Genuinely automatic install of chef server

Hi all,

Having now coded my entire infrastructure, I am practicing installing it from scratch.

Ideally this should be all automatic (after all that is the point of chef) - however I cant seem to install a chef-server automatically.

The instructions on the chef wiki mention 3 ways to install, but ALL involve manual steps.
For example, the debian way requires interactivity to setup, and then you need to run knife configure -i at the end.

The bootstrap method seems to be the same - there are manual steps.

I know there is a chef-server cookbook, but then I have to have a chef-server already installed to install it (dont I?)

Can someone point me to a way of genuinely automatically installing chef-server, with no manual steps? (Other than say the initial command)

Thanks

Geoff Meakin
Founder Developer
geoffmeakin@aciddevelopments.co.uk

On 12 October 2011 01:42, Geoff Meakin Acid
geoffmeakin@aciddevelopments.co.uk wrote:

Hi all,
Having now coded my entire infrastructure, I am practicing installing it
from scratch.
Ideally this should be all automatic (after all that is the point of chef) -
however I cant seem to install a chef-server automatically.
The instructions on the chef wiki mention 3 ways to install, but ALL involve
manual steps.
For example, the debian way requires interactivity to setup, and then you
need to run knife configure -i at the end.
The bootstrap method seems to be the same - there are manual steps.
I know there is a chef-server cookbook, but then I have to have a
chef-server already installed to install it (dont I?)

You can use chef-solo to bootstrap your first chef-server

–AJ

Can someone point me to a way of genuinely automatically installing
chef-server, with no manual steps? (Other than say the initial command)
Thanks

Geoff Meakin
Founder Developer
geoffmeakin@aciddevelopments.co.uk

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 8:42 AM, Geoff Meakin Acid
geoffmeakin@aciddevelopments.co.uk wrote:

however I cant seem to install a chef-server automatically.

This is a bit of a chicken or the egg problem.

But first, let's look at a more extreme example. If the goal of Chef
is to automatically build a server for you hands off, should it also
be a DHCP and PXE server for bootstrapping the operating system? What
about physically racking the server? I jest, but the line is in there
somewhere. Chef install directions on the wiki try to start from the
point we believe most people will be with a fresh install of that
operating system.

As AJ points out, you can use chef-solo to configure a chef-server.
There are manual steps though because chef-solo has dependencies, the
most obvious being Ruby.

http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Installing+Chef+Server+using+Chef+Solo
http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Installing+Chef+Client+and+Chef+Solo

There are a number of ways to automate this like Kickstart or some
shell scripts, but they're unique to what OS deployment infrastructure
you have.

If you want to build a Chef server from an existing existing Chef
server, that's a different direction.

Bryan

You may want to look at the bootstrap command[1] for Knife. This should
install base chef (ruby, ruby-gems, and the chef gem), which then allows you
to run chef-solo. You can also include cookbooks and a run_list with the
bootstrap command.

[1] - http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Knife+Bootstrap

Bryan

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 7:42 AM, Geoff Meakin Acid <
geoffmeakin@aciddevelopments.co.uk> wrote:

Hi all,

Having now coded my entire infrastructure, I am practicing installing it
from scratch.

Ideally this should be all automatic (after all that is the point of chef)

  • however I cant seem to install a chef-server automatically.

The instructions on the chef wiki mention 3 ways to install, but ALL
involve manual steps.
For example, the debian way requires interactivity to setup, and then you
need to run knife configure -i at the end.

The bootstrap method seems to be the same - there are manual steps.

I know there is a chef-server cookbook, but then I have to have a
chef-server already installed to install it (dont I?)

Can someone point me to a way of genuinely automatically installing
chef-server, with no manual steps? (Other than say the initial command)

Thanks

--

Geoff Meakin
Founder Developer
geoffmeakin@aciddevelopments.co.uk

i am currently using knife bootstrap to setup chef-server in aws for once of
our client, it uses the same lucid template except some additional steps
(mentioned in the manual installation doc) and skips the chef client run
call

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 6:12 PM, Geoff Meakin Acid <
geoffmeakin@aciddevelopments.co.uk> wrote:

Hi all,

Having now coded my entire infrastructure, I am practicing installing it
from scratch.

Ideally this should be all automatic (after all that is the point of chef)

  • however I cant seem to install a chef-server automatically.

The instructions on the chef wiki mention 3 ways to install, but ALL
involve manual steps.
For example, the debian way requires interactivity to setup, and then you
need to run knife configure -i at the end.

The bootstrap method seems to be the same - there are manual steps.

I know there is a chef-server cookbook, but then I have to have a
chef-server already installed to install it (dont I?)

Can someone point me to a way of genuinely automatically installing
chef-server, with no manual steps? (Other than say the initial command)

Thanks

--

Geoff Meakin
Founder Developer
geoffmeakin@aciddevelopments.co.uk

Hi Geoff,
check out these 3 screencasts... the author Mat Schaffer uses the knife-solo
to bootstrap a vanilla machine, then some other method to get the
chef-server up and going. Make sure you check out the notes of each episode.
Good Luck

Hani

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 7:42 AM, Geoff Meakin Acid <
geoffmeakin@aciddevelopments.co.uk> wrote:

Hi all,

Having now coded my entire infrastructure, I am practicing installing it
from scratch.

Ideally this should be all automatic (after all that is the point of chef)

  • however I cant seem to install a chef-server automatically.

The instructions on the chef wiki mention 3 ways to install, but ALL
involve manual steps.
For example, the debian way requires interactivity to setup, and then you
need to run knife configure -i at the end.

The bootstrap method seems to be the same - there are manual steps.

I know there is a chef-server cookbook, but then I have to have a
chef-server already installed to install it (dont I?)

Can someone point me to a way of genuinely automatically installing
chef-server, with no manual steps? (Other than say the initial command)

Thanks

--

Geoff Meakin
Founder Developer
geoffmeakin@aciddevelopments.co.uk

oops, forgot to include the link...
http://devops.mashion.net/

hani

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 9:47 PM, hani elabed hani.elabed@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Geoff,
check out these 3 screencasts... the author Mat Schaffer uses the
knife-solo to bootstrap a vanilla machine, then some other method to get the
chef-server up and going. Make sure you check out the notes of each episode.
Good Luck

Hani

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 7:42 AM, Geoff Meakin Acid <
geoffmeakin@aciddevelopments.co.uk> wrote:

Hi all,

Having now coded my entire infrastructure, I am practicing installing it
from scratch.

Ideally this should be all automatic (after all that is the point of chef)

  • however I cant seem to install a chef-server automatically.

The instructions on the chef wiki mention 3 ways to install, but ALL
involve manual steps.
For example, the debian way requires interactivity to setup, and then you
need to run knife configure -i at the end.

The bootstrap method seems to be the same - there are manual steps.

I know there is a chef-server cookbook, but then I have to have a
chef-server already installed to install it (dont I?)

Can someone point me to a way of genuinely automatically installing
chef-server, with no manual steps? (Other than say the initial command)

Thanks

--

Geoff Meakin
Founder Developer
geoffmeakin@aciddevelopments.co.uk