This is a collection of error messages I got while setting up a puppet infrastructure and testing modules, as well as their reasons ans solutions.

• Failed to load library ‘msgpack’
• Could not retrieve information from environment
• Could not find data item classes in any Hiera data file
• No such file or directory @ dir_s_rmdir
• This ‘if’ statement is not productive
• sslv3 alert certificate revoked or certificate verify failed

Failed to load library ‘msgpack’

Message

On an agent:

Debug: Failed to load library 'msgpack' for feature 'msgpack'
Debug: Puppet::Network::Format[msgpack]: feature msgpack is missing

on the master:

Debug: Puppet::Network::Format[msgpack]: feature msgpack is missing
Debug: file_metadata supports formats: pson b64_zlib_yaml yaml raw

Context

This happens when you run puppet agent, for instance.

Reason

msgpack is an efficient serialisation format. Puppet uses is (experimentally) when communicating between master and agent. This format requires a gem, which if not installed will give this debug message. This is completely harmless, it just pollutes your logs.

Fix

Just install the msgpack ruby gem. Depending on your system, you can

#debian based:
apt-get install ruby-msgpack
#generic
gem install msgpack

This immediately removes the debug messages. To actually use msgpack, you need to add in the [main] or [agent] section of puppet.conf the line:

preferred_serialization_format =  msgpack

Could not retrieve information from environment

Message

Error: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts.d]: Could not evaluate: Could not retrieve information from environment $yourenvironment source(s) puppet://localhost/pluginfacts

Context

Puppet agent run.

Reason

If no module has a facts.d folder, puppet will throw this error. This is an actual bug in puppet, at least version 3.7.3.

Fix

Option 1: Just discard. This is shown as an error, but has no impact and the run will carry on uninterrupted.

Option 2: actually create a facts.d folder in a module.

Could not find data item classes in any Hiera data file

Message

Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on SERVER: Could not find data item classes in any Hiera data file and no default supplied on node aws-nl-puppetmaster.dp.webpower.io

Context

Your puppet tests were all working fine from vagrant. You just installed a puppet master and the first agent run gives you this error.

Reason

Check your hiera.yaml file (in /etc/puppet/hiera.yaml, /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/hiera.yaml or pointed by hiera_config from your puppet.conf). There is a :datadir section, telling puppet where to find hiera data. If the path there is absolute, then it should directly point to the directory. If it is relative, then it works only under vagrant and is based on puppet.working_dir.

Fix

Many options are possible.

• Use a common absolute path everywhere.
• Put the directory, maybe via a link, in its default location.
• Puppet can interpolate variables when reading datadir, so if your issue is due to different environments, you could use a path like
  “/var/hieradata/%{::environment}/configuration”

Note that if you change hiera.yaml, you need to reload the puppet master as hiera.yaml is only read at startup.

No such file or directory @ dir_s_rmdir

Message

Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on SERVER: Failed when searching for node $nodename: No such file or directory @ dir_s_rmdir - /var/puppet/hiera/node/$nodename.yaml20150812-5415-1802nxn.lock

Context

Puppet agent run

Reason

1. Puppet master tries to create a file in a directory he does not own, and has thus no permission.
2. Puppet tries to create a file or directory whereas the parent does not exists.
3. The partition where puppet tries to create a lock file is full.

Fix

1. With the path given in the example error message:

   chown -R puppet:puppet /var/puppet/hiera

2. Make sure the parent is created in the manifest as well

This ‘if’ statement is not productive

Message

 This 'if' statement is not productive.

followed by some more explnation depending on the context.

Context

Puppet agent run

Reason

Puppet does not want to leave alone, and pretends to know better than me. I might want to have a if (false) {…} or if (condition) {empty block} for whatever reasons, but no, puppet very violently and rudely bails out. There is a bug discussion about it as well as a fix to change the wording, but the behaviour will stay.

Fix

Comment out what puppet does not like.

sslv3 alert certificate revoked or certificate verify failed

Message

SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server session ticket A: sslv3 alert certificate revoked

or

Wrapped exception:
SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=unknown state: certificate verify failed: [self signed certificate in certificate chain for /CN=Puppet CA: puppetmaster.example.com]

Context

Puppet agent run

Reason

You probably revoked or clean certificates on the puppet master, but did not inform the agent about it. or maybe you are now pointing to a new puppetmaster.

Fix

You can fix this by cleaning the agent as well:

sudo rm -r /etc/puppet/ssl
sudo rm -r /var/lib/puppet/ssl