chef-solo
chef-solo is a command that executes Chef Infra Client in a way that doesn’t require the Chef Infra Server to converge cookbooks. chef-solo uses Chef Infra Client’s Chef local mode, and doesn’t 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 you use multiple cookbook directories, chef-solo expects the tar.gz archive to have a directory structure similar to the following:
. cookbooks
├── cookbook-name-1
│ └── attributes
└── cookbook-name-2
└── 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 using the node_path
value in your
configuration file.
Attributes
chef-solo doesn’t 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.