Hello,
i’m trying to have multiple apache vhosts, which use different ports on
multiple servers - but not every vhost on every server.
I have a custom recipe for every “vhost” which i include in
vhost-specific roles. (its the apache2 cookbook from opscode repo,
modified the default recipe)
Now i need to specify which ports apache should listen on.
I could use override_attribute in the role file, but then other ports,
e.g. the default port or ports from other roles get overridden.
I have tried setting the listen_ports in the recipe itself which results
in a apache restart on every chef-client run.
I assume that this is not an uncommon problem, and i also assume that
there is a clean way to solve it - i’m new to chef, so if anyone would
have a clue i would be graceful! 
Thanks,
Moritz
Hi Moritz,
Have you tried the override_attributes approach that you outlined? I had a
similar problem where I had an attribute that was an array (like
listen_ports is in the apache2 cookbook) and I wanted add to items to that
attribute across multiple roles. What I found was that Chef would merge the
different definitions of the attribute from override_attributes in different
roles. For example, you should be able to use override_attributes to set
listen_ports to ["80"] in one role and then add to that array by setting
listen_ports to ["443", "8080"] in another role and including both roles in
a node's run list.
I don't know specifically why this works, I just happened to stumble upon
it. So if it doesn't work for you, let me know and I'll see if I can figure
out specifically how it is working for me.
--Adam
On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 12:55 PM, Moritz Krinke
mkrinke@fotocommunity.netwrote:
Hello,
i'm trying to have multiple apache vhosts, which use different ports on
multiple servers - but not every vhost on every server.
I have a custom recipe for every "vhost" which i include in vhost-specific
roles. (its the apache2 cookbook from opscode repo, modified the default
recipe)
Now i need to specify which ports apache should listen on.
I could use override_attribute in the role file, but then other ports, e.g.
the default port or ports from other roles get overridden.
I have tried setting the listen_ports in the recipe itself which results in
a apache restart on every chef-client run.
I assume that this is not an uncommon problem, and i also assume that there
is a clean way to solve it - i'm new to chef, so if anyone would have a clue
i would be graceful! 
Thanks,
Moritz
--
Adam Durana
Moodlerooms, Inc.
Tel: 410-779-3398