# Weblogic and chef - quick question

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/weblogic-and-chef-quick-question/3514>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [January 22, 2013, 5:59pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/weblogic-and-chef-quick-question/3514 "2013-01-22T17:59:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Z\_W](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@Z\_W](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Z_W)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 5:59pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/weblogic-and-chef-quick-question/3514/1 "2013-01-22T17:59:07Z")

</div>

Hi

We are new to Chef  
We are still trying to understand the value of Chef.  
Could the experts share what Chef could do that Weblogic auto deployment  
mechanism cannot do ?

Thanks

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![realityforge](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/realityforge/32/395_2.png) [@realityforge](https://discourse.chef.io/u/realityforge)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 4:24am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/weblogic-and-chef-quick-question/3514/2 "2013-01-23T04:24:27Z")

</div>

Hi,

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 4:59 AM, [mpc8250@gmail.com](mailto:mpc8250@gmail.com) wrote:

> We are new to Chef  
> We are still trying to understand the value of Chef.  
> Could the experts share what Chef could do that Weblogic auto deployment  
> mechanism cannot do ?

Chef is just an automation tool and you can get it to do what ever you  
want. We don't use Weblogic but instead have opted for GlassFish.

In our environment we have chef setup the os, (ie tweak kernel settings,  
fix up ntp etc), install glassfish, and deploy a range of resources into  
glassfish. Chef actually invokes the underlying asadmin command line tool  
to interact with the running glassfish server. Some of our applications  
make use of configuration and customizations on the filesystem so we also  
have chef set that up as well. In some cases we also use chef to run  
database migrations, queue migrations and other middleware changes while it  
pauses our ee application. So just recently we could automate the  
construction of a cluster of populated GlassFish VMs to do load testing and  
it was no more effort to create one VM than it was to create 30.

If you never have to install the application server, and never care about  
the underlying OS settings, have no applications that interact with  
services outside WL and are capable of setting up idempotent deployment  
scripts then I wouldn't bother with chef ... but I have never quite been in  
that situation.

--  
Cheers,

Peter Donald

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Z\_W](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@Z\_W](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Z_W)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 1:47am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/weblogic-and-chef-quick-question/3514/3 "2013-01-24T01:47:36Z")

</div>

Hi Peter

Thanks for responding.  
What tutorials out there could you share on simple deployments and  
auto installations of custom bundled software using chef in different  
environments ?

Thanks

On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 8:24 PM, Peter Donald [peter@realityforge.org](mailto:peter@realityforge.org) wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 4:59 AM, [mpc8250@gmail.com](mailto:mpc8250@gmail.com) wrote:
> 
> > We are new to Chef  
> > We are still trying to understand the value of Chef.  
> > Could the experts share what Chef could do that Weblogic auto deployment  
> > mechanism cannot do ?
> 
> Chef is just an automation tool and you can get it to do what ever you want.  
> We don't use Weblogic but instead have opted for GlassFish.
> 
> In our environment we have chef setup the os, (ie tweak kernel settings, fix  
> up ntp etc), install glassfish, and deploy a range of resources into  
> glassfish. Chef actually invokes the underlying asadmin command line tool  
> to interact with the running glassfish server. Some of our applications make  
> use of configuration and customizations on the filesystem so we also have  
> chef set that up as well. In some cases we also use chef to run database  
> migrations, queue migrations and other middleware changes while it pauses  
> our ee application. So just recently we could automate the construction of a  
> cluster of populated GlassFish VMs to do load testing and it was no more  
> effort to create one VM than it was to create 30.
> 
> If you never have to install the application server, and never care about  
> the underlying OS settings, have no applications that interact with services  
> outside WL and are capable of setting up idempotent deployment scripts then  
> I wouldn't bother with chef ... but I have never quite been in that  
> situation.
> 
> --  
> Cheers,
> 
> Peter Donald

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![realityforge](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/realityforge/32/395_2.png) [@realityforge](https://discourse.chef.io/u/realityforge)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 2:53am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/weblogic-and-chef-quick-question/3514/4 "2013-01-24T02:53:13Z")

</div>

Hi,

On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 12:47 PM, Z W [mpc8250@gmail.com](mailto:mpc8250@gmail.com) wrote:

> Thanks for responding.  
> What tutorials out there could you share on simple deployments and  
> auto installations of custom bundled software using chef in different  
> environments ?

I don't know of any java specific tutorials - I would just go with the  
standard set of guides at [1] - the way we learnt was to go through the  
tutorial materials that opscode used to provide (Essentially they were  
lecture notes for the training they provided). Can no longer find them.  
Good luck!

[1] [http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Guides](http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Guides)

--  
Cheers,

Peter Donald

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![werebus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/werebus/32/24_2.png) [@werebus](https://discourse.chef.io/u/werebus)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/weblogic-and-chef-quick-question/3514/5 "2013-01-24T03:33:52Z")

</div>

The source for the Chef Fundamentals course that you're referring to is on  
Github here - [GitHub - chef-boneyard/chef-fundamentals: DEPRECATED: Chef Fundamentals training materials](https://github.com/opscode/chef-fundamentals)[https://github.com/opscode/chef-fundamentals](https://github.com/opscode/chef-fundamentals)

Also, don't forget the new docs site - [http://docs.opscode.com/](http://docs.opscode.com/)

-Matt Moretti

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 9:53 PM, Peter Donald [peter@realityforge.org](mailto:peter@realityforge.org)wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 12:47 PM, Z W [mpc8250@gmail.com](mailto:mpc8250@gmail.com) wrote:
> 
> > Thanks for responding.  
> > What tutorials out there could you share on simple deployments and  
> > auto installations of custom bundled software using chef in different  
> > environments ?
> 
> I don't know of any java specific tutorials - I would just go with the  
> standard set of guides at [1] - the way we learnt was to go through the  
> tutorial materials that opscode used to provide (Essentially they were  
> lecture notes for the training they provided). Can no longer find them.  
> Good luck!
> 
> [1] [http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Guides](http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Guides)
> 
> --  
> Cheers,
> 
> Peter Donald

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mitchell\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mitchell\_Hill](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Mitchell_Hill)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 2:18pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/weblogic-and-chef-quick-question/3514/6 "2013-01-24T14:18:53Z")

</div>

there are a series of youtube videos that Nathan Harvey has built that walk you thru Chef and getting started step by step.

this is the first - it can guide you to the others.

* * *

From: Matthew Moretti [werebus@gmail.com]  
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 7:33 PM  
To: [chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)  
Subject: [chef] Re: Re: Re: Re: weblogic and chef - quick question

The source for the Chef Fundamentals course that you’re referring to is on Github here - [https://github.com/opscode/chef-fundamentals](https://github.com/opscode/chef-fundamentals)[https://github.com/opscode/chef-fundamentals](https://github.com/opscode/chef-fundamentals)

Also, don’t forget the new docs site - [http://docs.opscode.com/](http://docs.opscode.com/)

-Matt Moretti

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 9:53 PM, Peter Donald \<[peter@realityforge.org](mailto:peter@realityforge.org)[mailto:peter@realityforge.org](mailto:peter@realityforge.org)\> wrote:  
Hi,

On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 12:47 PM, Z W \<[mpc8250@gmail.com](mailto:mpc8250@gmail.com)[mailto:mpc8250@gmail.com](mailto:mpc8250@gmail.com)\> wrote:  
Thanks for responding.  
What tutorials out there could you share on simple deployments and  
auto installations of custom bundled software using chef in different  
environments ?

I don’t know of any java specific tutorials - I would just go with the standard set of guides at [1] - the way we learnt was to go through the tutorial materials that opscode used to provide (Essentially they were lecture notes for the training they provided). Can no longer find them. Good luck!

[1] [http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Guides](http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Guides)

–  
Cheers,

Peter Donald

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nathen\_Harvey1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/nathen_harvey1/32/272_2.png) [@Nathen\_Harvey1](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Nathen_Harvey1)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 3:36pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/weblogic-and-chef-quick-question/3514/7 "2013-01-24T15:36:02Z")

</div>

The best way to navigate the videos that Mitch mentioned is via my blog so that you can see code samples, leave and read comments, etc.

[http://nathenharvey.com/blog/2012/12/06/learning-chef-part-1/](http://nathenharvey.com/blog/2012/12/06/learning-chef-part-1/)

-Nathen

From: Mitchell Hill \<[mitch@opscode.com](mailto:mitch@opscode.com)[mailto:mitch@opscode.com](mailto:mitch@opscode.com)\>  
Reply-To: "chef@lists.opscode.com[mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)" \<[chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)[mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)\>  
Date: Thursday, January 24, 2013 9:18 AM  
To: "chef@lists.opscode.com[mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)" \<[chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)[mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)\>  
Subject: [chef] RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: weblogic and chef - quick question

there are a series of youtube videos that Nathan Harvey has built that walk you thru Chef and getting started step by step.

this is the first - it can guide you to the others.

* * *

From: Matthew Moretti [werebus@gmail.com[mailto:werebus@gmail.com](mailto:werebus@gmail.com)]  
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 7:33 PM  
To: [chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)[mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)  
Subject: [chef] Re: Re: Re: Re: weblogic and chef - quick question

The source for the Chef Fundamentals course that you’re referring to is on Github here - [https://github.com/opscode/chef-fundamentals](https://github.com/opscode/chef-fundamentals)[https://github.com/opscode/chef-fundamentals](https://github.com/opscode/chef-fundamentals)

Also, don’t forget the new docs site - [http://docs.opscode.com/](http://docs.opscode.com/)

-Matt Moretti

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 9:53 PM, Peter Donald \<[peter@realityforge.org](mailto:peter@realityforge.org)[mailto:peter@realityforge.org](mailto:peter@realityforge.org)\> wrote:  
Hi,

On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 12:47 PM, Z W \<[mpc8250@gmail.com](mailto:mpc8250@gmail.com)[mailto:mpc8250@gmail.com](mailto:mpc8250@gmail.com)\> wrote:  
Thanks for responding.  
What tutorials out there could you share on simple deployments and  
auto installations of custom bundled software using chef in different  
environments ?

I don’t know of any java specific tutorials - I would just go with the standard set of guides at [1] - the way we learnt was to go through the tutorial materials that opscode used to provide (Essentially they were lecture notes for the training they provided). Can no longer find them. Good luck!

[1] [http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Guides](http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Guides)

–  
Cheers,

Peter Donald