Overview
Chef Infra is a powerful automation platform that transforms infrastructure into code. Whether you’re operating in the cloud, on-premises, or in a hybrid environment, Chef automates how infrastructure is configured, deployed, and managed across your network, no matter its size.
Chef is a popular tool for configuration management of IT infrastructure. Its flagship enterprise solution, Chef, is a strong choice for experienced DevOps teams who want to automate their development and deployment infrastructure.
Infrastructure Components
1. Chef Workstation:
One (or more) workstations are configured to allow users to author, test, and maintain cookbooks. Workstation systems run the Chef Workstation package which includes tools like Chef Infra Client, Chef InSpec, Test Kitchen, ChefSpec, Cook style, and other tools necessary for developing and testing your infrastructure with Chef products.
2. Cookbook:
Chef Infra Server gets cookbooks uploaded from chef workstations. Some cookbooks are custom to the organization and others are based on community cookbooks available from the Chef Supermarket.
3. Ruby:
Ruby programming language is the syntax for cookbooks. Most recipes are simple patterns or blocks that define properties and values that map to specific configuration items like packages, files, services, templates, and users.
4. Node:
A node is any device—physical, virtual, cloud, network device, etc.—that is under management by Chef Infra.
5. Chef Client:
Chef Infra Server manages nodes that have Chef client installed on them. It configures the node locally by performing the tasks specified in the run-list.
6. Chef Server:
The Chef Infra Server acts as a hub of information. Users upload cookbooks and policy settings to chef-server from workstations.
7. Chef Supermarket:
Chef Supermarket community shares and manages cookbooks. A user may use cookbooks that are a part of Chef Supermarket. Community cookbooks usage varies from organization to organization.
No matter how your infrastructure is deployed – whether in the cloud, on-premises or a hybrid combination of the two – Chef’s infrastructure automation capabilities allow you to respond and adapt to a changing business landscape.
Chef has become well-known for its concept of “infrastructure as code,” in which machine-readable files (called Chef recipes) are used to describe how computing hardware and network infrastructure should be installed and configured.
Most important benefits of Chef are:
- Accelerating Software Delivery
- Increasing Service Resiliency
- Improving Risk Management
- Managing both Data center and Cloud Environment
- Continous Delivery- Any App, Everywhere, Continously
Final Thoughts
Alongside its continuous deployment pipeline, Chef can also perform automated testing to detect compliance issues and security vulnerabilities and provide dashboards and reports that give you greater insights into your situation.
By using Chef, you’ll become better organized and better informed – a recipe for IT success.
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