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Creating a Chef bootstrap task

Use the Edge Services portal to automate the provisioning and configuring of servers using Chef bootstrap scripts executed on a CentOS instance type. The portal uses Chef bootstrap tasks to communicate with a Chef server. Before you can create and use Chef bootstrap tasks, you must integrate a Chef account into the Edge Services portal. The Edge Services portal communicates with Chef using the Ruby language. You must be familiar with this language to understand and build Chef bootstrap tasks.

You can execute your automated task as a single task or combine it as part of an operational or provisioning workflow.

The following terms are unique to Chef language:

Recipe—Used to install and configure software and deploy applications.
Cookbook—Used to define a scenario. For example, everything needed to install and configure Ubuntu.
Node—A physical, virtual, or cloud machine configured and maintained by a Chef client.
Run list—A list of roles, recipes, or cookbooks that are run in a specified order.
Data bag—Used to store global variables for the Chef configuration. Variables are stored in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format.
Data bag path—Used to access the data bag variables.
Data bag key—Used to control access to data bag variables.

Note: Library tab functionality is only available for AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Azure cloud providers.

To create a Chef bootstrap task:

Click Library, click Automation, then click Tasks.

The Edge Services portal shows the tasks created for your organization.

Edge Services Manager Library automation tasks view

Click +Add.

The Edge Services portal shows the New Task window.

In the New Task window, complete the following fields:

Field	Description
NAME	Type a unique name for the Chef Boostrap task.
CODE	Type a unique code to reference this task.
TYPE	Select Chef bootstrap.
CHEF SERVER	Select an existing Chef integration server connection.
ENVIRONMENT	Type the environment where the Chef server is running. For example, development, test, or production.
RUN LIST	Type comma-separated roles, recipes, and cookbooks in Chef language and format to manually run the Chef server configuration. (e.g., "recipe[apache]", "role[webserver]")
DATA BAG KEY	Type the data bag key to access the data bag.
DATA BAG PATH	Type the data bag key path to access the data bag location.
NODE NAME	Type the unique name created during integration in the NAME field of the Chef integration.
NODE ATTRIBUTE	Type node details such as name and IP address between the brackets { } using Chef format to target specific details of the node during configuration. (e.g., { node['attribute_name'] = 'value' })

In the Target Options section, select Resource for EXECUTE TARGET.

In the Execute Options section, complete the following fields:

Field	Description
RETRYABLE	Select this option to retry the task if it initially fails.
RETRY COUNT	Type the maximum number of attempts to retry the task if it initially fails.
RETRY DELAY	Type the amount of time (in seconds) the portal waits between retry attempts for the task.
ALLOW CUSTOM CONFIG	Select this option to enable a text field to add extra variables or specifications to the task. This field appears in the Advanced Options section in the Execute Task? window when you manually execute a specific task.