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chef-solo

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chef-solo is a command that executes Chef Infra Client in a way that does not require the Chef Infra Server in order 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

Note

chef-solo can be run as a daemon.

The chef-solo executable is run as a command-line tool.

Cookbooks

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

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

Using a tar.gz archive is the more common approach, but requires that cookbooks be added to an archive. For example:

tar zcvf chef-solo.tar.gz ./cookbooks

If multiple cookbook directories are being used, chef-solo expects the tar.gz archive to have a directory structure similar to the following:

cookbooks/
  |---- cbname1/
    |--attributes/ ... etc
  ...
  |---- cbname2/
    |--attributes/

The cookbook_path variable in the solo.rb file must include both directories. For example:

tar zcvf chef-solo.tar.gz ./cookbooks ./site-cookbooks

When the tar.gz archive contains all of the cookbooks required by chef-solo, upload it to the web server from which chef-solo will access the archive.

Nodes

Unlike Chef Infra Client, where the node object is stored on the Chef Infra Server, chef-solo stores its node objects as JSON files on local disk. By default, chef-solo stores these files in a nodes folder in the same directory as your cookbooks directory. You can control the location of this directory via the node_path value in your configuration file.

Attributes

chef-solo does not interact with the Chef Infra Server. Consequently, node-specific attributes must be located in a JSON file on the target system, a remote location (such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)), or a web server on the local network.

The JSON file must also specify the recipes that are part of the run-list. For example:

{
  "resolver": {
    "nameservers": [ "10.0.0.1" ],
    "search":"int.example.com"
  },
  "run_list": [ "recipe[resolver]" ]
}

Data Bags

A data bag is defined using JSON. chef-solo will look for data bags in /var/chef/data_bags, but this location can be modified by changing the setting in solo.rb. For example, the following setting in solo.rb:

data_bag_path '/var/chef-solo/data_bags'

Create a data bag by creating folders. For example:

mkdir /var/chef-solo/data_bags

and:

mkdir /var/chef-solo/data_bags/admins

and then create a JSON file in that location:

{
  "id": "ITEM_NAME"
}

where the name of the file is the ITEM_NAME, for example:

/var/chef-solo/data_bags/admins/ITEM_NAME.json

Roles

A role is defined using JSON or the Ruby DSL. chef-solo will look for roles in /var/chef/roles, but this location can be modified by changing the setting for role_path in solo.rb. For example, the following setting in solo.rb:

role_path '/var/chef-solo/roles'

Role data looks like the following in JSON:

{
  "name": "test",
  "default_attributes": { },
  "override_attributes": { },
  "json_class": "Chef::Role",
  "description": "This is just a test role, no big deal.",
  "chef_type": "role",
  "run_list": [ "recipe[test]" ]
}

and like the following in the Ruby DSL:

name 'test'
description 'This is just a test role, no big deal.'
run_list 'recipe[test]'

and finally, JSON data passed to chef-solo:

{ 'run_list': 'role[test]' }

Environments

An environment is defined using JSON or the Ruby DSL. chef-solo will look for environments in /var/chef/environments, but this location can be modified by changing the setting for environment_path in solo.rb. For example, the following setting in solo.rb:

environment_path '/var/chef-solo/environments'

Environment data looks like the following in JSON:

{
  "name": "dev",
  "default_attributes": {
    "apache2": {
      "listen_ports": [
        "80",
        "443"
      ]
    }
  },
  "json_class": "Chef::Environment",
    "description": "",
    "cookbook_versions": {
    "couchdb": "= 11.0.0"
  },
  "chef_type": "environment"
  }

and like the following in the Ruby DSL:

name 'environment_name'
description 'environment_description'
cookbook OR cookbook_versions  'cookbook' OR 'cookbook' => 'cookbook_version'
default_attributes 'node' => { 'attribute' => %w(value value etc.) }
override_attributes 'node' => { 'attribute' => %w(value value etc.) }

chef-solo (executable)

See chef-solo (executable) for complete CTL documentation.