$VAR1 = {
          'IsLocked' => {},
          'ID' => '18827',
          'TransactionID' => 'eb8xxx8-xxxb-4xx7-baed-xxx66c790c3',
          'Name' => 'Production - xxxx',
          'FarmRoleSet' => {
                           'Item' => [
                                     {
                                       'IsScalingEnabled' => '1',
                                       'ServerSet' => {
                                                      'Item' => {
                                                                'Uptime' => '1452.4',
                                                                'ServerID' => 'xxxxc-487f-9281-0ebf39d2d4ea',
                                                                'Status' => 'Running',
                                                                'ExternalIP' => '54.193.71.108',
                                                                'Index' => '1',
                                                                'InternalIP' => '1.1.11.106',
                                                                'ScalarizrVersion' => '2.5.2',
                                                                'PlatformProperties' => {
                                                                                        'InstanceType' => 'm3.medium',
                                                                                        'InstanceID' => 'i-xxxx43',
                                                                                        'AMIID' => 'ami-xxxxxe97',
                                                                                        'AvailabilityZone' => 'us-west-1b'
                                                                                      },
                                                                'IsDbMaster' => '0'
                                                              }
                                                    },
                                       'ID' => '68608',
                                       'RoleID' => '62343',
                                       'Platform' => 'ec2',
                                       'CloudLocation' => 'us-west-1',
                                       'Name' => 'prod-app-xxx-v2',
                                       'Category' => 'Application Servers',
                                       'PlatformProperties' => {
                                                               'InstanceType' => 'm3.medium',
                                                               'AvailabilityZone' => 'x-scalr-diff'
                                                             },
                                       'ScalingAlgorithmSet' => {},
                                       'ScalingProperties' => {
                                                              'MaxInstances' => '3',
                                                              'MinInstances' => '1'
                                                            }
                                     },
                                     {
                                       'IsScalingEnabled' => '1',
                                       'ServerSet' => {
                                                      'Item' => [
                                                                {
                                                                  'Uptime' => '4438.55',
                                                                  'ServerID' => 'xxxxx5-cfa7-4ea2-8013-34adxxxxxxx',
                                                                  'Status' => 'Running',
                                                                  'ExternalIP' => '999.999.1.187',
                                                                  'Index' => '1',
                                                                  'InternalIP' => '999.9.4.162',
                                                                  'ScalarizrVersion' => '2.4.5',
                                                                  'PlatformProperties' => {
                                                                                          'InstanceType' => 'm3.medium',
                                                                                          'InstanceID' => 'i-e6xxxx9',
                                                                                          'AMIID' => 'ami-94exxx',
                                                                                          'AvailabilityZone' => 'us-west-1b'
                                                                                        },
                                                                  'IsDbMaster' => '1'
                                                                },
                                                                {
                                                                  'Uptime' => '4428.4',
                                                                  'ServerID' => 'xxxxx-625f-4afc-b544-68fe0740dc0f',
                                                                  'Status' => 'Running',
                                                                  'ExternalIP' => '999.99.34.230',
                                                                  'Index' => '2',
                                                                  'InternalIP' => '999.99.3.165',
                                                                  'ScalarizrVersion' => '2.4.5',
                                                                  'PlatformProperties' => {
                                                                                          'InstanceType' => 'm3.medium',
                                                                                          'InstanceID' => 'i-xxx',
                                                                                          'AMIID' => 'ami-xxx',
                                                                                          'AvailabilityZone' => 'us-west-1b'
                                                                                        },
                                                                  'IsDbMaster' => '0'
                                                                }
                                                              ]
                                                    },
                                       'ID' => '68609',
                                       'RoleID' => '61944',
                                       'Platform' => 'ec2',
                                       'DbMsrProperties' => {
                                                            'IsBackupRunning' => '1395658969',
                                                            'LastBundleTime' => '0',
                                                            'IsBundleRunning' => '0',
                                                            'LastBackupTime' => '1395475213'
                                                          },
                                       'CloudLocation' => 'us-west-1',
                                       'Name' => 'prod-xxx-platform-no-sync-db-mysql64-ubuntu1204',
                                       'Category' => 'Databases',
                                       'PlatformProperties' => {
                                                               'InstanceType' => 'm3.medium',
                                                               'AvailabilityZone' => 'us-west-1b'
                                                             },
                                       'ScalingAlgorithmSet' => {},
                                       'ScalingProperties' => {
                                                              'MaxInstances' => '4',
                                                              'MinInstances' => '2'
                                                            }
                                     }
                                   ]
                         }
        };

##</code><code>##

print Dumper(@{$farmdetails->{FarmRoleSet}->{Item}}); #works as expected
print Dumper($farmdetails->{FarmRoleSet}->{Item}); #also works as expected
print Dumper($farmdetails->{FarmRoleSet}->{Item}->{ServerSet}); # fails - not a hashref
print Dumper(@{$farmdetails->{FarmRoleSet}->{Item}->{ServerSet}}); # also fails - not a hashref
print Dumper(@{$farmdetails->{FarmRoleSet}->{Item}->[0]->{ServerSet}}); # also fails - not an arrayref
print Dumper($farmdetails->{FarmRoleSet}->{Item}->[0]->{ServerSet}); # works, displaying the first 'Item' array