Chef cookbook continuous integration hi, im josh symonds. Its commonly used in bdd development,and is a framework that we will useto execute our unit tests. Os images, databases, containers can be targets, as well as the evergrowing number of cloud objects e. Upgrading from older versions to chef infra server. The chef infra server acts as a hub for configuration data. It provides an lwrp that creates sensu client configuration files that are processed by a minitest chef handler test for testing, or can be used by sensu in the traditional way. Now that we have addressed the fundamental concepts of using chef data and cookbooks, its useful to step through a specific example using the tdd software development process. Chef cookbooks have enabled us to transition from a manual update process, taking multiple man hours, to a pushbutton deployment that runs in less than 10 minutes. Chef training and certification chef software, inc. Create a simple chef cookbooks to manage your centos.
He is a passionate automation engineer seeking to optimize software. Every node that will be configured by chef infra client and every workstation that will upload data to the chef infra server must be able to communicate with the hosted chef server. Chefspec is something which only simulates a chef run. Hostnames ensure that all systems have properly configured hostnames. Chef training delivered when and where you need it, exclusively for your team, virtually or at your location.
Cookbooks that are part of the chef supermarket are accessible by any chef user. The absolute path where cookbooks will be stored on the workstation. So there is no gurantee that when you upload cookbook to the chef server, it wont break prod, since dependent cookbooks might change as well. The only solution i can see at the moment is to specify every single cookbook verion we use in the environment config, including community and custom ones. The chef infra server stores cookbooks, the policies that are applied to nodes, and metadata that describes each registered node that is being managed by chef infra client. Oct 29, 2019 now lets go ahead and setup chef server, workstation, and node chef client. The chef team is excited about the partnership with udemy and looks forward to the development of additional chef courses. Rspec is a domainspecific language testing toolwritten in ruby for checking ruby code. This recorded webinar is an overview of the chef serverhow its designed, how its packaged, and general advice on operating it at scale monitoring, troubleshooting, etc. Deploying alteryx server with chef alteryx community. Chef inspec is designed for platforms and treats operating systems as special cases.
It is also accessed by individuals who maintain cookbooks and policy that is stored on the chef infra server, typically from a workstation. We use chefspec its a unit testing framework for testing chef cookbooks chefspec is simple to write. May 25, 2017 which now means that when we push to gitlab, our ci process runs our unit tests against the code making our recipe more useful having a configurable user. So lets start with writing specs for default recipe. Chef blog it automation for everything from configuration. Integration testing chef cookbooks with serverspec dzone.
This file is located at the top on the cookbook directory structure. To download the entire chefrepo from the chef infra server, browse to the top level of the chefrepo and enter. Chef inspec helps you, whether you use windows server on your own hardware or run linux in docker containers in the cloud. For customers who want to purchase individual licenses of chef infra, chef inspec, or chef habitat that is also available, contact sales. One will act as a chef server, and the next one will be a workstation, and a 3rd system will be the node. This resource manages the installation, configuration, and running the ctl reconfigure of individual packages. In previous tutorials, we have looked at some common chef terminology and discussed how to install a chef server, workstation, and nodes with chef 12 or chef 11. Chef provides the excellent chefdk download which bundles everything we care about. Chefspec runs your cookbooks locally while skipping making actual changes.
Chef infra server, onpremises or in cloud environment. In this guide, we will use these guides as a jumping off point to begin talking about how to automate your environment. The chef infra server stores cookbooks, the policies that are applied to nodes, and metadata that describes each registered node that is managed by the chef infra client. How to test installation of chef server using chefspec. Mar 18, 2015 testing results of real chef run on provisioned node is a topic for itself, and deserves a separate post. Once youve create the new server,we then need to install chef on it. Instructor the tools for unit testingthat ship with the chef development kitare rspec and chefspec.
Unit tests for chef cookbooks with chefspec semaphore. It enables writing test recipes, which will run on the vms once they are instantiated and converged using the cookbook. The chefserverctl command will install the first chefmanage package found in the rootpackages directory. The third part of this series will handle how you can add a node to chef compliance and test your profile against this node. To start writing unit tests for your cookbook, just create as separate spec file for each recipe into spec folder. Test kitchen is chefs integrated testing framework. Chefserver introduces a hole where you use the knife upload to update a cookbook, and you must patch this hole yourself such as with a postcommit hook or risk site changes being overwritten silently by someone who knife uploads an obsolete recipe from the outdated local repository on his laptop. Best strategy to keep chef cookbooks versions under control. We will use chefspec, unit testing framework built on top of the rspec. For primitives for installing chefservercore or other chef server addons, see chefingredient.
All machines in a chef infra server deployment have the following hardware requirements. It uses a pureruby, domainspecific language dsl for writing system configuration recipes. Testdriven chef cookbooks with test kitchen engineering. Testing results of real chef run on provisioned node is a topic for itself, and deserves a separate post. A mix of lint checking, syntax checking, unittesting and integration tests are required. A chef ingredient is the core package itself, or products or addon components published by chef software, inc. So this is largely due to a new instance of a class named omnitruckclient being created in the chefserver default recipe. For primitives for installing chef server core or other chef server addons, see chef ingredient. Compiled when the cookbook is uploaded to chef server using knife command. The chef server will provide signed urls for cookbook requests made by the various clients individual users, knife requests, and from the chefclient that is installed on nodes under management by chef. For example, using chef to manage an additional web server,i would have to create a new server first. How to use roles and environments in chef to control server.
The hostname for the chef infra server must be a fqdn, have fewer than 64 characters including the domain suffix, be lowercase, and resolvable. The file is selected according to file specificity, which allows different source files to be used based on the hostname, host platform operating system, distro, or as appropriate, or platform version. Integration testing chef cookbooks with serverspec dec 28, 2016 writing a server integration test using the serverspec testing framework to verify your server configuration helps to ensure the consistency and dependability of chef code as it is being developed. Of course you can run that cookbook on an actual server or virtual machine and inspect the results manually. Installs and configures chef for chefclient and chefserver cookbook chef, 0. As for the cloud, you can use chef inspec to target applications and services running on aws and azure.
Chef cookbooks describe the desired state of your nodes, and allow chef to push out the changes needed to achieve this state. Set up chef with the setting up a chef server, workstation, and node guide. Integration testing chef cookbooks with serverspec sauce. In previous guides, we discussed chef terminology, how to install a chef server, workstation, and node with chef 12 or chef 11, and how to create simple cookbooks to manage configuration. Verify chef cookbook with chefspec tests aka unit testing. It is not in the scope of this cookbook to handle more complex chef server topologies like tiered or ha. Flexible pricing options to meet your compliance, infrastructure, security, and application automation needs. Please note that rspec can test the ruby language and is extended for server specific testing.
A node is a physical or virtual systems that is configured or managed with chef infra. Chef cookbook directory structure explained with examples. Companies audit their various endpoints for compliance against cis or disa standards using chef inspec, while viewing the aggregate compliance state of. The public chef supermarket is hosted by chef software and is located at chef supermarket. It will install the appropriate platformspecific chefserver omnibus package from package cloud and perform the initial configuration. For chef workflows, cookbook dependency resolution via berkshelf or. Now your inspec profile should be available on your chef compliance server. The chef infra server is accessed primarily by nodes that are under management by chef, as chef infra client runs occur. These are chef premium features, see the readme for more information about the addons recipe v3. Nov 28, 2016 unit testing chef cookbooks with chefspec nov 28, 2016 i recently had the opportunity to get involved with chef cookbook development, and begin learning how to write some tests for infrastructure code by using various testing frameworks.
The third part of this series will handle how you can add a node to chef. Again, the workstation is where well actually develop chef code. As managed environments grow, manual configuration and deployment practices can result in operational expenses growing at an alarming rate. Chefspec is a unit testing framework for testing chef cookbooks. When used as part of the cookbook authoring workflow, chefspec tests are often the first indicator of problems that may exist within a cookbook. Go to the gitlab ci section, for the snippet youll need to add to your. Nodes use chef infra client to ask the chef infra server for configuration details, such as recipes, templates, and file distributions.
Open your text editor and open the folder for the cookbook you created. In this guide, we will continue to explore how you can manage. Chefspec is a framework that tests resources and recipes as part of a simulated chef infra client run. Chef supermarket is the site for community cookbooks. Chefspec makes it easy to write examples and get fast feedback on cookbook changes without the need for virtual machines or cloud servers. This cookbook is an attempt at blurring the boundary between tdd and monitoring. One critical aspect of developing any code is writing unit tests. Today chef announces compliance waiver support within chef inspec and chef automate. Unit testing chef cookbooks with chefspec sauce labs. Building chef cookbooks with gitlab part 1 jamie tanna. Windows infrastructure testing using inspec and profiles.
The chef development kit chef dk includes all the tools you need to write both unit and integration tests. Writing a server integration test using the serverspec testing framework to verify your server configuration helps to ensure the consistency and dependability of chef code as it is being developed. Create a simple chef cookbooks to manage your centos rhel. Chef infra client communication with the chef infra server the chef infra server must be able to communicate with every node that will be configured by chef infra client and every workstation that will upload data to the chef infra. Finally, for continuous compliance evaluation, inspec can be invoked as part of a chef client run via the audit cookbook, which can be configured to send data to a chef automate server, providing.
Chef is a company and the name of a configuration management tool written in ruby and erlang. The recommended amount of ram available to chef infra client during a chef infra client run is 512mb. Many testing frameworks are supported out of the box including inspec, serverspec, and bats. It will install the appropriate platformspecific chef server omnibus package from package cloud and perform the initial configuration. This is the full url of the chef server with the organization pathwe did create an organization during our previous tutorial of installing chef server. For clustered chef server deployments, see chefservercluster. Given i started working with chef using the chef server management console and i now want to start using a files and upload them via knife. It provides an easily searchable cookbook repository and a friendly web ui.
And then, well upload it from a workstation to a chef server. Is there a way to retrive roles and environments that are. The test recipes run on that vm and can verify if everything works as expected. A driver plugin architecture is used to run code on various cloud providers. Cookbooks are fundamental working units of chef, which consists of all the details related to working units, having the capability to modify configuration and the state of any system configured as a node on chef infrastructure. Jan 17, 2020 to test the recipe, add the lamp stack cookbook to the chef server. The chef server itself will then distribute your cookbooks to the nodes that its managing. Chef infra automates infrastructure configuration, ensuring every system is configured correctly and consistently. Nov 23, 2014 it also includes a host of other chef tools.
Since a cookbook is software, it requires testing just like any other software project. Now, having a cookbook that only ever creates a single, hardcoded, user isnt actually very useful. Chef inspec validates your deployed configuration across applications and infrastructure. Here at alteryx, weve been using chef to automate deployments of our many alteryx server installations. I recently had the opportunity to get involved with chef cookbook development, and begin learning how to write some tests for infrastructure code by using various testing frameworks. Mar 18, 2020 today chef announces compliance waiver support within chef inspec and chef automate. Cookbooks are created on a workstation and then uploaded to chef server. The attributes used by this cookbook are under the chefserver name space. Before installing the chef infra server, ensure that each machine has the following installed and configured properly. In this guide you will learn how to create a cookbook that configures a lamp stack on a linode. Having chef converge the cookbooks on a system is a test in itself but in order to minimize regressions, a proper unittest suite should be run. Many organizations use a combination of both red hat ansible and chef inspec to shift left with both configuration automation and compliance.
This is because knife will be syncing cookbooks to server, it will also be downloading cookbooks, will. The attributes used by this cookbook are under the chef server name space. Apr 16, 2020 for clustered chef server deployments, see chef server cluster. So this is largely due to a new instance of a class named omnitruckclient being created in the chef server default recipe. This can be validated in the chef compliance frontend as well, where you can see the names, description and the rules. Cookbooks contain values about the desired state of node. An introduction to chef and to cookbook development flow. Using chef for compliance provides a holistic solution for enterprises to achieve continuous compliance. In this class, im creating it with vagrant and virtualbox. Located at the top in the cookbook directory structure. It provides hints to the chef server which helps in deploying cookbooks on the correct node. Chef software is a configuration management and automate tool used to make your applications and systems easier to deploy. Chef cookbooks is a unit that holds the configuration and policy details to bring a node into a particular state. A cookbook is then assigned to nodes runlist which is a sequential list of actions that are to be run on a node to bring the node into the.
Chef inspec ensures your ansible configuration code does not expose your organization to vulnerabilities. Sep 28, 2017 and to upload them to the chef server. Sep 26, 2017 the chef development kit chef dk includes all the tools you need to write both unit and integration tests. In order for our test kitchen to read the chef repositories data we need to set an environment variable. Early last year i delivered a webinar focused on test driven cookbook development. Test driven development with rspec and chef newmedia. With chef infra, infrastructure is defined as code, ensuring that configuration policy is. As for the cloud, you can use chef inspec to target. Chef local development workflow chefdk, vagrant, virtualbox. Setting up to develop with chef data and cookbooks newmedia. Chef is a platform for the devops workflow, and is used to automate and manage it allinfrastructure, runtime environments and applications. Compute instances that are either longlived or ephemeral in nature e. Whether youre working in the cloud, onpremises, or in a hybrid environment, chef simplifies the way you manage and monitor your infrastructure by automating how it is configured, deployed, and managed across your network, regardless of its size.