The document provides an overview of using Chef, an IT automation platform, for managing and configuring Windows environments. It details the milestones in Chef's support for Windows, examples of practical applications such as automating a .NET application, and various Chef resources and cookbooks available for Windows. Additionally, it includes examples of code snippets for registry settings, PowerShell scripts, and highlights the benefits of utilizing Chef for infrastructure management on Windows systems.

1. Webinar:
Cooking with Chef on Microsoft Windows
Julian C. Dunn
Senior Consultant, Opscode, Inc.
<jdunn@opscode.com>

2. Introduction to Opscode and Chef

3. What is Chef?
Recipes and Cookbooks
that describe and deliver code.
Chef enables people to easily build &
manage complex & dynamic applications
at massive scale.
• New model for describing infrastructure that
promotes reuse
• Programmatically provision and configure
• Reconstruct business from code repository,
data backup, and bare metal resources
Chef is an IT automation platform for developers & systems engineers to continuously
define, build, and manage infrastructure.
CHEF USES:

4. Chef and Windows Support Milestones
• May 2011 – Knife plugin for Windows announced
• Oct 2011 – PowerShell, IIS, SQL Server, and Windows cookbooks
• Dec 2011 – Chef Client Installer MSI for Microsoft Windows
• Feb 2012 – Integration of the registry_key resource into core Chef
from the Windows cookbook
• Aug 2013 – Chef 11.6.0 release. PowerShell and Batch scripting
integrated into core Chef. Chef Client released as Windows service
• Aug 2013 - PowerShell Desired State Configuration support announced
(for delivery later in 2013)

5. Notable Chef Customers on Windows

6. Automating a .NET App on Windows

7. Automating a .NET App on Windows
• The app: nopCommerce Shopping Cart
solution (www.nopcommerce.com)
• ASP.NET with SQL Server backend
• Available through WebPI
• WebPI install assumes a lot, however
• Full-featured app suitable to show off
Chef resources on Windows

8. Resources Automated in this Demo
• Installing Windows Features and Roles
• IIS app pool
• IIS site
• IIS app
• Registry settings
• Deploying files onto the system
• Unzipping files
• Windows filesystem rights management

9. Provisioning with Chef
• Beta of the Azure plugin for Chef
• Request new VM from Azure API
• Bootstrap it over WinRM
• Install and start Chef
• Register with Chef server
• Run through the “run list”
• Instant infrastructure with one command

10. Video

11. The Recipe Code

12. nopCommerce Recipe Code: Install IIS, ASP.NET 4.5

13. nopCommerce Recipe Code: Install nopCommerce

14. nopCommerce Recipe Code: Set up IIS Site, App Pool, App

15. Other Recipe Code You Might Have Noticed
cookbook_file 'C:WindowsSystem32oemlogo.bmp' do
source node['windowshacks']['oeminfo']['logofile']
rights :read, "Everyone"
action :create
end
registry_key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionOEMInformation' do
values [{:name => 'Logo', :type => :string, :data => 'C:WindowsSystem32oemlogo.bmp'},
{:name => 'Manufacturer', :type => :string, :data =>
node['windowshacks']['oeminfo']['manufacturer']},
{:name => 'SupportHours', :type => :string, :data =>
node['windowshacks']['oeminfo']['supporthours']},
{:name => 'SupportPhone', :type => :string, :data =>
node['windowshacks']['oeminfo']['supportphone']},
{:name => 'SupportURL', :type => :string, :data =>
node['windowshacks']['oeminfo']['supporturl']}]
action :create
end

16. The Result

17. Overview of Chef Resources on
Windows

18. Chef Resources on Windows: Same as UNIX/Linux
• file, remote_file, cookbook_file,
template
• directory, remote_directory
• user, group
• mount (can take CIFS paths)
• env
• service
• execute
• ruby_block
• many others...
Photo Credit: L. Allen Brewer

19. Windows-Only Resources
• registry_key (new in Chef 11.0.0)
• powershell_script (new in Chef 11.6.0)
• batch (new in Chef 11.6.0)
• Automatic architecture handling (:i386 vs.
:x86_64)
• Automatic Windows filesystem redirector
handling (Wow64)
• Long-term roadmap: move more resources
to core and out of „windows‟ cookbook

20. Windows-Only Cookbooks
• By Opscode:
• 7-zip
• iis
• powershell
• sql_server
• webpi
• windows
• wix
• Many others in the community
• couchbase
• ms_dotnet45
• (to name but a few) Photo Credit: Marc Falardeau

21. registry_key example
# Set system’s proxy settings to be the same as used for Chef
proxy = URI.parse(Chef::Config[:http_proxy])
registry_key 'HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet Settings' do
values [{:name => 'ProxyEnable', :type => :reg_dword, :data => 1},
{:name => 'ProxyServer', :data => "#{proxy.host}:#{proxy.port}"},
{:name => 'ProxyOverride', :type => :reg_string, :data => '<local>'}]
action :create
end

22. powershell_script example
powershell_script "rename hostname" do
code <<-EOH
$computer_name = Get-Content env:computername
$new_name = 'test-hostname'
$sysInfo = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystem
$sysInfo.Rename($new_name)
EOH
end

23. Registry Idempotency Helpers
• Resources like powershell_script are not idempotent by default
• We provide some helpers for checking the registry:
• registry_data_exists?
• registry_get_subkeys
• registry_get_values
• registry_has_subkeys?
• registry_key_exists?
• registry_value_exists?

24. Special File and Directory Permissions Handling on Windows
• Parameters that don‟t make sense are
ignored
• DOMAINuser, DOMAINgroup work
• Filesystem ACLs are different on Windows
• mode parameter semantics
• rights parameter only for Windows

25. The “windows” cookbook
• The windows cookbook includes a number of
resources and providers, and helper
libraries.
• See https://github.com/opscode-cookbooks/windows
for a full list
• Highlights:
• windows_auto_run
• windows_feature
• windows_package
• windows_path
• windows_reboot
• windows_zipfile
• Other: windows_printer,
windows_printer_port, windows_task Photo Credit: peyri

26. Helper Functions in Windows Cookbook
• Libraries (include Windows::Helper):
• win_friendly_path - ensures backslashes are used
everywhere
• win_version:
• server_core? server_full? server_datacenter?
• windows_7? windows_server_2008_r2? etc.
Photo Credit: ilovecocacola

27. Windows Report Handlers
• Windows cookbook:
• WindowsRebootHandler
• windows_reboot resource
• windows::reboot_handler recipe
• Eventlog cookbook:
• Send Chef output to Windows Event Log
Photo Credit: blakespot

28. Wrap Up / Q&A

29. Wrap-Up and Q&A
• Much more than what‟s shown here!
• Blog posts and other webinars to come
• Questions?
Thank you!
E: jdunn@opscode.com
W: www.opscode.com/blog
T: @julian_dunn
G: github.com/juliandunn