Understanding Puppet errors

Puppet's error messages can sometimes be a little confusing. Updated and increasingly helpful error messages are one reason to upgrade your Puppet installation if you are running any version prior to Version 3.

Here are some of the most common errors you might encounter, and what to do about them.

How to do it...

Often the first step is simply to search the Web for the error message text and see what explanations you can find for the error, along with any helpful advice about fixing it. Here are some of the most common puzzling errors, with possible explanations:

Could not retrieve file metadata for XXX: getaddrinfo: Name or service not known

Where XXX is a file resource, you may have accidentally typed puppet://modules... in a file source instead of puppet:///modules... (note the triple slash):

Could not evaluate: Could not retrieve information from environment production source(s) XXX

The source file may not be present or may not be in the right location in...