I have a working Puppet server & multiple clients (version 0.20.1; I'm aware this is old but it's what's currently in Debian stable). I've just tried to add a new client for the first time in a while, & got the following error messages:

janus:~# puppetd --test warning: peer certificate won't be verified in this SSL session notice: Got signed certificate info: Retrieving facts err: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts]: Failed to retrieve current state of resource: Cannot currently copy links Could not describe /facts: Cannot currently copy links err: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts/home.rb]: Failed to retrieve current state of resource: Cannot currently copy links Could not describe / facts/home.rb: Cannot currently copy links err: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts/apttesting.rb]: Failed to retrieve current state of resource: Cannot currently copy links Could not describe /facts/apttesting.rb: Cannot currently copy links err: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts/export_for_mac.rb]: Failed to retrieve current state of resource: Cannot currently copy links Could not describe /facts/export_for_mac.rb: Cannot currently copy links err: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts/debianversion.rb]: Failed to retrieve current state of resource: Cannot currently copy links Could not describe /facts/debianversion.rb: Cannot currently copy links err: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts/debianrepositories.rb]: Failed to retrieve current state of resource: Cannot currently copy links Could not describe /facts/debianrepositories.rb: Cannot currently copy links err: /File[/var/lib/puppet/facts/debianubuntu.rb]: Failed to retrieve current state of resource: Cannot currently copy links Could not describe /facts/debianubuntu.rb: Cannot currently copy links Timed out seeking value for lsbdistrelease err: Could not retrieve catalog: Could not find janus.ph.ic.ac.uk with names janus.ph.ic.ac.uk, janus warning: Not using cache on failed catalog

This client is actually using version 0.24.5 (Debian testing) - could this mismatch be the problem?