Install Chef Workstation
Start your infrastructure automation with Chef Workstation. Chef Workstation gives you everything you need to get started with Chef - ad hoc remote execution, remote scanning, configuration tasks, cookbook creation tools as well as robust dependency and testing software - all in one easy-to-install package.
Chef Workstation includes:
- Chef Infra Client
- Chef InSpec
- Chef Habitat
- chef and knife command line tools
- Testing tools such as Test Kitchen and Cookstyle
- Everything else needed to author cookbooks and upload them to the Chef Infra Server
For general information about downloading Chef products, see the Chef download documentation.
Supported Platforms
The following table lists the commercially supported platforms and versions for Chef Workstation:
Platform | Architecture | Version |
---|---|---|
Amazon Linux | x86_64, arch64 (2023 only) | 2.x, 2023 |
macOS | x86_64, arch64 | 12.x |
Debian | x86_64 | 10.x, 11.x |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux / CentOS | x86_64 | 7.x, 8.x, 9.x |
Ubuntu | x86_64 | 18.04, 20.04, 22.04 |
Windows | x64 | 10, 11, Server 2012, Server 2012 R2, Server 2016, Server 2019, Server 2022 |
Derived Platforms
The following table lists supported derived platforms and versions for Chef Workstation.
See our policy on support for derived platforms for more information.
Platform | Architecture | Version | Parent platform |
---|---|---|---|
AlmaLinux | x86_64 | 8.x | CentOS |
Rocky Linux | x86_64 | 8.x | CentOS |
System Requirements
Minimum system requirements:
- RAM: 4GB
- Disk: 8GB
- Additional memory and storage space may be necessary to take advantage of Chef Workstation tools such as Test Kitchen which creates and manages virtualized test environments.
Additional Chef Workstation App Requirements:
- On Linux, you must have a graphical window manager running with support for system tray icons. For some distributions you may also need to install additional libraries. After you install the Chef Workstation package from the terminal, the post-install message will tell you which, if any, additional libraries are required to run the Chef Workstation App.
Installation
The Chef Workstation installer must run as a privileged user.
Chef Workstation installs to /opt/chef-workstation/
on macOS / Linux
and C:\opscode\chef-workstation\
on Windows. These file locations
help avoid interference between these components and other
applications that may be running on the target machine.
macOS Install
- Visit Chef Downloads to download a Chef Workstation package.
- Follow the steps to accept the license and install Chef Workstation.
Alternatively, install Chef Workstation using the Homebrew package manager:
brew install --cask chef-workstation
Windows Install
- Visit Chef Downloads to download a Chef Workstation package.
- Follow the steps to accept the license and install Chef Workstation. You will have the option to change your install location; by default the installer uses the
C:\opscode\chef-workstation\
directory. - Optional: Set the default shell. On Windows it is strongly recommended to use Windows PowerShell instead of
cmd.exe
.
Alternatively, install Chef Workstation using the Chocolatey package manager:
choco install chef-workstation
Headless Unattended Install
“Headless” systems are configured to operate without a monitor (the “head”) keyboard, and mouse. They are usually administered remotely using protocols such as SSH or WinRM.
Chef Workstation can be installed on a headless system using the msiexec
command and flags to skip the installation of the Chef Workstation Application, which requires a GUI. Run the following command in Windows PowerShell or cmd.exe
, replacing MsiPath
with the path of the downloaded Chef Workstation installer.
msiexec /q /i MsiPath ADDLOCAL=ALL REMOVE=ChefWSApp
Spaces and Directories
Directories that are used by Chef products on Windows cannot have spaces. For example,C:\Users\User Name
will not work, but
C:\Users\UserName
will. Chef commands may fail if used against a
directory with a space in its name.Top-level Directory Names
Windows will throw errors when path name lengths are too long. For this reason, it is often helpful to use a short top-level directory, much like what is done in UNIX and Linux. For example, Chef uses/opt/
to
install Chef Workstation on macOS. A similar approach can be done on
Windows, by creating a top-level directory with a short name.
For example: C:\chef
.Linux
Visit the Chef Downloads page or download the appropriate package for your distribution:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chef-workstation/<WORKSTATION_VERSION>/el/<RHEL_VERSION>/chef-workstation-<WORKSTATION_VERSION>-1.el<RHEL_VERSION>.x86_64.rpm
For example:
wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chef-workstation/24.4.1064/el/8/chef-workstation-24.4.1064-1.el8.x86_64.rpm
Debian/Ubuntu
wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chef-workstation/<WORKSTATION_VERSION>/ubuntu/<UBUNTU_VERSION>/chef-workstation_<WORKSTATION_VERSION>-1_amd64.deb
For example:
wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chef-workstation/24.4.1064/ubuntu/20.04/chef-workstation_24.4.1064-1_amd64.deb
Use your distribution’s package manager to install Chef Workstation:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux:
yum localinstall chef-workstation-<WORKSTATION_VERSION>-1.el<RHEL_VERSION>.x86_64.rpm
For example:
yum localinstall chef-workstation-24.4.1064-1.el8.x86_64.rpm
Debian/Ubuntu:
dpkg -i chef-workstation_<WORKSTATION_VERSION>-1_amd64.deb
For example:
dpkg -i chef-workstation_24.4.1064-1_amd64.deb
See the Chef Workstation release notes or the Omnitruck API for supported version numbers.
Verify the Installation
To verify the installation, run:
chef -v
Which returns the versions of all installed Chef tools:
Chef Workstation version: 24.6.1066
Chef Infra Client version: 18.5.0
Chef InSpec version: 5.22.55
Chef CLI version: 5.6.14
Chef Habitat version: 1.6.1041
Test Kitchen version: 3.6.0
Cookstyle version: 7.32.8
Upgrading
To upgrade from ChefDK or an earlier release of Chef Workstation, follow the instructions provided under Installing.
Uninstalling
Mac Uninstall
Run uninstall_chef_workstation
in your terminal.
Windows Uninstall
Use Add / Remove Programs to remove Chef Workstation.
Linux Uninstall
Ubuntu, Debian, and related:
sudo dpkg -P chef-workstation
Red Hat, CentOS, and related:
sudo yum remove chef-workstation
Next Steps
Now that you’ve installed Chef Workstation, proceed to the Setup guide to configure your Chef Workstation installation.