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Introduction
Chef is a configuration management tool written with the help of Ruby. With Chef, we can build servers quickly and reliably using cookbooks (basically recipes that can perform tasks like installing web servers, updating SSLs, or configuring HA proxy servers). We can manage cookbooks through a tool called Berkshelf. So let us now talk about the working of Berkshelf in detail.
Until now, you may have managed your servers by using an increasing number of scripts, sometimes dispersed over many folders or even different machines. We require a consistent, dependable, and secure method to handle it all as the demand for speedy product delivery and the sheer volume of servers we'll need to do that continue to expand. More importantly, the answer we select should be straightforward and understandable.
Most of the time, the Chef will satisfy those requirements. No matter the size of the infrastructure, this platform for infrastructure automation makes it easier to deploy applications and servers to any virtual, physical, or cloud location.
Since your infrastructure will be handled with code, it can be automated, reproduced, and tested easily. The Chef is built from many moving parts, including a knife, cookbooks, Chef client, Chef server, and nodes. Here, we will learn about cookbooks and how they can be efficiently managed using Berkshelf.
Berkshelf
You don't need to write your cookbooks from scratch. To use a cookbook, you will need to download it and save it on your Chef workstation. To download each external cookbook from inside the Global cookbook, you would have to run:
knife cookbook site download apache2
Before Berkshelf
Despite how great Chef is, managing your Chef cookbooks and dependencies may benefit from using Berkshelf. Your cookbooks can be treated like gems in a Ruby project with Berkshelf. Berkshelf doesn't need a "knife cookbook site" to install community cookbooks when external cookbooks are utilized. The dependent cookbooks' version numbers need only be mentioned. The Opscode cookbook community's dependent cookbooks are all automatically downloaded and installed for us by berkshelf while the Chef client runs on nodes.
A little setup is needed for Berkshelf. The easiest method to install Berkshelf is:
install berkshelf with gem
The Chef Development Kit (ChefDK), which installs the best development tools created by the fantastic Chef community into your workstation, now includes Berkshelf. The Chef development kit is installed up on a workstation using the omnibus installer. This is how:
Visit the official download page of Chef and select the omnibus installer for the desired platform.
The Chef development kit supports Mac OS X, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, and Microsoft Windows.
When the installation finishes, open a command line terminal and enter the following:
chef verify
Ensure that the Chef-DK is included to the front of your path.
Once the dependencies are cited in a berksfile, you can install them.
berks install
Berkshelf stores every version of a cookbook that you have ever installed in ~/.berkshelf.
Once your cookbook is prepared, you can upload it with all the dependent cookbooks using the given command.
berks upload phpapp
Syntax
A Berksfile is the Ruby file, in which dependencies, sources, and options may be specified. Berksfiles are modeled on Bundler's Gemfile. The syntax is as follows:
It shows an array of cookbook groups to be listed. When this option is utilized, cookbooks that exist in groups not listed will not be listed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Chef?
Chef is a configuration management tool that provides a way to manage infrastructure by writing code rather than manual processes.
What is a Chef Cookbook?
Fundamental working units of Chef are cookbooks, which are made up of all the information about working units and can change the configuration and the status of any system that has been set up as a node on the Chef infrastructure.
What are the different components of Chef?
Based on architecture, the Chef can be divided into three components, Workstation, Chef Server and Nodes.
Conclusion
In this article, we have discussed Chef Berkshelf. We also looked at its basic definition, how to install it, its basic syntax, and some command line interfaces berkshelf commands.
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