Quick Info
Description
The Chef plugin provides process steps that enable you to integrate existing automation for Chef into your HCL Launch processes. The plugin comes with an embedded version of Chef Solo version 11.16.4-1, which can be installed and used to run a node. You can specify and use a different Chef version. If you use a different Chef version, the plugin step must run on a system where Chef is accessible locally.Quick Info
3.1056568 
Summary
Usage
Steps
ExamplesSummary
Chef is a tool for automating deployment tasks. The Chef plugin includes two steps:
- A step that installs Chef
- A step that uses Chef to install a Chef node on a system
In the context of Chef automation, a node represents a computer system. A Chef node file includes a list of Chef recipes and roles. These recipes and roles point to automated tasks to run on the node.
To use this plugin, first run the Install Chef step. Then, run the Install Chef Node step to configure the target system according to a Chef node file. You can run this step multiple times on the same target system to apply multiple Chef node files.
Compatibility
HCL Launch 6.0.1 and later is required to run this plugin.
This plugin runs on all operating systems that are supported by both HCL Launch agent and Chef with the exception of z/OS.
This runs on Chef v11.6.0-1 or higher.
History
The following table describes the changes made in each plugin version.
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 3.1 | Support property file encryption |
Usage
You can use Chef in component processes to configure an environment, such as installing prerequisites or installing applications.
The Install Chef step searches for the Chef code in the same folder as the working directory for the step. Therefore, in most cases, you download the Chef code to the process working directory and then run the Install Chef Node step in the same working directory. For example, if you specify the install_java value for the Node name parameter, the step looks for a role file named nodes/install_java_node.json which is relative to the working directory for the step.
Step palette
To access this plugin in the palette, click Automation > Chef.
Steps
The following process steps are available in the File Utils plugin.
Install Chef
Use this step to installs Chef Solo. Version 11.6.0-1 is installed.This step has no input properties.
Install Chef Node
Use this step to run a Chef node.
| Name | Type | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chef Installation Directory | String | The path to the Chef installation or if no value is provided the chef-solo executable file on the System Path is use. the chef-solo. For Windows, the usual location is C:\opscode\chef and for linux, the usual location is /opt/chef. You can provide a path to any location where you have installed Chef. On Windows you can provide a path in Unix format and we will append the System drive letter to the path automatically, this is useful in cases where you might not know what the drive letter should be. For example: /opscode/chef is translated into C:\opscode\chef. If the Install Chef step is used to install Chef in an earlier step in the process, you can reference the output property chefInstallDir from that step in this field. For example: ${p:%Install Chef%/chefInstallDir} where %Install Chef% is the name you set for the Install Chef step. | No |
| Node Name | String | The name of the node to run. | Yes |
Examples
Simple process example
The process shown in the following graphic downloads the application code and the Chef code. Then, it installs Chef. Finally, it installs two Chef nodes:
- Install prerequisites
- Install the application
A simple process that downloads code, installs Chef, and installs two Chef nodes
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