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Chef

Chef Tutorials: What is Chef Solo with example programs

November 30, 2022 Leave a Comment
chef-solo
How to deploy chef cookbooks without chef server? – Answer is – Chef Solo

What is Chef Solo?

chef-solo is a command that executes Chef Infra Client in a way that does not require the Chef Infra Server to converge cookbooks. chef-solo uses Chef Infra Client’s Chef local mode, and does not support the following functionality present in Chef Infra Client / server configurations:

Centralized distribution of cookbooks
A centralized API that interacts with and integrates infrastructure components
Authentication or authorization

How Chef solo Works?

chef-solo supports two locations from which cookbooks can be run:

  • A local directory.
  • A URL at which a tar.gz archive is located.

Before running Chef-Solo on the local machine, one needs to install the following two files on the local machine.

  • Solo.rb − This file tells Chef about where to find cookbooks, roles, and data bags.
  • Node.json − This file sets the run list and any node-specific attribute, if required.

A small chef-solo example

 
Install chef
============
> curl -L https://www.opscode.com/chef/install.sh | bash
 
Check
=====
> chef-solo -v
 
Setup chef repository
=====================
> wget http://github.com/opscode/chef-repo/tarball/master
 
> tar zxvf master
 
> mv opscode-chef-repo-f9d4b0c/ chef-repo
 
>ls chef-repo/
 
Create .chef directory inside chef-repo
=======================================
> mkdir chef-repo/.chef
 
Setup a local cookbook path
===========================
 
> vi chef-repo/.chef/knife.rb
cookbook_path [ ‘/root/chef-repo/cookbooks’ ]
 
Create your first cookbook
==========================
 
> knife cookbook create ntp
 
Writing your first recipe
=========================
> vi chef-repo/cookbooks/ntp/recipes/default.rb
 
package ‘ntp’
 
Now configure your server using chef-solo
=========================================
> vi chef-repo/solo.rb
 
file_cache_path “/root/chef-solo”
cookbook_path “/root/chef-repo/cookbooks”
 
> vi node.json
 
{
“run_list”: [ “recipe[ntp]” ]
}
 
Ensure ntp is not installed
===========================
> yum remove -y ntp
 
Use chef-solo to configure your server
=====================================
 
> chef-solo -c chef-repo/solo.rb -j chef-repo/node.json
 
Confirm ntp is installed
========================
> yum info ntp
 

Reference

  • https://docs.chef.io/chef_solo/
  • https://www.devopsschool.com/blog/difference-between-chef-infra-server-vs-chef-zero-vs-chef-solo/
  • https://docs.chef.io/ctl_chef_solo/
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