Chef infrastructure automation cookbook : over 80 delicious recipes to automate your cloud and server infrastructure with Chef

Cover; Copyright; Credits; Foreword; About the Author; About the Reviewers; www.PacktPub.com; Table of Contents; Preface; Chapter 1: Chef Infrastructure; Introduction; Using version control; Installing Chef on your workstation; Using the Hosted Chef platform; Managing virtual machines with Vagrant; Creating and using cookbooks; Inspecting files on your Chef Server with Knife; Defining cookbook dependencies; Managing cookbook dependencies with Berkshelf; Downloading and integrating cookbooks as vendor branches into your Git repository; Using custom Knife plugins.;Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook contains practical recipes on everything you will need to automate your infrastructure using Chef. The book is packed with illustrated code examples to automate your server and cloud infrastructure. The book first shows you the simplest way to achieve a certain task. Then it explains every step in detail, so that you can build your knowledge about how things work. Eventually, the book shows you additional things to consider for each approach. That way, you can learn step-by-step and build profound knowledge on how to go about your configuration management.

In Detail

Irrespective of whether you're a systems administrator or a developer, if you're sick and tired of repetitive manual work and not knowing whether you may dare to reboot your server, it's time for you to get your infrastructure automated.

Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook has all the required recipes to configure, deploy, and scale your servers and applications, irrespective of whether you manage 5 servers, 5,000 servers, or 500,000 servers.

Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook is a collection of easy-to-follow, step-by-step recipes showing you how to solve real-world automation challenges. Learn techniques from the pros and make sure you get your infrastructure automation project right the first time.

Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook takes you on a journey through the many facets of Chef. It teaches you simple techniques as well as fully fledged real-world solutions. By looking at easily digestible examples, you'll be able to grasp the main concepts of Chef, which you'll need for automating your own infrastructure. Instead of wasting time trying to get existing community cookbooks running in your environment, you'll get ready made code examples to get you started.

After describing how to use the basic Chef tools, the book shows you how to troubleshoot your work and explains the Chef language. Then, it shows you how to manage users, applications, and your whole cloud infrastructure. The book concludes by providing you additional, indispensable tools and giving you an in-depth look into the Chef ecosystem.

Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook will help you learn the techniques of the pros by walking you through a host of step-by-step guides to solve real-world infrastructure automation challenges.

Approach

Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook contains practical recipes on everything you will need to automate your infrastructure using Chef. The book is packed with illustrated code examples to automate your server and cloud infrastructure.

The book first shows you the simplest way to achieve a certain task. Then it explains every step in detail, so that you can build your knowledge about how things work. Eventually, the book shows you additional things to consider for each approach. That way, you can learn step-by-step and build profound knowledge on how to go about your configuration management automation.

Who this book is for

This book is for system engineers and administrators who have a fundamental understanding of information management systems and infrastructure. It helps if you've already played around with Chef; however, the book covers all the important topics you will need to know. If you don't want to dig through a whole book before you can get started, this book is for you, as it features a set of independent recipes you can try out immediately.

Over 80 delicious recipes to automate your cloud and server infrastructure with Chef **Overview** * Configure, deploy, and scale your applications * Automate error prone and tedious manual tasks * Manage your servers on-site or in the cloud * Solve real world automation challenges with task-based recipes * The book is filled with working code and easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions **In Detail** Irrespective of whether you're a systems administrator or a developer, if you're sick and tired of repetitive manual work and not knowing whether you may dare to reboot your server, it's time for you to get your infrastructure automated. Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook has all the required recipes to configure, deploy, and scale your servers and applications, irrespective of whether you manage 5 servers, 5,000 servers, or 500,000 servers. Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook is a collection of easy-to-follow, step-by-step recipes showing you how to solve real-world automation challenges. Learn techniques from the pros and make sure you get your infrastructure automation project right the first time. Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook takes you on a journey through the many facets of Chef. It teaches you simple techniques as well as fully fledged real-world solutions. By looking at easily digestible examples, you'll be able to grasp the main concepts of Chef, which you'll need for automating your own infrastructure. Instead of wasting time trying to get existing community cookbooks running in your environment, you'll get ready made code examples to get you started. After describing how to use the basic Chef tools, the book shows you how to troubleshoot your work and explains the Chef language. Then, it shows you how to manage users, applications, and your whole cloud infrastructure. The book concludes by providing you additional, indispensable tools and giving you an in-depth look into the Chef ecosystem. Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook will help you learn the techniques of the pros by walking you through a host of step-by-step guides to solve real-world infrastructure automation challenges. **What you will learn from this book** * Define your infrastructure as code with Chef * Set up your local development and testing environment for Chef with cookbooks and Vagrant * Debug your cookbooks and Chef runs by using the numerous inspection and logging facilities of Chef * Write clean and maintainable cookbooks by following established coding standards and patterns * Drive your cookbooks from external data or node specific attributes by using data bags and search * Manage and scale your cloud infrastructure by automating your configuration management * Extend Chef to meet your advanced needs by creating custom plugins for Knife and Ohai * Test your Chef cookbooks and infrastructure by writing examples using Chef's testing infrastructure In Detail Irrespective of whether you're a systems administrator or a developer, if you're sick and tired of repetitive manual work and not knowing whether you may dare to reboot your server, it's time for you to get your infrastructure automated. Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook has all the required recipes to configure, deploy, and scale your servers and applications, irrespective of whether you manage 5 servers, 5,000 servers, or 500,000 servers. Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook is a collection of easy-to-follow, step-by-step recipes showing you how to solve real-world automation challenges. Learn techniques from the pros and make sure you get your infrastructure automation project right the first time. Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook takes you on a journey through the many facets of Chef. It teaches you simple techniques as well as fully fledged real-world solutions. By looking at easily digestible examples, you'll be able to grasp the main concepts of Chef, which you'll need for automating your own infrastructure. Instead of wasting time trying to get existing community cookbooks running in your environment, you'll get ready made code examples to get you started. After describing how to use the basic Chef tools, the book shows you how to troubleshoot your work and explains the Chef language. Then, it shows you how to manage users, applications, and your whole cloud infrastructure. The book concludes by providing you additional, indispensable tools and giving you an in-depth look into the Chef ecosystem. Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook will help you learn the techniques of the pros by walking you through a host of step-by-step guides to solve real-world infrastructure automation challenges.Approach Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook contains practical recipes on everything you will need to automate your infrastructure using Chef. The book is packed with illustrated code examples to automate your server and cloud infrastructure. The book first shows you the simplest way to achieve a certain task. Then it explains every step in detail, so that you can build your knowledge about how things work. Eventually, the book shows you additional things to consider for each approach. That way, you can learn step-by-step and build profound knowledge on how to go about your configuration management automation.Who this book is for This book is for system engineers and administrators who have a fundamental understanding of information management systems and infrastructure. It helps if you've already played around with Chef; however, the book covers all the important topics you will need to know. If you don't want to dig through a whole book before you can get started, this book is for you, as it features a set of independent recipes you can try out immediately Cover Copyright Credits Foreword About the Author About the Reviewers www.PacktPub.com Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1: Chef Infrastructure Introduction Using version control Installing Chef on your workstation Using the Hosted Chef platform Managing virtual machines with Vagrant Creating and using cookbooks Inspecting files on your Chef Server with Knife Defining cookbook dependencies Managing cookbook dependencies with Berkshelf Downloading and integrating cookbooks as vendor branches into your Git repository Using custom Knife plugins. Changing organizations based on the current Git branchDeleting a node from the Chef Server Running Chef Solo Using roles Using environments Freezing cookbooks Running Chef Client as a daemon Using the Chef console (Chef Shell) Chapter 2: Evaluating and Troubleshooting Cookbooks and Chef Runs Introduction Testing your Chef cookbooks Flagging problems in your Chef cookbooks Test Driven Development for cookbooks using ChefSpec Integration testing your cookbooks with Test Kitchen Showing affected nodes before uploading cookbooks. Overriding a node's run list to execute a single recipeUsing why-run mode to find out what a recipe might do Debugging Chef Client runs Inspecting results of your last ChefClient run Raising and logging exceptions in recipes Diffing cookbooks with knife Using community exception and report handlers Creating custom handlers Chapter 3: Chef Language and Style Introduction Using community Chef style Using attributes to dynamically configure recipes Using templates Mixing plain Ruby with Chef DSL Installing Ruby gems and using them in recipes Using libraries Using definitions. Creating your own Light Weight Resource Providers (LWRP)Extending community cookbooks by using application wrapper cookbooks Creating custom Ohai plugins Creating custom Knife plugins Chapter 4: Writing Better Cookbooks Introduction Setting environment variables Passing arguments to shell commands Overriding attributes Using search to find nodes Using data bags Using search to find data bag items Using encrypted data bag items Accessing data bag values from external scripts Getting information about the environment Writing cross-platform cookbooks. Finding the complete list of operating systems you can use in cookbooksMaking recipes idempotent by using conditional execution Chapter 5: Working with Files and Packages Introduction Creating configuration files using templates Using pure Ruby in templates for conditionals and iterations Installing packages from a third-party repository Installing software from source Running a command when a file is updated Distributing directory trees Cleaning up old files Distributing different files based on the target platform Chapter 6: Users and Applications Introduction.