Why are we still stuck on a version 0.6.7 and have not received a single update since the original launch of Chef Automate offered as a service within AWS? So many nice features we are missing out on. Seeing all these release announcements is great and all, but it’s a little frustrating when your company went the AWS OpsWorks route and doesn’t get any of the new development love 
Amazon controls the release cycle of OpsWorks for Chef Automate, but we at Chef have been working with them to get on a more regular cadence of rolling out upgrades. There were some issues going from 0.6.7 up to 0.7.315 - those have been resolved, and almost all instances were upgraded to 0.7.315 in the last few weeks.
Now that they are over that hurdle, Amazon is getting ready to jump customers up to 1.6.x. Once that happens, I expect that the upgrade cadence will be much more frequent. Amazon support may be able to give you details on when exactly to expect your instance to be upgraded.
Does this mean it is better to setup a chef server and update/managed by
the devops instead of using aws chef automate service?
I don’t want to use a very low version which having bugs and long
workarounds for different kinds of issues. For new environment setup, any
advise?
thank you.
In addition to installing a Chef Server on AWS yourself, you could also look at Automate in the AWS Marketplace. What’s best for you will depend on your needs.
The benefit of OpsWorks for Chef Automate is that it is a managed service. Amazon will ensure that the server is available, backed up, and upgraded (on their timeline). It’s also the easiest way to get started with Automate, since it’s a one-click install.
Automate on the AWS Marketplace gives you the same one-click install, but it’s up to you to manage the service.
As a consumer and paying customer it is hard for me to recommend AWS OpsWorks Chef Automate as we have not received an update to date and there have been 9 new releases since the version we are on was released.
I’ve also had a very poor experience with the AWS Marketplace offering of Chef Compliance, but that AMI was yanked shortly thereafter as that functionality was rolled into Chef Automate. Maybe the Automate AMI is maintained better but a forewarning on my experience with a public AMI provided by Chef.