# Installing chef server

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/installing-chef-server/2243>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [December 9, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/installing-chef-server/2243 "2011-12-09T17:15:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kelly\_Goedert](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/kelly_goedert/32/769_2.png) [@Kelly\_Goedert](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Kelly_Goedert)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/installing-chef-server/2243/1 "2011-12-09T17:15:58Z")

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Hi,

I have a VM with ubuntu 11.10. Can I install chef-server simply by using  
apt-get install chef-server? Or, is it better to follow all the  
instructions in opscode site?

Thanks

Kelly

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**Author:** ![Ash\_Berlin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Ash\_Berlin](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Ash_Berlin)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/installing-chef-server/2243/2 "2011-12-09T17:23:40Z")

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On 9 Dec 2011, at 17:15, Kelly Goedert wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have a VM with ubuntu 11.10. Can I install chef-server simply by using apt-get install chef-server? Or, is it better to follow all the instructions in opscode site?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Kelly

Last time I checked (which was 10.04) the version in apt was very old - you're better off following the instructions on the site.

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**Author:** ![Aaron\_Abramson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@Aaron\_Abramson](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Aaron_Abramson)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/installing-chef-server/2243/3 "2011-12-09T17:26:14Z")

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I run Ubuntu 10.04 LTS for both my chef-server and clients.... If you follow the opscode install instructions (you can pretty much copy/paste them verbatim) [http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Installing+Chef+Server+on+Debian+or+Ubuntu+using+Packages](http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Installing+Chef+Server+on+Debian+or+Ubuntu+using+Packages)

It adds the opscode apt repository, so you get the latest stable version, and can update/upgrade via apt as well.

On Dec 9, 2011, at 11:23 AM, Ash Berlin wrote:

> On 9 Dec 2011, at 17:15, Kelly Goedert wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I have a VM with ubuntu 11.10. Can I install chef-server simply by using apt-get install chef-server? Or, is it better to follow all the instructions in opscode site?
> > 
> > Thanks
> > 
> > Kelly
> 
> Last time I checked (which was 10.04) the version in apt was very old - you're better off following the instructions on the site.

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_McLellan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/bryan_mclellan/32/81_2.png) [@Bryan\_McLellan](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Bryan_McLellan)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/installing-chef-server/2243/4 "2011-12-09T17:26:04Z")

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On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 12:15 PM, Kelly Goedert [kelly.goedert@gmail.com](mailto:kelly.goedert@gmail.com) wrote:

> I have a VM with ubuntu 11.10. Can I install chef-server simply by using  
> apt-get install chef-server? Or, is it better to follow all the instructions  
> in opscode site?

You can use apt, but you'll need to use our repository. Our release  
cycle is faster than Ubuntu's so we've put on hold getting it into  
upstream.

[http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Installing+Chef+Server+on+Debian+or+Ubuntu+using+Packages](http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Installing+Chef+Server+on+Debian+or+Ubuntu+using+Packages)

Bryan

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**Author:** ![Paul\_Morton\_BIA](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/paul_morton_bia/32/480_2.png) [@Paul\_Morton\_BIA](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Paul_Morton_BIA)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/installing-chef-server/2243/6 "2011-12-09T21:31:18Z")

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Kelley - I have not had an opportunity to do root cause analysis on my recent issues with chef installation from the apt repo, but I can share the following problems and their resolution:

1. RabbitMQ does not seem to want to start on Ubuntu 10.04. I resolved this by installing the latest DEB from the rabbit MQ website.
2. After installing the latest RabbitMQ, I had to update my hostname to an address that was resolvable (silly me). After that RabbitMQ Starts fine.
3. I installed chef from the apt repo.
4. [http://tickets.opscode.com/browse/CHEF-2346](http://tickets.opscode.com/browse/CHEF-2346). Read and apply the fi suggested by Grzegorz Marszałek. Otherwise search may be inaccurate.
5. Ready to go!

Note that if you end up having to remove and re-install chef, I found that the chef user and vhost in rabbitmq seem to stick around. This will cause the re-install to fail.  
See the rabbitMQ man page for details on how to delete users and vhosts: [http://www.rabbitmq.com/man/rabbitmqctl.1.man.html](http://www.rabbitmq.com/man/rabbitmqctl.1.man.html)

Paul

-----Original Message-----  
From: Bryan McLellan [[mailto:btm@loftninjas.org](mailto:btm@loftninjas.org)]  
Sent: Friday, December 09, 2011 9:26 AM  
To: [chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)  
Subject: [chef] Re: installing chef server

On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 12:15 PM, Kelly Goedert [kelly.goedert@gmail.com](mailto:kelly.goedert@gmail.com) wrote:

> I have a VM with ubuntu 11.10. Can I install chef-server simply by  
> using apt-get install chef-server? Or, is it better to follow all the  
> instructions in opscode site?

You can use apt, but you'll need to use our repository. Our release cycle is faster than Ubuntu's so we've put on hold getting it into upstream.

[http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Installing+Chef+Server+on+Debian+or+Ubuntu+using+Packages](http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Installing+Chef+Server+on+Debian+or+Ubuntu+using+Packages)

Bryan

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_McLellan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/bryan_mclellan/32/81_2.png) [@Bryan\_McLellan](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Bryan_McLellan)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 4:21am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/installing-chef-server/2243/8 "2011-12-10T04:21:07Z")

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On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 12:29 PM, Sebastian Boehm  
[sebastian@sometimesfood.org](mailto:sebastian@sometimesfood.org) wrote:

> It would be great to have a more current version in the next Ubuntu  
> release (LTS), but so far there was no reaction to the corresponding  
> Debian bug report:  
> [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=646399](http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=646399)

Are you a DD or have you been a package maintainer before? If you  
aren't a DD, we have a couple in the community that would likely  
sponsor packages for you, or you can work with the Debian Ruby team.

- Verify the packages listed in CHEF-2249 [1] include all of the  
dependencies of Chef  
Edit the ticket to bring it up to date

- Verify the packages listed in CHEF-2249 [1] are included in debian/sid  
Edit the ticket to indicate which packages need work  
The Ruby team for Debian has been migrating to gem2deb [2] and may  
not have completed all the packages  
Help them transition packages [2]. Some work may already be done in  
our packaging repository.

- Prepare the Chef packages  
I build the 0.10 packages around gem2deb, but they probably aren't  
lintian clean and will likely need some work to meet debian policy  
again  
If you get here, let me know and I'll pull some memories out of my  
head about what should be looked at first.

Bryan

[1] [http://tickets.opscode.com/browse/CHEF-2249](http://tickets.opscode.com/browse/CHEF-2249)  
[2] [http://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Ruby/Packaging](http://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Ruby/Packaging)  
[3] [GitHub - chef-boneyard/opscode-packages: Packages of Opscode Software for various platforms](http://github.com/opscode/opscode-packages)

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**Author:** ![Joshua\_Miller](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/joshua_miller/32/212_2.png) [@Joshua\_Miller](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Joshua_Miller)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/installing-chef-server/2243/9 "2011-12-10T19:48:36Z")

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If your doing a pxe install you can import the key and chef repo on the post install and do the install from there. If you want to go further a local mirror of the Opscode repo is always nice to have.

The same file that provides the preseed just needs to be updated.

On Dec 9, 2011, at 2:29 PM, Sebastian Boehm [sebastian@sometimesfood.org](mailto:sebastian@sometimesfood.org) wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On 9 December 2011 18:26, Bryan McLellan [btm@loftninjas.org](mailto:btm@loftninjas.org) wrote:
> 
> > Our release cycle is faster than Ubuntu's so we've put on hold getting it into  
> > upstream.
> 
> It would still be nice to have a usable (ie. \>=0.9.x, 0.10.x would be  
> nice) Chev version in Ubuntu. That way you could use Ubuntu's Chef in  
> order to bootstrap a more up-to-date Chef version from the Opscode  
> repos. (Debian/Ubuntu's current Chef version is just too old to be  
> useful anymore – even for such simple tasks.)
> 
> This would be especially useful for preseeded installations.
> 
> Sebastian

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_McLellan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/bryan_mclellan/32/81_2.png) [@Bryan\_McLellan](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Bryan_McLellan)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/installing-chef-server/2243/11 "2011-12-11T14:21:18Z")

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On Sun, Dec 11, 2011 at 8:20 AM, Sebastian Boehm  
[sebastian@sometimesfood.org](mailto:sebastian@sometimesfood.org) wrote:

> I'll have a look at it, thanks. I'll just drop you a line if I have  
> any questions, ok?

No problem; happy to help. If you ask them on the chef-dev list [1]  
there are folks in the community as well as Joshua from Opscode who  
may have answers as well. Still, you can email me directly too.

Bryan

[1] [chef-dev - Chef Developers](http://lists.opscode.com/sympa/arc/chef-dev/)