####Table of Contents

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 2015.x 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',
  ],
}

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

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

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

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

RNG-TOOLS

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"

Keyring Generation

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: []
• backends
  The list of backends.
  Default: ['yaml']
• 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 AA 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'

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.