A question of execution order:

gistfile1.txt

In the attributes file, the value is set:

default['feedmagnet']['db']['host_ip'] = 'localhost'

```ruby
if node.chef_environment.include?('large')

  nodes = search(:node, "name:#{node.feedmagnet.instance_name}*")  # Three nodes are found (merry-util, merry-console, merry-db)
  log "# nodes #{nodes.count()}"   # 3

  # Looking for the database host
  nodes.each do |node|
    log "nodename = #{node}" 
    # If the database host exists, get its servicenet IP, otherwise fail
    # the run.
    if node.hostname.index('-db')
      node.override['feedmagnet']['db']['host_ip'] = node.cloud.private_ips[0]
      log "db servicenet ip = #{node.feedmagnet.db.host_ip}"
    end

  end
end

log "db servicenet ip before leaving = #{node.feedmagnet.db.host_ip}" # localhost (wtf!)
```

So when this runs, I can see the log statement on line 18 spit out the local ip address of merry-db but the log statement on 
line 24 says it is still "localhost" as set in the attribute file.

I _thought_ it was my ruby.  So I jumped into IRB and abstracted it, and could find nothing wrong.  So I hacked out the
assignment on line 17 and moved it out of the loop.  (even though I _know_ the value is not getting overwritten there from 
the logging statements.  

Here is the hacked code:
```ruby
# If this is a large instance we need to locate the database host.
db_host_ip = '127.0.0.1'
if node.chef_environment.include?('large')

  nodes = search(:node, "name:#{node.feedmagnet.instance_name}*")
  log "# nodes #{nodes.count()}"

  # Looking for the database host
  nodes.each do |node|
    log "nodename = #{node}"
    # If the database host exists, get its servicenet IP, otherwise fail
    # the run.
    if node.hostname.index('-db')
      db_host_ip = node.cloud.private_ips[0]
#      log "db servicenet ip = #{node.feedmagnet.db.host_ip}"
    end

  end

end
node.set['feedmagnet']['db']['host_ip'] = db_host_ip

log "wtf = #{db_host_ip}"
log "db servicenet ip before leaving = #{node.feedmagnet.db.host_ip}"
```

Now the attribute value is set correctly!!!   That is to say that line 59 returns the value of the local ip of merry-db.