Chef Configurations for Personal Machines

This repository contains personal configurations for my machines, set up using the Chef configuration management system.

Please see the README for one of the configurations for more instructions on how to install:

Development

Shell

All of the shell commands in this guide assume you are running GNU Bash 4.x or Zsh 5.x. Check the version of your current shell with one of the following commands:

echo $BASH_VERSION
echo $ZSH_VERSION

If you are using a different shell, you are on your own.

Homebrew

Homebrew is used to install some dependencies for the project, so install that now by following the instructions if you do not already have it. After installation, be sure to run the following commands to make sure Homebrew is set up correctly:

brew update
brew doctor

Chef Workstation

Note: According to Chef, Chef Workstation replaces ChefDK. ChefDK is still available, but we are using Chef Workstation. Begin by installing it from Chef's Homebrew tap:

brew cask install chef/chef/chef-workstation

Ruby

Next, install rbenv if it is not already installed. Then, install rbenv-chef-workstation. Note that at this time of writing, the Homebrew install does not work.

Then, make sure the right Ruby is being used by running the following commands:

$ rbenv version
chef-workstation (set by /path/to/chef-repo/.ruby-version)
$ rbenv which ruby
/opt/chef-workstation/embedded/bin/ruby

Setting up an administrator workstation

An administrator workstation is used to edit the Chef cookbooks in this repository and to run Knife, the Chef server utility.

Clone this repository:

 git clone git@github.com:seanfisk/personal-chef-repo.git chef-repo

Go into the repo directory. All following commands should be run from here.
```
 cd chef-repo
```
Set up the Knife configuration. Copy the user key from an existing administrator workstation or generate a new one and download it to this machine. This allows us to authenticate to the Chef server using our user client:
```
 cp /path/to/seanfisk.pem .chef
```
Make sure Knife is working by typing the following:
```
 knife client list
```
You should see an entry named sean_fisk-validator. If so, Knife is working properly!

Testing

Run the following to test:

bin/thor test:all

Generating new keys

If you ever lose the keys, they can be re-generated here:

Be careful, because after re-generating, all nodes must be updated to use the new keys.

Why not Chef Solo?

Using Chef Solo essentially requires having a development environment present on the node that needs to be provisioned. While this is something that I typically do eventually, it's nice to be able to provision immediately (like starting a new job) or provision without setting up an environment on a one-off node.

Ruby version

There are two Rubies that are used for this project: the embedded Ruby used by Chef Client and the Ruby used for development. The development Ruby runs the tasks in the Thorfile, while the embedded Ruby executes the cookbooks. There's no requirement for these to be identical, but it's advantageous to keep them as close as possible because of Rubocop. Rubocop parses the cookbooks as the Ruby under which it is currently running would. Since the cookbooks are ultimately run by Chef Client's embedded Ruby, the Ruby versions should be the same.

You can find the version of the embedded Ruby that Chef Client uses on macOS with the following:

/opt/chef/embedded/bin/ruby --version

References

Josh Timberman
Seth Vargo
- Provision Your Laptop With Chef: Part 1
- Provision Your Laptop With Chef: Part 2
Mike English
- Simplifying Chef Solo Cookbook Management with Berkshelf [historical, since I don't use Berkshelf anymore]

seanfisk / personal-chef-repo