Setting node-specific data with Hiera

In our hierarchy defined in hiera.yaml, we created an entry based on the hostname fact; in this section, we'll create yaml files in the hosts subdirectory of Hiera data with information specific to a particular host.

Getting ready

Install and configure Hiera as in the last section and use the hierarchy defined in the previous recipe that includes a hosts/%{hostname} entry.

How to do it...

The following are the steps:

1. Create a file at /etc/puppet/hieradata/hosts that is the hostname of your test node. For example if your host is named cookbook-test, then the file would be named cookbook-test.yaml.

2. Insert a specific message in this file:

   message: 'This is the test node for the cookbook'

3. Run Puppet on two different test nodes to note the difference:

   t@ckbk:~$ sudo puppet agent -t
   Info: Caching catalog for cookbook-test
   Notice: Message is This is the test node for the cookbook
   [root@hiera-test ~]# puppet agent -t
   Info: Caching catalog for hiera-test.example.com...