This document discusses automating infrastructure with Chef configuration management. It provides an overview of Chef, including that it uses a server-client model with cookbooks, recipes, and run lists to define and enforce configurations. Instructions are given on installing Chef Server on Ubuntu, setting up a Chef client, uploading cookbooks, creating run lists, and using recipes to deploy Apache and custom HTML content for infrastructure automation with Chef.

1. Automate Your Infrastructure With Chef
Will Sterling
Linux & UNIX Consultant
@
PARSEC Group

2. Agenda
What is Configuration Management?
●
What is Chef?
●
Chef architecture
●
Deploying Chef
●
Deploy Apache onto server using chef
●
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

3. What is Configuration
Management?
Configuration management is a process for
establishing and maintaining consistency of a
product’s performance, functional and physical
attributes with its requirements, design and
operational information throughout its life.
*"MIL-HDBK-61A, ""Military Handbook: Configuration Management Guidance". Department of Defense. 07-
February-2001. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

4. CHEF
Configuration Management
●
Infrastructure Automation
●
Open Source
●
Several Deployment Options
●
● Chef Solo
● Open Source Chef Server - Client
● Hosted Chef
● Private Chef
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

5. Chef Architecture
Server – Client Model
●
Public – Private Key Encryption
●
Servers store the configuration
●
Clients do the work
●
Configuration information shared via Cookbooks
●
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

6. Cookbooks
●Cookbooks are used to distribute configurations
●The Chef community shares cookbooks at
http://communtiy.opscode.com/cookbooks
●Cookbooks contain:
● Recipes
● Attribute Files
● Configuration Artifacts
● Templates
● Files
● Libraries
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

7. Run Lists
YUM Apache Tomcat
Node1
Server
YUM MySQL
Node 2
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8. Roles
YUM Apache Tomcat
WWW 1
WWW 2
WWW 3
Server
YUM MySQL
DB 1 1
DB
DB 1
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

9. Sample Recipe
#
# Cookbook Name:: yum
# Recipe:: yum
#
# Copyright 2011, Eric G. Wolfe
# Copyright 2011, Opscode, Inc.
#
# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
# You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
# limitations under the License.
#
template "/etc/yum.conf" do
source "yum-rhel#{node[:platform_version].to_i}.conf.erb"
end
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

10. Sample Template
# Generated by Chef for <%= node[:fqdn] %>
# Local modifications will be overwritten.
[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum/$basearch/$releasever
keepcache=0
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
exactarch=1
obsoletes=1
gpgcheck=1
plugins=1
installonly_limit=3
<%- if node[:yum][:exclude] %>
exclude=<%= node[:yum][:exclude].join(" ") %>
<%- end %>
<%- if node[:yum][:installonlypkgs] %>
installonlypkgs=<%= node[:yum][:installonlypkgs].join(" ") %>
<%- end %>
# This is the default, if you make this bigger yum won't see if the metadata
# is newer on the remote and so you'll "gain" the bandwidth of not having to
# download the new metadata and "pay" for it by yum not having correct
# information.
# It is esp. important, to have correct metadata, for distributions like
# Fedora which don't keep old packages around. If you don't like this checking
# interupting your command line usage, it's much better to have something
# manually check the metadata once an hour (yum-updatesd will do this).
# metadata_expire=90m
# PUT YOUR REPOS HERE OR IN separate files named file.repo
# in /etc/yum.repos.d
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

11. Installing Chef Server on Ubuntu
1)Add Opscode APT Repository
1) sudo -s “echo deb http://apt.opscode.com/ lucid-0.10 main >
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/opscode.list”
2) sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d
3) gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 83EF826A
4) sudo -s “gpg --export packages@opscode.com > /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/opscode-
keyring.gpg”
5) sudo apt-get update
6) sudo apt-get install opscode-keyring
7) sudo apt-get upgrade
2)Install Chef and Chef Server packages
1) sudo apt-get install chef chef-server
1) Follow on screen configuration questions
1) hostname of server
2) RabbitMQ queue password
3) Temporary WebUI admin password
3)Configure CLI
1) mkdir .chef
2) sudo cp /etc/chef/validation.pem /etc/chef/webui.pem .chef/
3) sudo chown -R wills ~/.chef
4) knife configure -i
Change path to validation.pem and webui.pem to be /home/user_name/.chef/*.pem.
Everything else can remain the default.
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

12. Setup RHEL/Centos Chef Client
chef-client> sudo yum install ruby ruby-devel make gcc
chef-server> knife bootstrap chef-client -i ssh_key
chef-server> knife node list
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

13. Install Cookbooks
Download Cookbooks from Chef Community,
http://community.opscode.com/cookbooks
1)chef-server> knife cookbook site download chef-client
2)chef-server> tar -xzf chef-client*
3)chef-server> knife cookbook site download apache2
4)chef-server> tar -xzf apache2*
5)chef-server> less apache2/README.md
6)chef-server> knife cookbook site download yum
7)chef-server> tar -xzf yum*
8)chef-server> less yum/README.md
9)chef-server> knife cookbook upload -a -o ./
10)chef-server> knife cookbook list
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

14. Create a Run List
1)chef-server> knife node run_list add chef-
client.parsec.com `chef-client`
2)chef-server> knife node run_list add chef-
client.parsec.com 'yum'
3)chef-server> knife node run_list add chef-
client.parsec.com 'yum::epel'
4)chef-client> sudo /usr/bin/chef-client
5)chef-client> sudo chkconfig
6)chef-client> sudo yum repolist
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

15. Add Apache to Run List
1) chef-server> vi apache2/attributes/default.rb
134
default['apache']['default_modules'] = %w{
status alias auth_basic authn_file authz_default authz_groupfile
authz_host authz_user autoindex dir env mime negotiation setenvif logio
}
2) chef-server> vi apache2/recipes/mod_logio.rb
if platform?("redhat", "centos", "scientific", "fedora", "suse", "arch", "freebsd", "amazon")
apache_module "logio"
else
include_recipe "apache2"
End
3) chef-server> knife node run_list add chef-
client.parsec.com 'apache2'
4) chef-server> knife cookbook upload apache2
-o ./
5) chef-client> chef-client
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

16. Add Our Own HTML Content
1) chef-server> sudo vi apache2/files/default/index.html
<HTML><BODY>
Hello World!
</BODY></HTML>
2) chef-server> vi apache2/recipes/default.rb
66
cookbook_file "/var/www/index.html" do
source "index.html"
mode 0755
owner "root"
group node[:apache][:root_group]
end
3) chef-server> knife cookbook upload apache2 -o ./
4) chef-client> chef-client
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef

17. Resources
linux@parsec.com
●
http://www.parsec.com
●
http://wiki.opscode.com/
●
http://community.opscode.com/
●
http://community.opscode.com/cookbooks
●
Automate You Infrastructure With Chef