Table of contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Architecture
3.
Chef Workstation
4.
Chef Server
5.
Chef Nodes
6.
Frequently Asked Questions
6.1.
What is Chef client and server?
6.2.
What is the Chef automation tool?
6.3.
How much does Chef automation cost?
6.4.
What is the difference between chef and Ansible?
6.5.
What is chef agile?
7.
Conclusion
Last Updated: Aug 13, 2025

Chef Architecture

Author soham Medewar
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Introduction

Opscode created the open-source technology known as Chef. Adam Jacob is the founder of the Chef. He is also the co-founder of Opscode. This technology creates fundamental building pieces like recipes and cookbooks using Ruby encoding. 

chef - architecture

Chef is used to automate infrastructure management, which helps to cut down on manual labor and repetitive chores. In this article, we will be discussing the architecture of Chef.

Architecture

architecture

The architecture of Chef consists of three tiers. This three-tier architecture is a client-server model. Working units such as cookbooks are developed on the workstation of the Chef. All the nodes in the architecture are registered with the Chef server. Command line utilities such as knife are used to register nodes in the Chef server.

The three-tier architecture of Chef consists of:

📗Chef Workstation
📗Chef Server
📗Chef Node

Chef Workstation

All the configurations are developed in the workstation of the Chef. The workstation is installed on the local machine. Chef workstation gives everything you need to get started with. Chef Workstation includes the following things:

📘Chef Infra Client
📘Chef InSpec
📘Chef Habitat
📘Chef and Knife command line tools
📘Testing Tools: Cookstyle and Test Kitchen

Chef Server

Chef server is the centralized working unit of Chef setup. Here, all the post-development configuration files are uploaded. There are two types of Chef servers. One is hosted Chef server, and the other is a built-in premise.

Chef Nodes

Nodes are basically machines. These machines are managed by the Chef server. All the machines have different setups as per their requirement. The key component of all the nodes is Chef client. The Chef client helps in establishing connections between Chef server and Chef nodes. Ohai is a node component that helps get the node's current state at a given point in time.

Click to know about Instruction Format in Computer Architecture here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Chef client and server?

The hub of the workstation and the nodes is the Chef Server. Here, all of the metadata, cookbooks, and recipes are kept.

What is the Chef automation tool?

Chef is an automation tool. It provides a way to define infrastructure as code. It means managing infrastructure by writing code. It is also called a programmable infrastructure.

How much does Chef automation cost?

Chef automate costs $137 per annum per node. It includes everything that is necessary for building and deploying software.

What is the difference between chef and Ansible?

Chef is a for-profit automation tool, whereas Ansible is an open-source IT automation solution. Ansible is used for application deployment automation and configuration management. Used for short procedures like updating the RHEL or Linux operating systems.

What is chef agile?

A Chef is an automation tool used in DevOps. It is a Configuration Management (CM) application that enables you to easily automate procedures across several servers and other devices of a business.

Conclusion

In this article, we had an overview of Chef, an automation tool. We have discussed the features, advantages, disadvantages, and building blocks of Chef.

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