cvl-chef

This chef-repo contains Chef cookbooks for some NeCTAR Characterization Virtual Laboratory (CVL) projects. The repo is designed for use with Berkshelf, as describe below. The cookbooks include:

• setup - Basic NeCTAR installation tasks.
• mediaflux - Installation and configuration of generic Mediaflux server
• daris - Installation and configuration of a DaRIS instance
• pvconv - Download, build and install the pvconv Bruker converter.
• minc-toolkit - Download, build and install the MINC toolkit.

Introduction to Chef and Berkshelf

Opscode Chef is system for automating the configuration of (typically) Linux / UNIX based machines and virtuals. See http://www.opscode.com/chef/ for details. There is also a growing body of relevant information in the Virtual Wranglers espace at https://espaces.com.au/vwrangler.

The basic idea is that configuration tasks are performed using Recipes. These are (mostly) declarative scripts written in the Chef's Ruby-based "domain specific language". Recipes are run on "nodes" (i.e. computers) which are configured using Node and Role specifications. These typically say what Recipes to run, and provide various attributes that parameterize the Recipe behaviour. Recipes and their associated files are bundled up as Cookbooks, and the whole lot are (typically) checked into version control.

Chef can either be used in two ways:

• You can use a central server to hold all of the configuration specifications, and manage the configuration state and authorization details. This mode of operation is best if you have a number of machines to manage, but it requires you to either set up and maintain a Chef server, or use the "Enterprise Chef" service managed by Opscode. (The latter is free for up to 5 nodes. After that you pay by the month.)

• You can use Chef solo mode where you essentially manage each system individually, and take care of the distribution of configuration specs and state yourself. (Chef solo does not support shared Data Bags or dynamic Node attribute storage ... or any form of authorization.)

Berkshelf is a tool for managing the collection of Cookbooks that you use. It deals with downloading the cookbooks from various sources, dependencies between cookbooks, and version locking.

Getting Started

There is lots of material on the Opscode site about how to use Chef in its various forms. But here's a quick "cheat sheet" to get yourself started with Chef Solo and the recipes in this repo:

1. Install git and the dependencies for Berkshelf.

     sudo yum install git gcc gcc-c++ ruby-devel
   

   or

     sudo apt-get install git build-essential ruby-dev
   

2. Install the latest version of Chef:

     sudo bash -c "true && curl -L https://www.opscode.com/chef/install.sh | bash"
   

3. Install Berkshelf and add 'berks' to your path

     sudo /opt/chef/embedded/bin/gem install berkshelf
     sudo ln -s /opt/chef/embedded/bin/berks /usr/local/bin
   

4. Create a directory for doing chef solo work:

     sudo mkdir /var/chef-solo
     sudo chown <your-id> /var/chef-solo
   

5. Clone this repo:

     cd /var/chef-solo
     git clone <the url>
     cd cvl-chef
   

6. Install the dependent cookbooks:

     berks install
   

7. Make a node definition:

     cp solo/sample-node.json mynode.json
     # edit mynode.json to add override attributes, 
     #    change the runlist and so on
   

8. Run the using chef-solo

     sudo chef-solo -c solo/solo.rb -j mynode.json -ldebug
   

If you intend to "get serious" with Chef, will need to do a lot more reading. In addition, you will need to look into things like:

• version control and backup of your "chef-solo" tree; e.g. the 'mynode.json', and
• using Chef Server, either in the Open Source (unsupported) or Enterprise flavours.