Say we want to develop chef cookbook locally or we only have very few nodes to appy chef cookbook, so we don’t need dedicted chef server. So how ?
Basically, there is nothing magical here but local mode of chef-client, that is:
sudo chef-client -z
The magic lies in that where do you get the dependent cookbook or cookbook itself ?
The answer is Berkshelf, which still doesn’t look much magic though.
Yes, it look pretty easy with open cookbook repository like Chef supermarket
We are assuming chefdk or chef-client is installed on your machine for following steps to happen.
Open Cookbook Repository
Let’s take a very simple java installation cookbook for example.
a. Create Berksfile file for Berkshelf to download cookbook
cat > Berksfile <<'EOP'
source 'https://supermarket.chef.io'
cookbook 'java'
EOP
basically, it tells Berkshelf to download java cookbook along with its dependency from Chef supermarket, https://supermarket.chef.io
b. Actually download cookbook
berks vendor
Resolving cookbook dependencies...
Fetching cookbook index from https://supermarket.chef.io...
Using homebrew (5.0.8)
Installing java (3.2.1)
Using windows (5.2.4)
Vendoring homebrew (5.0.8) to cookbooks/homebrew
Vendoring java (3.2.1) to cookbooks/java
Vendoring windows (5.2.4) to cookbooks/windows
So, it places all cookbooks in directory called cookbooks as the command denotes.
#=> ls -lh cookbooks/
total 12K
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4.0K Mar 4 13:23 homebrew
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4.0K Mar 4 13:23 java
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4.0K Mar 4 13:23 windows
c. Converge locally
sudo chef-client -z -o java
[2019-03-04T13:24:33+00:00] WARN: No config file found or specified on command line, using command line options.
Starting Chef Client, version 13.6.4
[2019-03-04T13:24:40+00:00] WARN: Run List override has been provided.
[2019-03-04T13:24:40+00:00] WARN: Run List override has been provided.
[2019-03-04T13:24:40+00:00] WARN: Original Run List: []
[2019-03-04T13:24:40+00:00] WARN: Original Run List: []
[2019-03-04T13:24:40+00:00] WARN: Overridden Run List: [recipe[java]]
[2019-03-04T13:24:40+00:00] WARN: Overridden Run List: [recipe[java]]
resolving cookbooks for run list: ["java"]
Synchronizing Cookbooks:
- java (3.2.1)
- windows (5.2.4)
- homebrew (5.0.8)
Installing Cookbook Gems:
Compiling Cookbooks...
Converging 5 resources
Recipe: java::notify
* log[jdk-version-changed] action nothing (skipped due to action :nothing)
Recipe: java::openjdk
* yum_package[java-1.6.0-openjdk, java-1.6.0-openjdk-devel] action install
- install version 1.6.0.41-1.13.13.1.el7_3 of package java-1.6.0-openjdk
- install version 1.6.0.41-1.13.13.1.el7_3 of package java-1.6.0-openjdk-devel
Recipe: java::notify
* log[jdk-version-changed] action write
Recipe: java::openjdk
* java_alternatives[set-java-alternatives] action set
- Add alternative for appletviewer
.........
Recipe: java::set_java_home
* directory[/etc/profile.d] action create (up to date)
* template[/etc/profile.d/jdk.sh] action create
- update content in file /etc/profile.d/jdk.sh from 7f8009 to 778ff5
--- /etc/profile.d/jdk.sh 2019-02-15 09:16:35.837102552 +0000
+++ /etc/profile.d/.chef-jdk20190304-1795-1ra936a.sh 2019-03-04 13:29:31.564830872 +0000
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
+export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0
[2019-03-04T13:29:31+00:00] WARN: Skipping final node save because override_runlist was given
[2019-03-04T13:29:31+00:00] WARN: Skipping final node save because override_runlist was given
Running handlers:
Running handlers complete
Chef Client finished, 4/6 resources updated in 04 minutes 57 seconds
Nice, it looks pretty clean and nicely to work with, but what if you have one private cookbook repository ?
Private Cookbook Repository
a. Update Berksfile
Say, my cookbook is from gitlab, and dependent cookbooks are from chef_server
#=> cat > Berksfile <<'EOP'
source :chef_server
cookbook 'mycookbook', git: "https://gitlab.example.com/cookbooks/mycookbook.git"
EOP
Run again, oooops…
#=> berks vendor
Resolving cookbook dependencies...
Fetching 'mycookbook' from https://gitlab.example.com/cookbooks/mycookbook.git (at master)
Fetching cookbook index from chef_server: https://localhost:443...
[2019-03-04T14:41:31+00:00] WARN: Failed to read the private key /etc/chef/client.pem: #<Errno::ENOENT: No such file or directory @ rb_sysopen - /etc/chef/client.pem>
/opt/chefdk/embedded/lib/ruby/gems/2.4.0/gems/chef-13.6.4/lib/chef/http/authenticator.rb:95:in `rescue in load_signing_key': I cannot read /etc/chef/client.pem, which you told me to use to sign requests! (Chef::Exceptions::PrivateKeyMissing)
So, it need authentication with chef_server, so let’s add a client.pem of some valid chef client and a knife.rb.
b. Create client.pem and knife.rb
Note: we use knife.rb instead of client.rb, because A client.rb file is default configuration for the chef-client or node machine; A knife.rb file is default configuration for a chef client machine, some like knife command. Sound pretty confusing? right, but if are aware of the difference between chef node and client, it will make more sense to you.
As /etc/chef/ is default directory for configuration file of chef-client, in order not to interfere with current chef-client run, I choose a different directory to test with
#=> mkdir -pv /tmp/chef
#=> cat > /tmp/chef/client.pem <<'EOP'
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
.............
cUBiob2YrYYBgav5PT1Ubyf4m3kKnj73u67r6e5bFcAnM2PSB4E=
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
EOP
So let’s create /tmp/chef/knife.rb.
#=> cat > /tmp/chef/knife.rb <<'EOP'
log_level :info
log_location STDOUT
node_name 'one_valid_client'
client_key '/tmp/chef/client.pem'
chef_server_url 'https://chef.example.com/organizations/test_org'
chef_repo_path Dir.pwd
ssl_verify_mode :verify_none
EOP
Now, it works
#=> berks vendor
Resolving cookbook dependencies...
Fetching 'mycookbook' from https://gitlab.example.com/cookbooks/mycookbook.git (at master)
Fetching cookbook index from chef_server: https://chef.example.com/organizations/test_org...
Using build-essential (8.0.4)
.......
Using mycookbook (0.0.0) from https://gitlab.example.com/cookbooks/mycookbook.git (at master)
.......
Vendoring windows (3.4.1) to /tmp/chef/berks-cookbooks/windows
Vendoring yum (5.0.1) to /tmp/chef/berks-cookbooks/yum
So, come to the exciting part, let’s converge with chef-client -z
#=> chef-client -z -o 'mycookbook'
[2019-03-05T01:49:23+00:00] INFO: Started chef-zero at chefzero://localhost:1 with repository at /tmp/chef
One version per cookbook
[2019-03-05T01:49:23+00:00] INFO: Forking chef instance to converge...
Starting Chef Client, version 13.6.4
......
[2019-03-05T01:49:26+00:00] WARN: Overridden Run List: [recipe[mycookbook]]
[2019-03-05T01:49:26+00:00] INFO: Run List is [recipe[mycookbook]]
[2019-03-05T01:49:26+00:00] INFO: Run List expands to [mycookbook]
[2019-03-05T01:49:26+00:00] INFO: Starting Chef Run for one_valid_client
....
resolving cookbooks for run list: ["mycookbook"]
================================================================================
Error Resolving Cookbooks for Run List:
================================================================================
Missing Cookbooks:
------------------
No such cookbook: mycookbook
Expanded Run List:
------------------
* mycookbook
Hmmmm, look like it’s not aware of where the cookbooks are located
c. Create client.rb
So, it comes the time to create configuration file for chef-client, which is client.rb as mentioned above.
Specify the cookbook_path to search for cookbooks, which is /tmp/chef/berks-cookbooks in this case
#=> cat > /tmp/chef/client.rb <<'EOP'
cookbook_path File.join(Dir.pwd, 'berks-cookbooks')
EOP
Now, it works, can find and resolve dependency of cookbooks !
#=> chef-client -z -o 'mycookbook' -c /tmp/chef/client.rb
Starting Chef Client, version 13.6.4
[2019-03-05T01:56:07+00:00] WARN: Run List override has been provided.
[2019-03-05T01:56:07+00:00] WARN: Run List override has been provided.
[2019-03-05T01:56:07+00:00] WARN: Original Run List: []
[2019-03-05T01:56:07+00:00] WARN: Original Run List: []
[2019-03-05T01:56:07+00:00] WARN: Overridden Run List: [recipe[mycookbook]]
[2019-03-05T01:56:07+00:00] WARN: Overridden Run List: [recipe[mycookbook]]
resolving cookbooks for run list: ["mycookbook"]
Synchronizing Cookbooks:
......
- mycookbook (0.0.0)
......
- windows (3.4.1)
- yum (5.0.1)
Installing Cookbook Gems:
Compiling Cookbooks...
Note: if we use berks vendor cookbooks, it will download to cookbooks directory which is default for chef-client to look for local cookbooks, which mean the last step won’t be neccessary if we use berks vendor cookbooks