# Knife create client creates nil pem

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/knife-create-client-creates-nil-pem/1934>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [July 21, 2011, 1:55am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/knife-create-client-creates-nil-pem/1934 "2011-07-21T01:55:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kallen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/kallen/32/1049_2.png) [@Kallen](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Kallen)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 1:55am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/knife-create-client-creates-nil-pem/1934/1 "2011-07-21T01:55:15Z")

</div>

hello,

i’m following the instrux here:  
[http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Package+Installation+on+Debian+and+Ubuntu](http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Package+Installation+on+Debian+and+Ubuntu)

and when it comes to “knife client create”, it’s creating a pem file that  
contains “nil”. it’s that pem file that i’d want to transfer to my  
laptop so i can run knife from there. but i don’t think a pem file  
contain nil will help :\>

know what i’m doing wrong here?

thanks,  
kallen

details below:

kallen@cheftain2:~$ lsb\_release -a  
No LSB modules are available.  
Distributor ID: Ubuntu  
Description: Ubuntu 11.04  
Release: 11.04  
Codename: natty

chef 0.10.2-2 is installed using “[http://apt.opscode.com/](http://apt.opscode.com/) natty-0.10 main”.

we’ll pick it up here:

kallen@cheftain2:~ sudo cp /etc/chef/validation.pem /etc/chef/webui.pem ~/.chef kallen@cheftain2:~ sudo chown -R kallen:kallen .chef/  
kallen@cheftain2:~$ knife configure -i  
WARNING: No knife configuration file found  
Where should I put the config file? [~/.chef/knife.rb]  
Please enter the chef server URL: [[http://cheftain2.example.com:4000](http://cheftain2.example.com:4000)]  
Please enter a clientname for the new client: [root] kallen  
Please enter the existing admin clientname: [chef-webui]  
Please enter the location of the existing admin client’s private key: [/etc/chef/webui.pem] .chef/webui.pem  
Please enter the validation clientname: [chef-validator]  
Please enter the location of the validation key: [/etc/chef/validation.pem] .chef/validation.pem  
Please enter the path to a chef repository (or leave blank):  
Creating initial API user…  
Created client[kallen]  
Configuration file written to /home/kallen/.chef/knife.rb

kallen@cheftain2:~$ knife client list  
chef-validator  
chef-webui  
[cheftain2.example.com](http://cheftain2.example.com)  
kallen

kallen@cheftain2:~$ knife client show kallen  
\_rev: 1-38d3fc208eb2569f1b781fd4d9f5a781  
admin: true  
chef\_type: client  
json\_class: Chef::ApiClient  
name: kallen  
public\_key: -----BEGIN RSA PUBLIC KEY-----  
MIIBCgKCAQEA1+kdbZMGZ6vvVsLhfUobqPvaRtc4RhXQAXvDCmSf6Bd8nb9UEU1B  
jPjioF/Tgnm5IahCgaipVwqFbauoqtEgdJR4s8mAFS5UgShnFZZjjvmsirpWAASy  
09zbHLLWJyCIdrUeCCrxGuu4isiLHjcdQc3VCflFZ8kQqj1UJf993/H4Pi7l5vvN  
rOriyQk8JfR/UhF+oQxKOgfUQwyjxoO0SMysuyk7BC6g4f4IMtW7/GGBehYp3dJK  
lwP1IGpMab01i80qO1dJhDZZaYOSD/ITD/h5qt9n4MEBzO/M8nVFrEUzqaa4JZid  
h8FmELrxRK3r4fCP/ang7GSW2tNVQlk7KQIDAQAB  
-----END RSA PUBLIC KEY-----

kallen@cheftain2:~ knife client create kallen -n -a -f /tmp/kallen-chef.pem Created client[kallen] kallen@cheftain2:~ cat /tmp/kallen-chef.pem  
nilkallen@cheftain2:~$