How to install Chef Server 0.10 on Ubuntu 12.4

This is an example of quick installation Chef Server 0.10 on Ubuntu 12.4

Chef Server is an opensource configuration management tool written by OpsCode.

1. Select Ubuntu Machines

We need two ubuntu machines. The first machine will be used for Chef Server host (Server), the second one is for Chef Client host (Client).

2. Both Client and Server preparation

All steps are doing under root permissions, so we need to switch user to root.

sudo -i

At first we need to add OpsCode sources to the apt-get utility.

echo "deb http://apt.opscode.com/ precise-0.10 main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opscode.list

In second step we need to add OpsCode keys

mkdir -p /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d
gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 83EF826A
gpg --export [email protected] | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/opscode-keyring.gpg > /dev/null

We need to update packages list.

apt-get update

Additionally install keyring utility to keep OpsCode key up to date.

apt-get install opscode-keyring

Run upgrade to ensure that your system is up to date

apt-get upgrade

Install Ruby if needed

apt-get install ruby1.8 rubygems

2. Only Server preparation

On the server machine we need to install Chef Server packages.

apt-get install chef chef-server

Enter URL like this: http://chef.example-server.com:4000
Enter RabbitMQ password and WebUI admin password.

Create directory for user “ubuntu” (Cloud Version of the Ubuntu) and copy certificates

mkdir -p /home/ubuntu/.chef
cp /etc/chef/validation.pem /etc/chef/webui.pem /home/ubuntu/.chef
chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu /home/ubuntu/.chef

Switch user

su - ubuntu

Configure knife

knife configure -i

Fill the fields:
Please enter the chef server URL: http://chef.example-server.com:4000
Please enter the location of the existing admin client’s private key: [/etc/chef/webui.pem] .chef/webui.pem
Please enter the location of the validation key: [/etc/chef/validation.pem] .chef/validation.pem

You will get the message “Configuration file written to /home/ubuntu/.chef/knife.rb”

3. Only Client preparation

Install chef-client on Ubuntu machine:

apt-get install chef

Copy validation.pem to /etc/chef/validation.pem

Run the client:

chef-client