If the number of entries (for whatever definition of entry) is modest then using Data::Dump::Streamer is likely to be as good as anything. If you anticipate a large number of entries then it's probably worth finding out about DBI and the various DBD drivers that allow you to use a "real" data base.

However, for the simple case consider:

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dump::Streamer;


my %services = (
    1 => {
        name => "service1",
        host => { host1 => 1 },
    },

    2 => {
        name => "service2",
        host => { host0 => 2, host5 => 2 },
    },
);

Dump (\%services);

open TEMP, '>', 'temp.txt';
print TEMP Dump (\%services)->Out ();
close TEMP;

my $newServices = do 'temp.txt';

Dump ($newServices);
[download]

Prints:

$HASH1 = {
           1 => {
                  host => { host1 => 1 },
                  name => 'service1'
                },
           2 => {
                  host => {
                            host0 => 2,
                            host5 => 2
                          },
                  name => 'service2'
                }
         };
$HASH1 = {
           1 => {
                  host => { host1 => 1 },
                  name => 'service1'
                },
           2 => {
                  host => {
                            host0 => 2,
                            host5 => 2
                          },
                  name => 'service2'
                }
         };
[download]