera|ruby)' facter-2.4.4-1.el6.x86_64 puppet-3.8.2-1.el6.noarch hiera-1.3.4-1.el6.noarch puppet-server-3.8.2-1.el6.noarch ruby-libs-1.8.7.374-4.el6_6.x86_64 ruby-rdoc-1.8.7.374-4.el6_6.x86_64 ruby-shadow-2.2.0-2.el6.x86_64 ruby-1.8.7.374-4.el6_6.x86_64 rubygems-1.3.7-5.el6.noarch ruby-augeas-0.4.1-3.el6.x86_64 rubygem-deep_merge-1.0.0-2.el6.noarch libselinux-ruby-2.0.94-5.8.el6.x86_64 rubygem-json-1.5.5-3.el6.x86_64 ruby-irb-1.8.7.374-4.el6_6.x86_64 Let's use the puppet documentation to get started, shall we? https://docs.puppetlabs.com/hiera/1/data_sources.html $ cat /etc/puppet/hiera.yaml --- :backends: - json :hierarchy: - common :merge_behavior: "deeper" :json: :datadir: /etc/puppet/hieradata BTW: the doc's actual JSON example is broken as it is missing the [ ] around it. I included it. below and if you don't you fail the parser and Hiera just ignores everything instead of giving an error. $ cat /etc/puppet/hieradata/common.json [ { "apache-packages" : [ "apache2", "apache2-common", "apache2-utils" ], "hosts_entry" : "sandbox.%{fqdn}", "sshd_settings" : { "root_allowed" : "no", "password_allowed" : "no" } } ] Verify valid JSON $ cat /etc/puppet/hieradata/common.json | jq '.[0]' { "sshd_settings": { "password_allowed": "no", "root_allowed": "no" }, "hosts_entry": "sandbox.%{fqdn}", "apache-packages": [ "apache2", "apache2-common", "apache2-utils" ] } Awesome! Lets validate in Hiera: $ hiera --version 1.3.4 $ hiera -c /etc/puppet/hiera.yaml hosts_entry /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/filecache.rb:56:in `read_file': Data retrieved from /etc/puppet/hieradata/common.json is String not Hash (TypeError) from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend/json_backend.rb:24:in `lookup' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend.rb:76:in `datasources' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend.rb:74:in `map' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend.rb:74:in `datasources' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend/json_backend.rb:17:in `lookup' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend.rb:206:in `lookup' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend.rb:203:in `each' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend.rb:203:in `lookup' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera.rb:60:in `lookup' from /usr/bin/hiera:225 And here is where things went wrong. The worst part is that it is such a generic error I can't find anything of real value in my online searching. Even worse, the only directly relevant hit I found basically said to stop using JSON and use YAML instead. Not really a solution is it? But whatever. It is probably good to verify that YAML is at least working with Heira in the dev environment. Using the puppet documentation again for guidance. $ mv /etc/puppet/hieradata/common.json /etc/puppet/hieradata/common.yaml $ vim /etc/puppet/hieradata/common.yaml $ cat /etc/puppet/hieradata/common.yaml --- # array apache-packages: - apache2 - apache2-common - apache2-utils # string apache-service: apache2 # interpolated facter variable hosts_entry: "sandbox.%{fqdn}" # hash sshd_settings: root_allowed: "no" password_allowed: "yes" # alternate hash notation sshd_settings: {root_allowed: "no", password_allowed: "yes"} # to return "true" or "false" sshd_settings: {root_allowed: no, password_allowed: yes} $ vim /etc/puppet/hiera.yaml $ cat /etc/puppet/hiera.yaml --- :backends: - yaml :hierarchy: - common :merge_behavior: "deeper" :yaml: :datadir: /etc/puppet/hieradata $ hiera -c /etc/puppet/hiera.yaml hosts_entry sandbox. Awesome! So YAML works. Back to the JSON version.... $ hiera -c /etc/puppet/hiera.yaml hosts_entry /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/filecache.rb:56:in `read_file': Data retrieved from /etc/puppet/hieradata/common.json is String not Hash (TypeError) from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend/json_backend.rb:24:in `lookup' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend.rb:76:in `datasources' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend.rb:74:in `map' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend.rb:74:in `datasources' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend/json_backend.rb:17:in `lookup' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend.rb:206:in `lookup' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend.rb:203:in `each' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera/backend.rb:203:in `lookup' from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/hiera.rb:60:in `lookup' from /usr/bin/hiera:225 Dah! No matter how simple I make it or what tweaks I do to the common.json file, I always get that exact error. If I run puppet agent, I get a very similar error too! "So just use YAML like the other post said" 1) That doesn't fix JSON and it avoids the problem ("Hey doc, my legs are broken!" "Have you tried walking on your hands instead? Why not just do that?" :-P) 2) The fancy new tool that my security team is using to manage and monitor system wide variables reads/writes JSON but doesn't do YAML. Meaning we either have to keep doing the manual checks we are doing, or stick a parser in between. Why? Puppet and Heira are supposed to work with JSON, it read/writes JSON, this should theoretically just work. Does anyone know why hiera isn't working with JSON? I really feel like this is probably a simple solution that I am just not seeing. I am hoping someone else might be able to recognize the answer. Thanks! ~Stack~ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Puppet Users" group. 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