[chef] "Multinode" attributes, e.g.: fodder for /etc/hosts file

[Russell Bateman < >]

I think it would not be appropriate to invade a recipe's attributes with 
implementation-specific detail such as a list of nodes by IP address and 
name for the purpose of updating each node's /etc/hosts file.

Instead, this information would be a resource stored where? Accessed 
from the recipe how?

The specific case to hand is a MongoDB replica set. Each node must know 
the hostname of all its sibling replica nodes. If this proves too messy, 
I could just use IP addresses when I erect the replica set using the 
MongoDB shell.

I'd appreciate a comment or two about this sort of thing, or a link to 
some doc. I've read Seth Vargo's post on managing the /etc/hosts file 
with Chef, so I know there are cool tools for mucking about with this 
file if I need to, I just don't know where to store the list of IP 
addresses-to-names for recipe access.

Many thanks.