How to edit the run list of multiple nodes?

[guertin]

I have a list of about 40 nodes that I want to edit the run list on, replacing one role with another role. Using knife exec, I can delete the old role with

knife exec -E 'nodes.transform("name:mynode") {|n| puts n.name; n.run_list.remove("role[oldrole]")}'

and I can add the new role with

knife exec -E 'nodes.transform("name:mynode") {|n| puts n.name; n.run_list.add("role[newrole]")}'

But this puts the new role at the end of the run list, and I want it at the beginning of the run list, where the old role was. Is there a way with knife exec and nodes.transform that I can just replace the old role with the new one?

[_js]

So admittedly this is old and might not be the current best way but thought you might like a reply.

The general idea would be to just rename the role vs removing and adding

https://zanshin.net/2014/07/23/how-to-rename-chef-roles/

It’s also an old post on here

Renaming a role

We have a bunch of roles called foo-abc-123 that we would like to rename bar-abc-123. I’ve done several naive searches like on how to rename or change role names without finding anything. Obviously for local purposes I can do git mv && unload-new-name, but that would leave all of the nodes with $OLD_NAME in a lurch. Ideally I’d like to find some sort of integrated rename mechanism. Lacking that I think my question becomes: How do I change the run lists of all nodes with role[foo] to role…

From the looks of it the scripts on mobile look similar maybe identical.

[guertin]

Thanks. That's an interesting approach. It's not exactly what I was thinking of, but it looks like with some changes it could accomplish the same thing.