diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index fef7bd2..946c70d 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 schema: {}
 hieradata: {}
-hieradata_file: ''
+hieradata_file: '/etc/puppet/hieradata/service_configs.json'
 fact_variable: ''
diff --git a/library/parse_tripleo_hiera.py b/library/parse_tripleo_hiera.py
index 06ada38..ef972e0 100644
--- a/library/parse_tripleo_hiera.py
+++ b/library/parse_tripleo_hiera.py
@@ -85,11 +85,12 @@ def main():
     hieradata = module.params['hieradata']
     hieradata_file = module.params['hieradata_file']
 
-    if not (hieradata or hieradata_file):
+    if not (hieradata or (hieradata_file and os.path.exists(hieradata_file))):
         module.fail_json(msg="Either hieradata or hieradata_file must be set")
 
     if os.path.exists(hieradata_file):
-        hieradata = yaml.safe_load(hieradata_file)
+        # NOTE(flaper87): This will load both, json and yaml, files
+        hieradata = yaml.safe_load(open(hieradata_file))
 
     conf_dict = {}
     for key, mapping in schema.items():