Chef
systems integration framework

install,
configure
& control
... servers in your sleep

Mar 06, 2008
Born

Jan 05, 2009
Released

Apr 24, 2009
Funded

Chef is a
pup with
BIG paws

So what does it do?

chef-client periodically contacts chef-server for instructions

chef-client
authenticates via openid
submits local system info collected with Ohai
runs recipes received from the server

chef-server
keeps record of nodes in CouchDB
provides chef-client with a json file with recipes
has a copy of your cookbooks

Cookbooks

Recipe details

Attributes

Templates

Recipe

Using ruby in recipes
package "mysql-client" do
package_name value_for_platform(
[ "centos", "redhat", "suse" ] => { "default" => "mysql" },
"default" => "mysql-client"
)
action :install
end
r = gem_package "mysql" do
version "2.7"
action :nothing
end
r.run_action(:install)

testing for cookbooks?

chef-solo
chef-client alternative that doesn’t require chef-server
used for installing chef server/client

For more information
http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Home