1. Overview
2. Module Description - What the module does and why it is useful
3. Setup - The basics of getting started with hiera
   • What hiera affects
   • Setup requirements
   • Beginning with hiera
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

This module configures Hiera for Puppet.

• Hiera yaml file
• Hiera datadir
• hiera-eyaml package
• keys/ directory for eyaml
• /etc/hiera.yaml for symlink

If you are using the eyaml backend on:

• Puppet Enterprise 3.3 or earlier then you will need the puppetlabs-pe_gem module to install the eyaml gem using PE's gem command.
• Puppet Enterprise 3.7 or 3.8 then you will need the puppetlabs-pe_puppetserver_gem module.
• Puppet Enterprise 201x.y (ex: 2017.3) or FOSS puppetserver then you will need the puppetlabs-puppetserver_gem module.

Declaring the class with a given hierarchy is a pretty good starting point:

This class will write out a hiera.yaml file in either /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/hiera.yaml or /etc/puppet/hiera.yaml (depending on if the node is running Puppet Enterprise or not).

class { 'hiera':
  hierarchy => [
    '%{environment}/%{calling_class}',
    '%{environment}',
    'common',
  ],
}

class { 'hiera':
          hiera_version   =>  '5',
          hiera5_defaults =>  {"datadir" => "data", "data_hash" => "yaml_data"},
          hierarchy       =>  [
                                {"name" =>  "Virtual yaml", "path"  =>  "virtual/%{::virtual}.yaml"},
                                {"name" =>  "Nodes yaml", "paths" =>  ['nodes/%{::trusted.certname}.yaml', 'nodes/%{::osfamily}.yaml']},
                                {"name" =>  "Default yaml file", "path" =>  "common.yaml"},
                              ],
}

** Note: For Hiera version 5 when calling the class, please remember to pass '5' to 'hiera_version' as in the example above. ** ** Also please note that 'hierarchy' is an array of hash in version 5. **

The resulting output in /etc/puppet/hiera.yaml:

---
:backends:
  - yaml
:logger: console
:hierarchy:
  - "%{environment}/%{calling_class}"
  - "%{environment}"
  - common

:yaml:
   :datadir: /etc/puppet/hieradata

# hiera.yaml Managed by Puppet
version: 5
defaults:
  datadir: data
  data_hash: yaml_data
hierarchy:

  - name: "Virtual yaml"
    path: "virtual/%{::virtual}.yaml"

  - name: "Nodes yaml"
    paths:
      - "nodes/%{::trusted.certname}.yaml"
      - "nodes/%{::osfamily}.yaml"

  - name: "Default yaml file"
    path: "common.yaml"

This module will also allow you to configure different options for logger and merge_behavior. The default behavior is to set logger to console and merge behavior to native.

For details and valid options see Configuring Hiera.

class { 'hiera':
  hierarchy      => [
    '%{environment}/%{calling_class}',
    '%{environment}',
    'common',
  ],
  logger         => 'console',
  merge_behavior => 'deeper'
}

The resulting output in /etc/puppet/hiera.yaml:

---
:backends:
  - yaml
:logger: console
:hierarchy:
  - "%{environment}/%{calling_class}"
  - "%{environment}"
  - common

:yaml:
   :datadir: /etc/puppet/hieradata

:merge_behavior: deeper

The default PKCS#7 encryption scheme used by hiera-eyaml is perfect if only simple encryption and decryption is needed.

However, if you are in a sizable team it helps to encrypt and decrypt data with multiple keys. This means that each team member can hold their own private key and so can the puppetmaster. Equally, each puppet master can have their own key if desired and when you need to rotate keys for either users or puppet masters, re-encrypting your files and changing the key everywhere does not need to be done in lockstep.

Note: This module will create a /gpg sub-directory in the $keysdir.

1. The GPG keyring must be passphraseless on the on the PuppetServer(Master).

2. The GPG keyring must live in the /gpg sub-directory in the $keysdir.

3. The GPG keyring must be owned by the Puppet user. ex: pe-puppet

When generating a GPG keyring the system requires a good amount of entropy. To help generate entropy to speed up the process then rng-tools package on RHEL based systems or equivilent can be used. Note: Update the /etc/sysconfig/rngd or equivilent file to set the EXTRAOPTIONS to EXTRAOPTIONS="-r /dev/urandom -o /dev/random -t 5"

Below is a sample GPG answers file that will assist in generating a passphraseless key

cat << EOF >> /tmp/gpg_answers
%echo Generating a Puppet Hiera GPG Key
Key-Type: RSA
Key-Length: 4096
Subkey-Type: ELG-E
Subkey-Length: 4096
Name-Real: Hiera Data
Name-Comment: Hiera Data Encryption
Name-Email: puppet@$(hostname -d)
Expire-Date: 0
%no-ask-passphrase
# Do a commit here, so that we can later print "done" :-)
# %commit
# %echo done
EOF

You can then use the GPG answer file to generate your keyring within the /gpg sub-directory in the $keysdir

gpg --batch --homedir /etc/puppetlabs/code-staging/keys/gpg --gen-key /tmp/gpg_answers

class { 'hiera':
  hierarchy            => [
    'nodes/%{::clientcert}',
    'locations/%{::location}',
    'environments/%{::applicationtier}',
    'common',
  ],
  eyaml                => true,
  eyaml_gpg            => true,
  eyaml_gpg_recipients => '[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]',
}

The resulting output in /etc/puppet/hiera.yaml:

---
:backends:
  - eyaml
  - yaml
:logger: console
:hierarchy:
  - "nodes/%{::clientcert}"
  - "locations/%{::location}"
  - "environments/%{::applicationtier}"
  - common

:yaml:
   :datadir: /etc/puppet/hieradata


:eyaml:
   :datadir: /etc/puppet/hieradata
   :pkcs7_private_key: /etc/puppet/keys/private_key.pkcs7.pem
   :pkcs7_public_key:  /etc/puppet/keys/public_key.pkcs7.pem
   :encrypt_method: "gpg"
   :gpg_gnupghome: "/etc/puppet/keys/gpg"
   :gpg_recipients: "[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]"

• hiera: Main class to configure hiera

• hiera::params: Handles variable conditionals
• hiera::eyaml: Handles eyaml configuration

The following parameters are available for the hiera class:

• hierarchy The hiera hierarchy. Default: [] For Hiera verison 5. Default: [{}]

• hiera5_defaults To set hiera 5 defaults. e.g. datadir, data_hash Default: {}

• hiera_version Version format to layout hiera.yaml. Should be a string. Default: 3

• backends The list of backends. Default: ['yaml'] If you supply a additional backend you must also supply the backend data in the backend_options hash.

• backend_options An optional hash of backend data for any backend. Each key in the hash should be the name of the backend as listed in the backends array. You can also supply additional settings for the backend by passing in a hash. By default the yaml and eyaml backend data will be added if you enable them via their respective parameters. Any options you supply for yaml and eyaml backend types will always override other parameters supplied to the hiera class for that backend.

  Example hiera data for the backend_options hash:

  backend_options:
    json:
      datadir: '/etc/puppetlabs/puppet/%{::environment}/jsondata'
    redis:
      password: clearp@ssw0rd        # if your Redis server requires authentication
      port: 6380                     # unless present, defaults to 6379
      db: 1                          # unless present, defaults to 0
      host: db.example.com           # unless present, defaults to localhost
      path: /tmp/redis.sock          # overrides port if unixsocket exists
      soft_connection_failure: true  # bypass exception if Redis server is unavailable; default is false
      separator: /                   # unless present, defaults to :
      deserialize: :json             # Try to deserialize; both :yaml and :json are supported

  NOTE: The backend_options must not contain symbols as keys ie :json: despite the hiera config needing symbols. The template will perform all the conversions to symbols in order for hiera to be happy. Because puppet does not use symbols there are minor annoyances when converting back and forth and merge data together.

• hiera_yaml The path to the hiera config file. Note: Due to a bug, hiera.yaml is not placed in the codedir. Your puppet.conf hiera_config setting must match the configured value; see also hiera::puppet_conf_manage Default:

  • '/etc/puppet/hiera.yaml' for Puppet Open Source
  • '/etc/puppetlabs/puppet/hiera.yaml' for Puppet Enterprise

• create_symlink Whether to create the symlink /etc/hiera.yaml Default: true

• datadir The path to the directory where hiera will look for databases. Default:

  • '/etc/puppet/hieradata' for Puppet Open Source
  • '/etc/puppetlabs/puppet/hieradata' for PE Puppet < 4
  • '/etc/puppetlabs/code/environments/%{::environment}/hieradata' for Puppet >= 4

• datadir_manage Whether to create and manage the datadir as a file resource. Default: true

• owner The owner of managed files and directories. Default:

  • 'puppet' for Puppet Open Source
  • 'pe-puppet' for Puppet Enterprise

• group The group owner of managed files and directories. Default:

  • 'puppet' for Puppet Open Source
  • 'pe-puppet' for Puppet Enterprise

• eyaml Whether to install, configure, and enable the eyaml backend. Also see the provider and master_service parameters. Default: false

• eyaml_name The name of the eyaml gem. Default: 'hiera-eyaml'

• eyaml_version The version of hiera-eyaml to install. Accepts 'installed', 'latest', '2.0.7', etc Default: undef

• eyaml_source An alternate gem source for installing hiera-eyaml. Default: undef, uses gem backend default

• eyaml_datadir The path to the directory where hiera will look for databases with the eyaml backend. Default: same as datadir

• eyaml_extension The file extension for the eyaml backend. Default: undef, backend defaults to '.eyaml'

• deep_merge_name The name of the deep_merge gem. Default: 'deep_merge'

• deep_merge_version The version of deep_merge to install. Accepts 'installed', 'latest', '2.0.7', etc. Default: undef

• deep_merge_source An alternate gem source for installing deep_merge. Default: undef, uses gem backend default

• deep_merge_options A hash of options to set in hiera.yaml for the deep merge behavior. Default: {}

• manage_package A boolean for wether the hiera package should be managed. Defaults to true on FOSS 3 but false otherwise.

• package_name Specifies the name of the hiera package. Default: 'hiera'

• package_ensure Specifies the ensure value of the hiera package. Default: 'present'

• confdir The path to Puppet's confdir. Default: $::settings::confdir which should be the following:

  • '/etc/puppet' for Puppet Open Source
  • '/etc/puppetlabs/puppet' for Puppet Enterprise

• logger Which hiera logger to use. Note: You need to manage any package/gem dependencies yourself. Default: undef, hiera defaults to 'console'

• cmdpath Search paths for command binaries, like the eyaml command. The default should cover most cases. Default: ['/opt/puppet/bin', '/usr/bin', '/usr/local/bin']

• create_keys Whether to create pkcs7 keys and manage key files for hiera-eyaml. This is useful if you need to distribute a pkcs7 key pair. Default: true

• merge_behavior Which hiera merge behavior to use. Valid values are 'native', 'deep', and 'deeper'. Deep and deeper values will install the deep_merge gem into the puppet runtime. Default: undef, hiera defaults to 'native'

• extra_config Arbitrary YAML content to append to the end of the hiera.yaml config file. This is useful for configuring backend-specific parameters. Default: ''

• keysdir Directory for hiera to manage for eyaml keys. Default: $confdir/keys Note: If using PE 2013.x+ and code-manager set the keysdir under the $confdir/code-staging directory to allow the code manager to sync the keys to all PuppetServers Example: /etc/puppetlabs/code-staging/keys

• puppet_conf_manage Whether to manage the puppet.conf hiera_config value or not. Default: true

• provider Which provider to use to install hiera-eyaml. Can be:

  • puppetserver_gem (PE 2015.x or FOSS using puppetserver)
  • pe_puppetserver_gem (PE 3.7 or 3.8)
  • pe_gem (PE pre-3.7)
  • puppet_gem (agent-only gem)
  • gem (FOSS using system ruby (ie puppetmaster)) Note: this module cannot detect FOSS puppetserver and you must pass provider => 'puppetserver_gem' for that to work. See also master_service. Default: Depends on puppet version detected as specified above.

• master_service The service name of the master to restart after package installation or hiera.yaml changes. Note: You must pass master_service => 'puppetserver' for FOSS puppetserver Default: 'pe-puppetserver' for PE 2015.x, otherwise 'puppetmaster'

• gem_install_options An array of install options to pass to the gem package resources. Typically, this parameter is used to specify a proxy server. eg gem_install_options => ['--http-proxy', 'http://proxy.example.com:3128']

The eyaml_version parameter does not currently modify the eyaml version of the command-line gem on pe-puppetserver.

Pull requests on github! If someone wrote spec tests, that would be awesome.