Simple command to get node info when logged in on node through SSH

Chef Infra (archive)
1

Ohai all,

This is a simple question, we have many many nodes with various names and
we make the node name match the FQDN with a pretty standard naming
convention.

However when logged in on a machine it is very very useful to know what’s
its Chef state. Currently multiple possibilities:

  • Use the motd cookbook that will give you some last run static info when
    you login
  • Use a command like knife node show (hostname -f) -c /etc/chef/client.rb -u (hostname -f)

I like the command (because it’s very flexible) but I’d expect it to be
simpler, I know i can do a simple alias, deploy a simple script on my nodes
or anything, but this has to be something that other people need right ?

So if we go the knife way, here are my suggestions:

  • Why not make knife look for a client.rb file in /etc/chef/client.rb if no
    configuration is available?
  • Why do i have to specify the node_name conf through -u option? it should
    be default if none available
  • Why not make knife node show without arguments show the current node if
    any ?

Please enlighten me if you know a better way (or if you don’t care).

Cheers,
Maxime

2

How about knife status : knife status ?
That gives a status of all the nodes including most recent chef-client run.

Regards*,*
Chirag Jog
Chief Technology Officer,
Clogeny Technologies | http://clogeny.com
(M) 0091-9766619440 | Skype: chirag.jog

On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 12:58 PM, Maxime Brugidou <maxime.brugidou@gmail.com

wrote:

Ohai all,

This is a simple question, we have many many nodes with various names and
we make the node name match the FQDN with a pretty standard naming
convention.

However when logged in on a machine it is very very useful to know what's
its Chef state. Currently multiple possibilities:

  • Use the motd cookbook that will give you some last run static info when
    you login
  • Use a command like knife node show $(hostname -f) -c /etc/chef/client.rb
    -u $(hostname -f)

I like the command (because it's very flexible) but I'd expect it to be
simpler, I know i can do a simple alias, deploy a simple script on my nodes
or anything, but this has to be something that other people need right ?

So if we go the knife way, here are my suggestions:

  • Why not make knife look for a client.rb file in /etc/chef/client.rb if
    no configuration is available?
  • Why do i have to specify the node_name conf through -u option? it should
    be default if none available
  • Why not make knife node show without arguments show the current node if
    any ?

Please enlighten me if you know a better way (or if you don't care).

Cheers,
Maxime

3

Hi Chirag, knife status has the same problem than knife node show: it does
not work "out of the box" when you are logged in on a node. You need to
specify the client.rb config, the node name... etc.

The goal is to get the Chef data of the node you are currently logged in.

On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 9:49 AM, Chirag Jog chirag@clogeny.com wrote:

How about knife status : knife status ?
That gives a status of all the nodes including most recent chef-client
run.

Regards*,*
Chirag Jog
Chief Technology Officer,
Clogeny Technologies | http://clogeny.com
(M) 0091-9766619440 | Skype: chirag.jog

On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 12:58 PM, Maxime Brugidou <
maxime.brugidou@gmail.com> wrote:

Ohai all,

This is a simple question, we have many many nodes with various names and
we make the node name match the FQDN with a pretty standard naming
convention.

However when logged in on a machine it is very very useful to know what's
its Chef state. Currently multiple possibilities:

  • Use the motd cookbook that will give you some last run static info when
    you login
  • Use a command like knife node show $(hostname -f) -c
    /etc/chef/client.rb -u $(hostname -f)

I like the command (because it's very flexible) but I'd expect it to be
simpler, I know i can do a simple alias, deploy a simple script on my nodes
or anything, but this has to be something that other people need right ?

So if we go the knife way, here are my suggestions:

  • Why not make knife look for a client.rb file in /etc/chef/client.rb if
    no configuration is available?
  • Why do i have to specify the node_name conf through -u option? it
    should be default if none available
  • Why not make knife node show without arguments show the current node if
    any ?

Please enlighten me if you know a better way (or if you don't care).

Cheers,
Maxime

4

maybe grep the client.log file and put interesting things into your PS1....

not sure how informed you'd like to be. :slight_smile:

On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 4:41 AM, Maxime Brugidou
maxime.brugidou@gmail.comwrote:

Hi Chirag, knife status has the same problem than knife node show: it does
not work "out of the box" when you are logged in on a node. You need to
specify the client.rb config, the node name... etc.

The goal is to get the Chef data of the node you are currently logged in.

On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 9:49 AM, Chirag Jog chirag@clogeny.com wrote:

How about knife status : knife status ?
That gives a status of all the nodes including most recent chef-client
run.

Regards*,*
Chirag Jog
Chief Technology Officer,
Clogeny Technologies | http://clogeny.com
(M) 0091-9766619440 | Skype: chirag.jog

On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 12:58 PM, Maxime Brugidou <
maxime.brugidou@gmail.com> wrote:

Ohai all,

This is a simple question, we have many many nodes with various names
and we make the node name match the FQDN with a pretty standard naming
convention.

However when logged in on a machine it is very very useful to know
what's its Chef state. Currently multiple possibilities:

  • Use the motd cookbook that will give you some last run static info
    when you login
  • Use a command like knife node show $(hostname -f) -c
    /etc/chef/client.rb -u $(hostname -f)

I like the command (because it's very flexible) but I'd expect it to be
simpler, I know i can do a simple alias, deploy a simple script on my nodes
or anything, but this has to be something that other people need right ?

So if we go the knife way, here are my suggestions:

  • Why not make knife look for a client.rb file in /etc/chef/client.rb if
    no configuration is available?
  • Why do i have to specify the node_name conf through -u option? it
    should be default if none available
  • Why not make knife node show without arguments show the current node
    if any ?

Please enlighten me if you know a better way (or if you don't care).

Cheers,
Maxime

5

Thanks for this thread. I just added a script to /etc/update-motd.d with
the following:

#!/bin/sh

echo "Chef information:"
echo ""
knife node show $(hostname -f) -c /etc/chef/client.rb -u $(hostname -f) -a
chef_environment -a run_list
echo ""

Works great!

--
~~ StormeRider ~~

"Every world needs its heroes [...] They inspire us to be better than we
are. And they protect from the darkness that's just around the corner."

(from Smallville Season 6x1: "Zod")

On why I hate the phrase "that's so lame"... http://bit.ly/Ps3uSS

On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 6:34 AM, Bryan Stenson bryan.stenson@gmail.comwrote:

maybe grep the client.log file and put interesting things into your PS1....

not sure how informed you'd like to be. :slight_smile:

On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 4:41 AM, Maxime Brugidou <
maxime.brugidou@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Chirag, knife status has the same problem than knife node show: it
does not work "out of the box" when you are logged in on a node. You need
to specify the client.rb config, the node name... etc.

The goal is to get the Chef data of the node you are currently logged in.

On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 9:49 AM, Chirag Jog chirag@clogeny.com wrote:

How about knife status : knife status ?
That gives a status of all the nodes including most recent chef-client
run.

Regards*,*
Chirag Jog
Chief Technology Officer,
Clogeny Technologies | http://clogeny.com
(M) 0091-9766619440 | Skype: chirag.jog

On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 12:58 PM, Maxime Brugidou <
maxime.brugidou@gmail.com> wrote:

Ohai all,

This is a simple question, we have many many nodes with various names
and we make the node name match the FQDN with a pretty standard naming
convention.

However when logged in on a machine it is very very useful to know
what's its Chef state. Currently multiple possibilities:

  • Use the motd cookbook that will give you some last run static info
    when you login
  • Use a command like knife node show $(hostname -f) -c
    /etc/chef/client.rb -u $(hostname -f)

I like the command (because it's very flexible) but I'd expect it to be
simpler, I know i can do a simple alias, deploy a simple script on my nodes
or anything, but this has to be something that other people need right ?

So if we go the knife way, here are my suggestions:

  • Why not make knife look for a client.rb file in /etc/chef/client.rb
    if no configuration is available?
  • Why do i have to specify the node_name conf through -u option? it
    should be default if none available
  • Why not make knife node show without arguments show the current node
    if any ?

Please enlighten me if you know a better way (or if you don't care).

Cheers,
Maxime

6

On Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 4:41 AM, Maxime Brugidou wrote:

Hi Chirag, knife status has the same problem than knife node show: it does not work "out of the box" when you are logged in on a node. You need to specify the client.rb config, the node name... etc.

The goal is to get the Chef data of the node you are currently logged in.

You could write a knife exec script to do what you want. If you're using fqdn node names, you can just shell out to hostname --fqdn to get the info and then set it with Chef::Config[:node_name] = output_of_hostname_cmd

--
Daniel DeLeo

7

On Jun 20, 2013, at 5:41 AM, Maxime Brugidou maxime.brugidou@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Chirag, knife status has the same problem than knife node show: it does not work "out of the box" when you are logged in on a node. You need to specify the client.rb config, the node name... etc.

The goal is to get the Chef data of the node you are currently logged in.

Knife is a program meant to interact with the Chef server, to see what information it has cached from whenever the most recent chef-client run was on that particular node. It is a program that is meant to be run from your Chef Workstation, not from individual nodes themselves.

Using a cookbook to update the motd file as part of each chef-client run is a good idea.

--
Brad Knowles brad@shub-internet.org
LinkedIn Profile: http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu