# Sizing a Chef Server

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/sizing-a-chef-server/4501>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [September 26, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/sizing-a-chef-server/4501 "2013-09-26T17:02:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Stephen\_Corbesero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Stephen\_Corbesero](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Stephen_Corbesero)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/sizing-a-chef-server/4501/1 "2013-09-26T17:02:49Z")

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Are there any guidelines for how to size a chef 11 server , especially in terms of disk space?

–  
Stephen Corbesero, Performance Engineer  
Synchronoss - Mobile Innovation for a Connected World  
Office: +1 484-821-4272  
[stephen.corbesero@synchronoss.com](mailto:stephen.corbesero@synchronoss.com) | [www.synchronoss.com](http://www.synchronoss.com)

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**Author:** ![Andy\_Gale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/andy_gale/32/241_2.png) [@Andy\_Gale](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Andy_Gale)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/sizing-a-chef-server/4501/2 "2013-09-26T17:22:19Z")

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On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 6:02 PM, Stephen Corbesero  
[Stephen.Corbesero@synchronoss.com](mailto:Stephen.Corbesero@synchronoss.com) wrote:

> Are there any guidelines for how to size a chef 11 server , especially in  
> terms of disk space?

Have you seen this?

> **[System Requirements](https://docs.chef.io/chef_system_requirements/)**
>
> Before installing Chef Infra:
> Ensure that each system you will be managing is running a supported platform Ensure that the machine that will run the Chef Infra Server is sufficiently powerful Ensure that any network and firewall settings are...

(Scroll down the bottom where you will find "Open Source Server" requirements)

--  
Andy Gale

> **[Andy Gale - Freelance DevOps Consultant, Fractional CTO & Full-stack...](https://andy-gale.com/)**
>
> I'm a Freelance DevOps Consultant, Fractional CTO & Full-stack Developer from Bristol, UK. I have over 25 years professional full stack experience with the Web Development, Cloud, DevOps and Infrastructure.

[http://twitter.com/andygale](http://twitter.com/andygale)

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**Author:** ![Sam\_Pointer1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@Sam\_Pointer1](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Sam_Pointer1)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/sizing-a-chef-server/4501/3 "2013-09-26T18:02:09Z")

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As a quick litmus, a benchmark I did with an early 11.x open source Omnibus  
with Ubuntu 10.4 LTS on an EC2 m1.xlarge can easily support 500 nodes with  
hundreds of resources per node and searches used for inter-tier discovery.

We also concluded there is likely headroom to double that client number  
before CPU becomes a bottleneck on that particular platform. For node  
volumes beyond that my experience has mainly been 10.x clustered, so I  
can't comment on 11.x as the game changes with the introduction of the  
Erlang API.

For us on "moderate" hardware disk space consumption has never been a  
concern in either set-up. Incidentally, the above benchmark was performed  
with the "worst possible" disk layout of everything-including-the-database  
on the root ephemeral volume, and I/O wasn't going to be a limiting factor  
for quite some time and certainly not before other parameters held things  
up.

For enterprise, other clouds, newer releases, real server catalog numbers  
and so-on I defer to others and the Opscode folks and their sizing guides,  
and of course with hosted enterprise it isn't a concern. Of course, every  
estate and implementation is different, YMMV and so-on.

Sam Pointer  
[www.opsunit.com](http://www.opsunit.com)

On 26 September 2013 18:22, Andy Gale [andy@salgo.net](mailto:andy@salgo.net) wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 6:02 PM, Stephen Corbesero  
> [Stephen.Corbesero@synchronoss.com](mailto:Stephen.Corbesero@synchronoss.com) wrote:
> 
> > Are there any guidelines for how to size a chef 11 server , especially in  
> > terms of disk space?
> 
> Have you seen this?
> 
> [System Requirements](http://docs.opscode.com/chef_system_requirements.html)
> 
> (Scroll down the bottom where you will find "Open Source Server"  
> requirements)
> 
> --  
> Andy Gale  
> [http://andy-gale.com](http://andy-gale.com)  
> [http://twitter.com/andygale](http://twitter.com/andygale)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Stephen\_Corbesero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Stephen\_Corbesero](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Stephen_Corbesero)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/sizing-a-chef-server/4501/4 "2013-09-26T20:55:56Z")

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I have looked at that page, but it doesn't say much about disk requirements. Wouldn't the size of the /opt and /var be directly related to the number of nodes being served?

--  
Stephen Corbesero, Performance Engineer  
Synchronoss - Mobile Innovation for a Connected World  
Office: +1 484-821-4272  
[stephen.corbesero@synchronoss.com](mailto:stephen.corbesero@synchronoss.com) | [www.synchronoss.com](http://www.synchronoss.com)

-----Original Message-----  
From: [ajgale@gmail.com](mailto:ajgale@gmail.com) [[mailto:ajgale@gmail.com](mailto:ajgale@gmail.com)] On Behalf Of Andy Gale  
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 1:22 PM  
To: [chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)  
Subject: [chef] Re: Sizing a Chef Server

On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 6:02 PM, Stephen Corbesero [Stephen.Corbesero@synchronoss.com](mailto:Stephen.Corbesero@synchronoss.com) wrote:

> Are there any guidelines for how to size a chef 11 server , especially  
> in terms of disk space?

Have you seen this?

> **[System Requirements](https://docs.chef.io/chef_system_requirements/)**
>
> Before installing Chef Infra:
> Ensure that each system you will be managing is running a supported platform Ensure that the machine that will run the Chef Infra Server is sufficiently powerful Ensure that any network and firewall settings are...

(Scroll down the bottom where you will find "Open Source Server" requirements)

--  
Andy Gale

> **[Andy Gale - Freelance DevOps Consultant, Fractional CTO & Full-stack...](https://andy-gale.com/)**
>
> I'm a Freelance DevOps Consultant, Fractional CTO & Full-stack Developer from Bristol, UK. I have over 25 years professional full stack experience with the Web Development, Cloud, DevOps and Infrastructure.

[http://twitter.com/andygale](http://twitter.com/andygale)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andy\_Gale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/andy_gale/32/241_2.png) [@Andy\_Gale](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Andy_Gale)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 9:01am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/sizing-a-chef-server/4501/5 "2013-09-27T09:01:09Z")

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On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 9:55 PM, Stephen Corbesero  
[Stephen.Corbesero@synchronoss.com](mailto:Stephen.Corbesero@synchronoss.com) wrote:

> I have looked at that page, but it doesn't say much about disk requirements. Wouldn't the size of the /opt and /var be directly related to the number of nodes being served?

Cool, thought I'd point it out as the information on the page was a  
bit difficult to find.

It depends on how many nodes but also which cookbooks you use. The  
more cookbooks, the more attributes on top of what ohai creates.  
There's quite a lot of additional data stored per node with a typical  
LAMP stack.

--  
Andy Gale

> **[Andy Gale - Freelance DevOps Consultant, Fractional CTO & Full-stack...](https://andy-gale.com/)**
>
> I'm a Freelance DevOps Consultant, Fractional CTO & Full-stack Developer from Bristol, UK. I have over 25 years professional full stack experience with the Web Development, Cloud, DevOps and Infrastructure.

[http://twitter.com/andygale](http://twitter.com/andygale)