# Can't connect chef client to server

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/cant-connect-chef-client-to-server/15079>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [May 7, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/cant-connect-chef-client-to-server/15079 "2019-05-07T18:38:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![servi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3e96dc/32.png) [@servi](https://discourse.chef.io/u/servi)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/cant-connect-chef-client-to-server/15079/1 "2019-05-07T18:38:13Z")

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Hello,

I am trying to connect my chef client to my chef workstation so that it can grab the cookbooks from it. However, when I run the command  
chef-client -S [https://testclient.test.ca/](https://testclient.test.ca/) -K /etc/chef/validator.pem

It is returning this error:

```auto
Starting Chef Client, version 14.12.9
[2019-05-07T15:26:22-03:00] INFO: ***Chef 14.12.9***
[2019-05-07T15:26:22-03:00] INFO: Platform: x86_64-linux
[2019-05-07T15:26:22-03:00] INFO: Chef-client pid: 10435
[2019-05-07T15:26:22-03:00] INFO: The plugin path /etc/chef/ohai/plugins does not exist. Skipping...
Creating a new client identity for ip-10-0-0-112.ec2.internal using the validator key.
[2019-05-07T15:26:24-03:00] INFO: Client key /etc/chef/client.pem is not present - registering
[2019-05-07T15:26:24-03:00] ERROR: SSL Validation failure connecting to host: fairchild.rssrv.ca - SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=error: certificate verify failed (self signed certificate)

================================================================================
Chef encountered an error attempting to create the client "ip-10-0-0-112.ec2.internal"
================================================================================

System Info:
------------
chef_version=14.12.9
ruby=ruby 2.5.5p157 (2019-03-15 revision 67260) [x86_64-linux]
program_name=/usr/bin/chef-client
executable=/opt/chef/bin/chef-client

Running handlers:
[2019-05-07T15:26:24-03:00] ERROR: Running exception handlers
Running handlers complete
[2019-05-07T15:26:24-03:00] ERROR: Exception handlers complete
Chef Client failed. 0 resources updated in 01 seconds
[2019-05-07T15:26:24-03:00] FATAL: Stacktrace dumped to /var/chef/cache/chef-stacktrace.out
[2019-05-07T15:26:24-03:00] FATAL: Please provide the contents of the stacktrace.out file if you file a bug report
[2019-05-07T15:26:24-03:00] FATAL: OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError: SSL Error connecting to https://fairchild.rssrv.ca/organizations/redsky/clients - SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=error: certificate verify failed (self signed certificate)

```

Any ideas as to what might be going wrong would be greatly appreciated.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cheeseplus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/cheeseplus/32/960_2.png) [@cheeseplus](https://discourse.chef.io/u/cheeseplus)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/cant-connect-chef-client-to-server/15079/2 "2019-05-10T18:10:41Z")

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The issue here is self-signed certificates not validating. One would need to add the cacert bundle to `/etc/chef/trusted_certs` or disabling ssl validation (not recommended).