# Performance and scalability of a chef server

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/performance-and-scalability-of-a-chef-server/1978>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [August 1, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/performance-and-scalability-of-a-chef-server/1978 "2011-08-01T14:39:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![David\_Eauee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@David\_Eauee](https://discourse.chef.io/u/David_Eauee)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/performance-and-scalability-of-a-chef-server/1978/1 "2011-08-01T14:39:06Z")

</div>

Hi,

i am currently evaluating Chef against puppet for my company and i am having  
a bit of trouble finding specific information regarding the performance and  
scalability of a chef server.

Would anyone have any metrics on the load that a single chef server can take  
in term node count based on a context (hardware and otherwise).

Also the docs & wikis keep boasting about the horizontal scalability of chef  
but i cannot find any details on it.

- How is it achieved/architect-ed?
- what does it take to expand chef server cluster?
- what are the implication in HA terms?
- …

any pointers to these information would greatly appreciated.

best regards,  
david.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Adam\_Jacob](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/adam_jacob/32/292_2.png) [@Adam\_Jacob](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Adam_Jacob)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/performance-and-scalability-of-a-chef-server/1978/2 "2011-08-01T15:15:09Z")

</div>

On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 7:39 AM, david brpr [david.eauee@gmail.com](mailto:david.eauee@gmail.com) wrote:

> i am currently evaluating Chef against puppet for my company and i am having  
> a bit of trouble finding specific information regarding the performance and  
> scalability of a chef server.

It depends on your environment. Chef scales by adding API endpoints  
(chef-server-api, the webui) that are typically concurrency bound by  
memory and eventually by CPU. On the back end, CouchDB and Solr both  
have fairly well published scalability documentation - the gist is,  
scale them vertically for a while, and when you need to, you can talk  
about various sharding strategies.

> Would anyone have any metrics on the load that a single chef server can take  
> in term node count based on a context (hardware and otherwise).

This depends on how big the chef server is. Most likely, you are going  
to be bound by concurrency - RAM/CPU.

> Also the docs & wikis keep boasting about the horizontal scalability of chef  
> but i cannot find any details on it.

It scales the same way a web application scales.

> How is it achieved/architect-ed?

Use load balancers/reverse proxies in front of the API and Web UI  
endpoints, and use traditional HA techniques for CouchDB and Solr.

> what does it take to expand chef server cluster?

Add more API endpoints behind a LB/proxy.

> what are the implication in HA terms?

That it's a pretty typical scenario, if you have more than a passing  
familiarity with scaling web applications.

Best,  
Adam

--  
Opscode, Inc.  
Adam Jacob, Chief Product Officer  
T: (206) 619-7151 E: [adam@opscode.com](mailto:adam@opscode.com)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sergio\_Rubio](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/sergio_rubio/32/754_2.png) [@Sergio\_Rubio](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Sergio_Rubio)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 1:35pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/performance-and-scalability-of-a-chef-server/1978/3 "2011-08-09T13:35:15Z")

</div>

Hi all,

On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 5:15 PM, Adam Jacob [adam@opscode.com](mailto:adam@opscode.com) wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 7:39 AM, david brpr [david.eauee@gmail.com](mailto:david.eauee@gmail.com) wrote:
> 
> ....
> 
> > what are the implication in HA terms?
> 
> That it's a pretty typical scenario, if you have more than a passing  
> familiarity with scaling web applications.

There was a thread back in July talking about this also:

[http://lists.opscode.com/sympa/arc/chef/2011-07/msg00010.html](http://lists.opscode.com/sympa/arc/chef/2011-07/msg00010.html)

There's real value in these threads for the OPS guys IMO. Would be  
great if someone collects that kind of info and put it in a wiki page  
for future reference.

I can do it if you find it appropriate, at least to reference this and  
previous threads.

> Best,  
> Adam
> 
> --  
> Opscode, Inc.  
> Adam Jacob, Chief Product Officer  
> T: (206) 619-7151 E: [adam@opscode.com](mailto:adam@opscode.com)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Adam\_Jacob](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/adam_jacob/32/292_2.png) [@Adam\_Jacob](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Adam_Jacob)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 4:10pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/performance-and-scalability-of-a-chef-server/1978/4 "2011-08-09T16:10:24Z")

</div>

That would be great, Sergio!

Adam

On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 6:35 AM, Sergio Rubio [rubiojr@frameos.org](mailto:rubiojr@frameos.org) wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 5:15 PM, Adam Jacob [adam@opscode.com](mailto:adam@opscode.com) wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 7:39 AM, david brpr [david.eauee@gmail.com](mailto:david.eauee@gmail.com) wrote:
> > 
> > ....
> > 
> > > what are the implication in HA terms?
> > 
> > That it's a pretty typical scenario, if you have more than a passing  
> > familiarity with scaling web applications.
> 
> There was a thread back in July talking about this also:
> 
> [chef - [chef] High availability for chef](http://lists.opscode.com/sympa/arc/chef/2011-07/msg00010.html)
> 
> There's real value in these threads for the OPS guys IMO. Would be  
> great if someone collects that kind of info and put it in a wiki page  
> for future reference.
> 
> I can do it if you find it appropriate, at least to reference this and  
> previous threads.
> 
> > Best,  
> > Adam
> > 
> > --  
> > Opscode, Inc.  
> > Adam Jacob, Chief Product Officer  
> > T: (206) 619-7151 E: [adam@opscode.com](mailto:adam@opscode.com)

--  
Opscode, Inc.  
Adam Jacob, Chief Product Officer  
T: (206) 619-7151 E: [adam@opscode.com](mailto:adam@opscode.com)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![David\_Eauee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@David\_Eauee](https://discourse.chef.io/u/David_Eauee)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/performance-and-scalability-of-a-chef-server/1978/5 "2011-08-09T16:26:39Z")

</div>

thanks Sergio,

Given the type of high scale use cases where chef would really shine, it  
is surprisingly hard to find information on that particular facet of chef  
capabilities.

Yes, it would very useful to have this formally documented.  
It would nicely reinforced chef story for high scale / cloud scenarios.

thanks again,  
david.

On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 2:35 PM, Sergio Rubio [rubiojr@frameos.org](mailto:rubiojr@frameos.org) wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 5:15 PM, Adam Jacob [adam@opscode.com](mailto:adam@opscode.com) wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 7:39 AM, david brpr [david.eauee@gmail.com](mailto:david.eauee@gmail.com)  
> > wrote:
> > 
> > ....
> > 
> > > what are the implication in HA terms?
> > 
> > That it's a pretty typical scenario, if you have more than a passing  
> > familiarity with scaling web applications.
> 
> There was a thread back in July talking about this also:
> 
> [chef - [chef] High availability for chef](http://lists.opscode.com/sympa/arc/chef/2011-07/msg00010.html)
> 
> There's real value in these threads for the OPS guys IMO. Would be  
> great if someone collects that kind of info and put it in a wiki page  
> for future reference.
> 
> I can do it if you find it appropriate, at least to reference this and  
> previous threads.
> 
> > Best,  
> > Adam
> > 
> > --  
> > Opscode, Inc.  
> > Adam Jacob, Chief Product Officer  
> > T: (206) 619-7151 E: [adam@opscode.com](mailto:adam@opscode.com)