Install and configure chef server on centos 7

1. Go to this link: https://downloads.chef.io/chef-server
2. In the on-premise section select your OS and download your package.
3. Here I will be using centos 7. When the rpm is downloaded you can install it via the command:
   sudo rpm -Uvh
4. Execute the following command: chef-server-ctl reconfigure
   Because the Chef server is composed of many different services that work together to create a functioning system, this step may take a few minutes to complete.
5. Run the following command to create an administrator:

   $ chef-server-ctl user-create USER_NAME FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME EMAIL 'PASSWORD' --filename FILE_NAME
   

   An RSA private key is generated automatically. This is the user’s private key and should be saved to a safe location. The --filename option will save the RSA private key to the specified absolute path.
   For example:

   $ chef-server-ctl user-create stevedanno Steve Danno steved@chef.io 'abc123' --filename /path/to/stevedanno.pem

   If you get the following error:

   Specified config file /etc/opscode/pivotal.rb does not exist

   Then check if you have RAM available. Free some memory and rerun the

   chef-server-ctl reconfigure
6. If you get following error: /users resource does not exist

   Then check the chef logs with following command:

   chef-server-ctl tail

   You might see an error similar to the following:
   ==> /var/log/opscode/nginx/error.log <==
   2017/09/08 11:38:28 [emerg] 29689#0: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
   2017/09/08 11:38:28 [emerg] 29689#0: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use).

   Then execute the following command:
   netstat -ntlp | grep 80
   Check which service is using the port 80 and 443. Majorly it is the httpd service. Stop the httpd service. Then the chef nginx service will start automatically without any issues.

   Then execute the create-user command it will get executed without any error.
7. Run the following command to create an organization:

   $ chef-server-ctl org-create short_name 'full_organization_name' --association_user user_name --filename ORGANIZATION-validator.pem
   

   The name must begin with a lower-case letter or digit, may only contain lower-case letters, digits, hyphens, and underscores, and must be between 1 and 255 characters. For example: 4thcoffee.
   The full name must begin with a non-white space character and must be between 1 and 1023 characters. For example: 'Fourth Coffee, Inc.'.
   The --association_user option will associate the user_name with the admins security group on the Chef server.
   An RSA private key is generated automatically. This is the chef-validator key and should be saved to a safe location. The --filename option will save the RSA private key to the specified absolute path.
   For example:

   $ chef-server-ctl org-create 4thcoffee 'Fourth Coffee, Inc.' --association_user stevedanno --filename /path/to/4thcoffee-validator.pem
   

8. Enable additional features of the Chef server! The packages may be downloaded directly as part of the installation process or they may be first downloaded to a local directory, and then installed.Use DownloadsThe install subcommand downloads packages from https://packages.chef.io/ by default. For systems that are not behind a firewall (and have connectivity to https://packages.chef.io/), these packages can be installed as described below.
   

   Feature

   Command

   Chef Manage

   Use Chef management console to manage data bags, attributes, run-lists, roles, environments, and cookbooks from a web user interface. On the Chef server, run: $ chef-server-ctl install chef-manage then: $ chef-server-ctl reconfigure and then: $ chef-manage-ctl reconfigure Note Starting with the Chef management console 2.3.0, the Chef MLSA must be accepted when reconfiguring the product. If the Chef MLSA has not already been accepted, the reconfigure process will prompt for a yes to accept it. Or run chef-manage-ctl reconfigure --accept-license to automatically accept the license.

9. Open the chef-manage UI in the browser with https:///login
   Login with the credentials of the user you just created in the above step.
   On the nodes panel if you see the following error:  Error An error occurred, please try again
   Then look at the chef logs with the command chef-server-ctl tail
   The error will be majorly with the nginx. The error that I was facing was as follows:
   FAILED SocketConnector@127.0.0.1:8983: java.net.BindException: Address already in use (Bind failed). The issue was that solr service was already running on my server before installing chef. I had to stop the solr service, the issue was resolved. I was able to see the nodes panel without any error.

10. Chef Push Jobs

    Use Chef push jobs to run jobs—an action or a command to be executed—against nodes independently of a chef-client run. On the Chef server, run: $ chef-server-ctl install opscode-push-jobs-server then: $ chef-server-ctl reconfigure and then: $ opscode-push-jobs-server-ctl reconfigure

11. Reporting

    Use Reporting to keep track of what happens during every chef-client runs across all of the infrastructure being managed by Chef. Run Reporting with Chef management console to view reports from a web user interface. On the Chef server, run: $ chef-server-ctl install opscode-reporting then: $ chef-server-ctl reconfigure and then: $ opscode-reporting-ctl reconfigure

12. If you want to login into postgres database of chef and see the data present in there execute the following command:
    chef-server-ctl psqlYou will get an output similar to:
    [ERROR] You must supply a service name. Valid names include: bifrost, bookshelf, oc-id, oc_erchef, oc_id, opscode-erchef, opscode_chef, push-jobs, reporting
    This is the list of databases you can login and see the data from.
    The main database where the chef data is present is opscode-erchef (previously opscode_chef). You can login to the database with the following command:
    chef-server-ctl psql opscode-erchef
    To see the tables in the database execute the following psql command:
    \dt
    This will give you a list as below:
    Schema | Name | Type | Owner
    ——–+——————————————–+——-+—————
    public | checksums | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | clients | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | containers | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | cookbook_artifact_version_checksums | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | cookbook_artifact_versions | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | cookbook_artifacts | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | cookbook_version_checksums | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | cookbook_versions | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | cookbooks | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | data_bag_items | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | data_bags | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | environments | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | groups | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | keys | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | node_policy | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | nodes | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | opc_customers | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | opc_users | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | org_migration_state | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | org_user_associations | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | org_user_invites | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | orgs | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | policies | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | policy_groups | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | policy_revisions | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | policy_revisions_policy_groups_association | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | roles | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | sandboxed_checksums | table | opscode-pgsql
    public | users | table | opscode-pgsqlYou can see the data in every table with the follwoing command:
    select * from <table-name>;
13. If you want to see all the settings and configurations chef is using you can see the file:
    vi /etc/opscode/chef-server-running.json
14. Find chef version:
    head -n1 /opt/opscode/version-manifest.txt
15. Go to the chef dashboard -> Administration-> Organizations-> Starter Kit – > download starter kit.
    unzip chef-starter.zip
    Then unzip the starter kit in workstation. You can also use your chef server for this purpose. A chef-repo directory will be created.
    cd chef-repo/.chef
    cat knife.rb
    Check the configurations in knife.rb file.
16. Install chefdk
    rpm -ivh https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chefdk/2.2.1/el/7/chefdk-2.2.1-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
17. Execute the following command
    knife ssl fetch 
    If you get an permission denied error then execute the command with sudo privileges.
    After execuing the above command you will get an output similar to the above:
    WARNING: Certificates from vrushabh.novalocal will be fetched and placed in your trusted_cert
    directory (/root/chef-repo/.chef/trusted_certs)……
18. Knife is used to create cookbooks and to upload the cookbooks to chef server, upload roles, runlist etc.
    Knife allows us to communicate with our chef server.
19. Lets bootstrap our node to chef server. For this you will need another machine which is accessible from the machine you have unzipped the chef-repo directory. Create a user in the node machine with sudo privileges, which can be ‘ssh’ed from our workstation and chef server.
    Execute the command:
    knife bootstrap 192.168.1.240 -N chef-node –ssh-user user1 –sudo
    Where ‘chef-node’ is the node name i am giving to the node. This can be any name. If -N option is not provided the default nodename will be the hostname of the node.
    ‘user1’ is the user I created on node.
    You might get an error: Your private key could not be loaded.
    cd chef-repo then execute the bootstrap command.
    You will see an output similar to the following:
    ……
    192.168.1.240 Converging 0 resources
    192.168.1.240
    192.168.1.240 Running handlers:
    192.168.1.240 Running handlers complete
    192.168.1.240 Chef Client finished, 0/0 resources updated in 16 seconds
20. Then goto the chef dashboard and on the nodes panel page you can see the newly added node. In the attributes panel you can see the attributes belonging to the node like CPU,RAM etc.
21. Create a project in github(ex: chef-fluency-badge). Then cd chef-repo and execute the following command:
    git init
    git add ./
    git config –global user.email “”
    git config –global user.name “”
    git commit -am “Adding chef-repo”
    git remote add origin https://github.com//chef-fluency-badge.git
    git push -u origin master
22. Create a cookbook with the followig command:
    knife cookbook create learn for chef < 12
    chef generate cookbook for chef => 12
    Add this learn cookbook to git repo with the following commands:
    git add ./
    git commit -m “adding learn cookbook”
    git push -u origin master
23. Lets create apache cookbook:
    cd chef-repo
    chef generate cookbook cookbooks/apache
    cd cookbooks/apache
    Edit the metadata.rb file and enter your details. Save and close.
    cd recipes
    Edit default.rb and add the following lines:
    ##

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

    package 'apache2' do         package_name 'httpd'         action :install end   service 'apache2' do         service_name 'httpd'         action [:start, :enable] end

24. Check the ruby syntax by running the command:
    ruby -c default.rb
    foodcritic default.rb 
    foodcritic should not give any error message.
    Now we want to change the default apache webpage.
    In the same recipes directory create websites.rb with following content:
    ##

    1 2 3 4 5

    file "default www" do         path '/var/www/html/index.html'         content 'Hello world' end <span                data-mce-type="bookmark"                id="mce_SELREST_start"              data-mce-style="overflow:hidden;line-height:0"              style="overflow:hidden;line-height:0"           ></span>

    Check it with foodcritic. You can also comeback to cookbooks directory and execute:
    foodcritic apache
25. Upload the cookbook to the chef server with the following command:
    knife cookbook upload apacheYou can also add this code to git repo.
26. Then goto the chef-manage UI, in the policies section you will see the apache cookbook. Policy is basically configuration management for a node.
27. In your workstation machine execute the knife node list command to get a list of nodes.
28. Then we need to add our cookbook to run_list. Execute the following command for it:
    knife node run_list add chef-node ‘recipe[apache]’
    Then execute the following command to retreive the list of run_list:
    knife node show chef-nodeThe above command gives a summary of the node like recipes, OS version etc. To get a detailed list execute the following command:
    knife node show -l chef-node
29. Now we will dry-run our cookbook on chef-client:
    chef-client –why-run
    OR
    chef-client -W
30. After the why-run is successful then execute the cookbook with the following command:
    chef-client
    You can check the httpd service status, it should be running. Then go to the browser and hit the <IP> of the client. It will not show our “Hello World” page but the default apache “Testing 123” page.
    This was because our websites recipe did not execute. Edit the default.rb and add the following line:
    include_recipe ‘apache::websites’
31. Then upload the apache cookbook to chef-server:
    knife cookbook upload apache
32. Then run chef-client your websites recipe will get executed.
33. Suppose if we want to run the websites recipe manually everytime.
    Edit the websites.rb file and remove the include_recipe line we just added above. Then again upload the cookbook to the chef-server.
34. Then we need to add the websites recipe to the run_list otherwise after running chef-client the websites recipe will not get executed.
    You can add the recipe with the following command:
    knife node run_list add chef-node ‘recipe[apache::websites]’ -a recipe[apache]or you can also execute knife node run_list add ‘apache’
35. Now you can run chef-client it will execute the websites recipe.
36. The client configuration can be found at /etc/chef/client.rb on the client machine.
37. Thus we have installed and configured chef.