# What is the best way to run chef-client apart from using a cron job?

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-run-chef-client-apart-from-using-a-cron-job/9583>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [October 4, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-run-chef-client-apart-from-using-a-cron-job/9583 "2016-10-04T11:56:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sumeetisp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@sumeetisp](https://discourse.chef.io/u/sumeetisp)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-run-chef-client-apart-from-using-a-cron-job/9583/1 "2016-10-04T11:56:13Z")

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I am aware that chef-client can be invoked using a cron job at particular intervals but i wanted to know if there is any other way to achieve this requirement.

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**Author:** ![MattRay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/mattray/32/47_2.png) [@MattRay](https://discourse.chef.io/u/MattRay)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 1:55pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-run-chef-client-apart-from-using-a-cron-job/9583/2 "2016-10-04T13:55:04Z")

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You can run the chef-client as a daemon or service and have it check-in  
periodically. This prevents the “thundering herd” problem of thousands of  
nodes all checking in at the same time. Take a look at using the  
chef-client cookbook to manage your deployments.

> **[chef-cookbooks/chef-client](https://github.com/chef-cookbooks/chef-client)**
>
> chef-client - Development repository for Chef Client cookbook

Thanks,  
Matt Ray  
Manager, Solutions Architect - APAC :: Chef  
[matt@chef.io](mailto:matt@chef.io)  
AUS: +61 457 231 372  
US: +1 512 731 2218  
mattray :: GitHub :: IRC :: Twitter