chef Installation Guide Installation Guide

chef is a free and open-source infrastructure automation. Chef provides infrastructure automation platform

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 4+ cores

RAM: 8GB minimum

Storage: 50GB for data

Network: HTTP/HTTPS

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 443 (default chef port)

Various service ports

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install chef
sudo dnf install -y chef

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now chef

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
chef --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install chef
sudo apt install -y chef

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now chef

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 443

# Verify installation
chef --version

bash

# Install chef
sudo pacman -S chef

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now chef

# Verify installation
chef --version

bash

# Install chef
apk add --no-cache chef

# Enable and start service
rc-update add chef default
rc-service chef start

# Verify installation
chef --version

bash

# Install chef
sudo zypper install -y chef

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now chef

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
chef --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install chef

# Start service
brew services start chef

# Verify installation
chef --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install chef

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'chef_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service chef start

# Verify installation
chef --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install chef

# Or using Scoop
scoop install chef

# Verify installation
chef --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/chef

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
chef --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable chef

# Start service
sudo systemctl start chef

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop chef

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart chef

# Check status
sudo systemctl status chef

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u chef -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add chef default

# Start service
rc-service chef start

# Stop service
rc-service chef stop

# Restart service
rc-service chef restart

# Check status
rc-service chef status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'chef_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service chef start

# Stop service
service chef stop

# Restart service
service chef restart

# Check status
service chef status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start chef
brew services stop chef
brew services restart chef

# Check status
brew services list | grep chef

powershell

# Start service
net start chef

# Stop service
net stop chef

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service chef
Stop-Service chef
Restart-Service chef

# Check status
Get-Service chef

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream chef_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:443;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name chef.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name chef.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/chef.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/chef.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://chef_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName chef.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://chef.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName chef.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/chef.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/chef.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:443/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:443/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend chef_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/chef.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend chef_backend

backend chef_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server chef1 127.0.0.1:443 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R chef:chef /etc/chef
sudo chmod 750 /etc/chef

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status chef

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u chef -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep chef)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/chef"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/chef-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/chef /var/lib/chef

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/chef-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop chef

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/chef/chef-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start chef

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u chef -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/chef/chef.log

# Check configuration
chef --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/chef

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 443

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 443

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep chef)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep chef)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 443

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  chef:
    image: chef:latest
    ports:
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/chef
      - ./data:/var/lib/chef
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update chef

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade chef

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu chef

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade chef

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update chef

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade chef

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/chef-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/chef

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart chef

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/chef

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/chef -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/chef

Official Documentation: https://docs.chef.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/chef/chef

Community Forum: https://forum.chef.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.chef.org/best-practices

---

Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

Related Configuration management Guides

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puppet Installation Guide

saltstack Installation Guide