hiera.yaml

hiera -d -c hiera.yaml eye

/usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/psych.rb:203:in `parse': (/etc/puppet/hiera.yaml): found character that cannot start any token while scanning for the next token at line 3 column 5 (Psych::SyntaxError)
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/psych.rb:203:in `parse_stream'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/psych.rb:151:in `parse'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/psych.rb:127:in `load'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/psych.rb:297:in `block in load_file'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/psych.rb:297:in `open'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/psych.rb:297:in `load_file'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/hiera/config.rb:54:in `yaml_load_file'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/hiera/config.rb:19:in `load'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/hiera.rb:47:in `initialize'
        from /usr/bin/hiera:206:in `new'
        from /usr/bin/hiera:206:in `<main>'

hiera.yaml

---
:hierarchy:
  - %{::clientcert}
  - %{::environment}
  - common
:backends:
  - yaml
:yaml:
  :datadir: '/etc/puppet/environments/%{environment}/data'

puppet agent --test --verbose

Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on SERVER: (/etc/puppet/hiera.yaml): found character that cannot start any token while scanning for the next token at line 3 column 5
Warning: Not using cache on failed catalog
Error: Could not retrieve catalog; skipping run

why not the following. clientcert is where you'd test something specific for a short period of time. Adding that much overhead isn't going to buy you anything.

• %{clientcert}
• %{osfamily}/%{operatingsystem}/%{lsbmajdistrelease}
• %{osfamily}/%{operatingsystem}
• %{osfamily}
• common

I don't understand how these follow. Notably I am intending that different machines will have different configurations for the same services, the same classes, etc. A fact I already face, for example, where I have 3 sets of corosync/pacemaker clusters that need different quorum requirements, different fail-over IPs to carry, different services to monitor, different multicast addresses, depending which node is asking...

looks to have been a ruby 1.9 issue. the new Psycher parse seems to want those quoted as a new "feature"