# Multi-node chef run orchestration

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/multi-node-chef-run-orchestration/6210>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [January 26, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/multi-node-chef-run-orchestration/6210 "2015-01-26T16:37:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![M\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@M\_G](https://discourse.chef.io/u/M_G)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/multi-node-chef-run-orchestration/6210/1 "2015-01-26T16:37:24Z")

</div>

I have node1 and node2. Each node has chef-client running on it.  
Is it possible that after chef-client run on node1 is complete, it can it start/trigger a chef run on node2?  
Does chef have the ability to perform orchestration of runs on the basis of some triggers?  
Another thing, I am trying to locate documentation for CHef’s Rest calls. Couldnt find any. I am using Chef 11 Open Source.  
Any help/pointers on the above questions would be appreciated.  
regards  
mg

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![coderanger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/coderanger/32/5_2.png) [@coderanger](https://discourse.chef.io/u/coderanger)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/multi-node-chef-run-orchestration/6210/2 "2015-01-26T16:41:55Z")

</div>

No, Chef is not an orchestration system. If you upgrade to Chef Server 12 you could potentially use Push Jobs for this, or MCollective, Salt, etc. Many options, but you'll need some kind of orchestration tool.

--Noah

On Jan 26, 2015, at 8:37 AM, M G [meher03@hotmail.com](mailto:meher03@hotmail.com) wrote:

> I have node1 and node2. Each node has chef-client running on it.
> 
> Is it possible that after chef-client run on node1 is complete, it can it start/trigger a chef run on node2?
> 
> Does chef have the ability to perform orchestration of runs on the basis of some triggers?
> 
> Another thing, I am trying to locate documentation for CHef's Rest calls. Couldnt find any. I am using Chef 11 Open Source.
> 
> Any help/pointers on the above questions would be appreciated.
> 
> regards
> 
> mg

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kapil\_Shardha1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/278dde/32.png) [@Kapil\_Shardha1](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Kapil_Shardha1)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 4:45pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/multi-node-chef-run-orchestration/6210/3 "2015-01-26T16:45:45Z")

</div>

I have done something similar by remotely running chef-client on node1 when a particular step is done on node1.

-Kapil

-----Original Message-----  
From: Noah Kantrowitz [[mailto:noah@coderanger.net](mailto:noah@coderanger.net)]  
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 11:42 AM  
To: [chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)  
Subject: [chef] Re: Multi-node chef run orchestration

No, Chef is not an orchestration system. If you upgrade to Chef Server 12 you could potentially use Push Jobs for this, or MCollective, Salt, etc. Many options, but you'll need some kind of orchestration tool.

--Noah

On Jan 26, 2015, at 8:37 AM, M G [meher03@hotmail.com](mailto:meher03@hotmail.com) wrote:

> I have node1 and node2. Each node has chef-client running on it.
> 
> Is it possible that after chef-client run on node1 is complete, it can it start/trigger a chef run on node2?
> 
> Does chef have the ability to perform orchestration of runs on the basis of some triggers?
> 
> Another thing, I am trying to locate documentation for CHef's Rest calls. Couldnt find any. I am using Chef 11 Open Source.
> 
> Any help/pointers on the above questions would be appreciated.
> 
> regards
> 
> mg

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ranjib](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/ranjib/32/1040_2.png) [@Ranjib](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Ranjib)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/multi-node-chef-run-orchestration/6210/4 "2015-01-26T16:59:16Z")

</div>

As noah said, vanilla chef wont do this, you can use any of the  
orchestration tools. We wrote blender[1,2,3] for the same, you can use it  
either with ssh or serf based drivers, and can control the order of chef  
run execution either from a central controller node, or by events (like  
chef run in node1 drops a serf event, and a serf handler in node2 respond  
to that event and triggers another chef run).

regards  
ranjib

[1][GitHub - PagerDuty/blender: A modular orchestration engine](https://github.com/PagerDuty/blender)  
[2][GitHub - PagerDuty/blender-chef: Chef search based host discovery for blender.](https://github.com/PagerDuty/blender-chef)  
[3][https://github.com/PagerDuty/blender-serf](https://github.com/PagerDuty/blender-serf)

On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 8:37 AM, M G [meher03@hotmail.com](mailto:meher03@hotmail.com) wrote:

> I have node1 and node2. Each node has chef-client running on it.
> 
> Is it possible that after chef-client run on node1 is complete, it can it  
> start/trigger a chef run on node2?
> 
> Does chef have the ability to perform orchestration of runs on the basis  
> of some triggers?
> 
> Another thing, I am trying to locate documentation for CHef's Rest calls.  
> Couldnt find any. I am using Chef 11 Open Source.
> 
> Any help/pointers on the above questions would be appreciated.
> 
> regards
> 
> mg