What does Hiera primarily manage in Puppet?

Hiera primarily manages variables and data within a Puppet environment. This is significant because Hiera acts as a key-value lookup tool, enabling Puppet to separate data from the code. This design promotes better organization and flexibility in managing configurations.

By utilizing Hiera, you can define different data values that correspond to various environments or nodes without modifying the Puppet code itself. This method enhances the maintainability of Puppet manifests, as changes to data can be made independently of the code, allowing for smoother updates and easier management across diverse configurations.

For example, you can use Hiera to store different configurations for development, testing, and production environments, ensuring that each environment retrieves the appropriate data when Puppet runs. This capability is crucial in large-scale systems where customization and adaptability are essential.