Release Notes: Chef Server 12.0 - 12.18.14¶

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The Chef server acts as a hub for configuration data by storing cookbooks, the policies that are applied to nodes, and metadata that describes each registered node that is managed by the chef-client.

What’s New in 12.18.14¶

This release:

Segment free cookbooks are implemented. (https://github.com/chef/chef-rfc/blob/master/rfc067-cookbook-segment-deprecation.md) This bumps the API version.
ACLs for cookbook artifacts
/nodes/NODENAME endpoint has HEAD operation.
Security headers for HTTP
Optional disabling of welcome page
chef-server-ctl now has version subcommand.
chef-server-ctl appbundled to better control gem loading.
Support for SSL auth between internal Chef Server Services. This includes connections to bifrost and the internal Postgresql server.
All datestamps in logs are now in UTC. SOLR GC log now datestamped.
Nginx logs now include the request id.
Fixie is now shipped with chef server.
Security issue with old doorkeeper fixed by upgrading. CVE-2018-1000211
Fixed issue migrating rabbitmq passwords (migration 031).
Chef indexing queue times now reported in stats in log messages and status endpoint.
Ruby updated to 2.5.1
Update gems
Chef Client updated to 14.3.
Postgresql updated to 9.6.10 and 9.2.24 (latter only for upgrades from older Chef Servers).
Fix for SUSE SLES-11 sysvinit install
Removed nodejs (a build dependency that was shipped).

What’s New in 12.17.33¶

This release:

Upgrades the version of Ruby to 2.4.3
Adds FIPS support for PPC64 (big-endian)
Fixes an Elasticsearch invalid search query issue caused by forward slashes that were not escaped properly

What’s New in 12.17.15¶

This release:

Fixes a regression in IPv6 address handling
Allows you to disable request logging via the following optional settings:
- opscode-erchef['enable_request_logging']
- oc_bifrost['enable_request_logging']
- bookshelf['enable_request_logging']
See the Chef server optional settings guide for additional details
chef-server-ctl reconfigure fixes permissions on gems with an overly restrictive umask
Makes the display of the welcome page configurable via the nginx['show_welcome_page'] setting. See the Chef server optional settings guide for additional details
Infers the current database migration level and necessary upgrades for chef-server-ctl upgrade
Catches server_name resolution errors during chef-server-ctl reconfigure, and continues with the reconfiguration
No longer creates the default RabbitMQ guest user

See the detailed change log for a complete list of changes.

What’s New in 12.17.5¶

This release fixes a regression that occurs when deploying to DigitalOcean and potentially other non-AWS cloud platforms, where the nginx[‘use_implicit_hosts’] = true setting results in an incorrect nginx configuration.

See the change log for a full list of changes.

What’s New in 12.17.3¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.17.3:

Java has been updated to version 8u144 to address CVE-2017-3526
A /_stats endpoint has been added to Erchef. It exposes statistics about connection pool usage inside Erchef, Postgresql, and the Erlang VM
The strict_host_header and use_implicit_hosts settings have been added for nginx. These options help to prevent against cache poisoning attacks by ensuring that nginx only responds to requests with host headers that match the configured FQDN for the given machine. See Chef server’s optional nginx settings for additional details

See the change log for a full list of changes.

What’s New in 12.16.14¶

This release updates Ruby to version 2.2.8 to take advantage of multiple security fixes. See the full change log for details on minor changes.

What’s New in 12.16.9¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.16.9:

Minor fixes for the PostgreSQL upgrade process
Remove unused authorization objects from bifrost database

Fixes for the PostgreSQL upgrade process¶

Chef server 12.16.9 adds the following features to make the PostgreSQL upgrade process easier:

Ensures that your disk has the required space before starting the PostgreSQL upgrade
For users with large databases, pg_upgrade timeout is now configurable. The default timeout has been increased to 2 hours.

Remove unused authorization objects from bifrost database¶

This release adds the chef-server-ctl cleanup-bifrost command. cleanup-bifrost removes unused authorization objects from the authorization database (called bifrost). These unused objects can accumulate on long-running Chef servers as a result of failed object creation requests. For most users, the unused authorization objects do not substantially affect the performance of Chef server; however in certain situations it can be helpful to clean them up. This command is primarily intended for use by Chef support.

See the cleanup-bifrost subcommand documentation for syntax examples and additional options.

What’s New in 12.16.2¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.16.2:

Upgrade to PostgreSQL 9.6
Elasticsearch 5 support
Changes to Erlang Port Mapper Daemon (EPMD) listening ports
RabbitMQ health check in status endpoint
Notification of affected services when updating secrets with set-secret

Upgrade to PostgreSQL 9.6¶

Chef server now uses the latest stable version of the 9.6 series (9.6.3). Upgrades of existing installations are done automatically, but creating backups is advised.

The information below only applies if you have set a custom value set for checkpoint_segments in your /etc/opscode/chef-server.rb. If you have not set a custom value, there is nothing to change:

The checkpoint_segments configuration setting is gone, so if you previously used the following parameter:

postgresql['checkpoint_segments'] = 10

You would instead use:

postgresql['max_wal_size'] = '3G'

This is just an example configuration - see the PostgreSQL release notes for more information on tuning this option. The default setting for max_wal_size is 1G. The PostgreSQL release notes mention a conversion rule: max_wal_size = (3 * checkpoint_segments) * 16MB. They also state that the default value for max_wal_size (1GB) should be sufficient in most settings, so this conversion is not performed automatically.

The shmmax and ``shmall configuration settings are no longer used, as PostgreSQL 9.6 relies on System V shared memory much less than PostgreSQL 9.2. The shared_buffers configuration setting is still respected, and can be used to modify the amount of shared memory used by PostgreSQL.

This update also adds two new configurables in the “Checkpoints” group: min_wal_size and checkpoint_flush_after.

As part of the upgrade procedure, chef-server-ctl cleanup will remove Postgres 9.2’s data and logs.

Elasticsearch 5 support¶

Chef server now supports Elasticsearch 5. This allows Chef server and Chef Automate 1.6 to use the same Elasticsearch instance.

Changes to EPMD listening ports¶

The Erlang Port Mapper Daemon (EPMD) included in version 12.16 is patched to only listen on the addresses specified in ERL_EPMD_ADDRESS. Before, it would implicitly add ::1 and 127.0.0.1 to the set of listening addresses, which caused trouble for systems without ::1.

RabbitMQ health check in status endpoint¶

Chef server’s _status endpoint now checks the health of the analytics and internal RabbitMQ vhosts. For these checks to work, the RabbitMQ management plugin must be installed. If it is not, the checks are not performed. If Chef server is configured not to use Actions, a check will not be performed against the Actions vhost. If an indexing queue is not used, the chef_index RabbitMQ vhost will not be checked.

Notification of affected services when updating secrets with set-secret¶

chef-server-ctl set-secret will notify the user of services that depend on the secret that is being changed. When used with the optional --with-restart flag, chef-server-ctl set-secret will attempt to automatically restart the dependent services.

What’s New in 12.15¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.15:

Supports SUSE Linux Enterprise on x86_64
Add required_recipe endpoint
ACLs and groups can refer to global groups
User customization of field mapping

Supports SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on x86_64¶

Support for a new platform was added: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 & 12 on x86_64.

Add required_recipe endpoint¶

Added the ability to serve a required recipe file to chef-clients.

The setting required_recipe["enable"] in chef-server.rb enables the required recipe feature.

The setting required_recipe["path"] in chef-server.rb specifies the recipe file to serve.

The /organizations/<orgname>/required_recipe endpoint returns 404 for all organizations by default. It returns 401 when the request is not made by a client from the requested org and the feature is enabled.

The /organizations/<orgname>/required_recipe endpoint returns the required recipe and 200 only when the endpoint is enabled and requested by an authorized client.

See Chef RFC 89 for a complete description on the required_recipe endpoint.

ACLs and groups can refer to global groups¶

The server-admins group is useful, but it breaks roundtripping when it appears in an organizations ACLs and groups. This makes it difficult when using the API for backups.

A new syntax ‘::’ was added to indicate scoping. ::GROUPNAME without a prefix indicates a global (across multiple orgs) entity, while ORGNAME::GROUPNAME refers to a group in an another org. So if the server-admins appears in an organizations ACL, you will see the name ::server-admins.

User customization of field mapping¶

Attributes from a user’s LDAP record are used during account-linking to populate the erchef user record when it is created. Previously, the mapping between LDAP attributes and chef user attributes were fixed. Now, they are configurable. For example, if the user’s LDAP record stores their email address in a field named ‘address’ instead of ‘mail’, then you could set the following in private-chef.rb:

ldap['email_attribute'] = "address"

Bug Fixes¶

Fixed regression in oc-id. The identity service was using the wrong Chef Server API version level.

Fixed regression in the nginx proxy that prevented Automate-based Compliance profiles from being reachable.

Fixed regression in Bookshelf’s preflight checks.

Fixed regression that would cause Manage to be misconfigured to enable LDAP by default.

PUT to /users/USERNAME/_acl/PERM will no longer return a 400 when the request is valid.

What’s New in 12.14¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.14:

Reduce password proliferation

Reduce password proliferation¶

We’ve substantially reduced the number of configuration files that contain plaintext passwords. Now, no passwords or credentials are rendered outside of /etc/opscode/ in Chef server’s default configuration.

To ensure backwards compatibility, Chef server still renders passwords and keys to multiple files in /etc/opscode. However, if you are not using any Chef Server add-ons, or if you have updated to the latest releases of all add-ons, you can set the following:

insecure_addon_compat false

in /etc/opscode/chef-server.rb and remove these other occurrences of secrets as well.

If you are using LDAP integration, external postgresql, or other Chef server features that require providing passwords in /etc/opscode/chef-server.rb, we’ve also provided commands that allow you to set these passwords outside of the configuration file. For information about these commands see Secrets Management.

Note

Users of the DRBD-based HA configuration may still see passwords related to keepalived and DRBD in /var/opt/opscode.

For further information see:

See Chef Server Credentials Management for more details.

What’s New in 12.13¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.13:

Supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 on s390x (RHEL6/s390x)
Disables the Solr4 Admin API/UI by default
FIPS runtime flag exposed on RHEL systems Setting fips true and reconfiguring will start the server in FIPS mode. Packages for other systems will not have the required OpenSSL FIPS module and will fail to start if reconfigured with fips true.

New platform: RHEL6/s390x¶

Support for a new platform was added: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 on s390x.

Solr4 Admin API/UI disabled by default¶

With this release, the admin UI of Solr4 has been removed. The underlying API has also been disabled. Users that depend on the admin API endpoints can enable them via adding:

opscode_solr4['enable_full_admin_api'] = true

to chef-server.rb.

FIPS runtime flag exposed¶

The Chef Server package now exposes a fips configuration flag in chef-server.rb. Setting fips true and reconfiguring will start the server in FIPS mode. The default value of this flag is false except on systems where FIPS is enabled at the Kernel where it defaults to true.

The only supported systems at this time for FIPS mode are RHEL. Packages for other systems will be missing the required OpenSSL FIPS module and will fail to start if reconfigured with fips true.

What’s New in 12.12¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.12:

chef-server-ctl backup correctly backs up configuration data Starting in version 12.10.0, a bug in the backup command produced backups that did not include the configuration data in the resulting tarball. This bug is now resolved. We recommend taking a new backup after upgrading to 12.12.0.
Correct number of rows are returned when searching with ElasticSearch When configured to use ElasticSearch, Chef server now correctly respects the rows parameter in search requests rather than returning all rows.
Solr 4 GC logging is now used by Chef server Java’s native rotation is used for the gclog.
New oc_id email configuration options Outbound email address can now be configured.

Solr 4 GC Logging¶

Chef server now uses Java’s native rotation for the gclog. This prevents situations where logrotate creates large sparse files on disk, which may be problematic to manage with tools that can’t handle sparse files.

The Solr 4 GC log can now be found at /var/log/opscode/opscode-solr4/gclog.log.N.current where N is an integer. The .current extension denotes the log currently being written to.

To remove the older GC logs, run sudo chef-server-ctl cleanup after upgrading to Chef server 12.12.

To suppress the GC log completely, set the following option in /etc/opscode/chef-server.rb:

# true (default) to enable gc logging,
# false to disable gc logging
opscode_solr4['log_gc'] = false

oc_id Email Configuration Options¶

The oc_id service now includes configuration for outbound email to ensure password reset emails can be sent correctly.

You can now set the following options in /etc/opscode/chef-server.rb:

# defaults to the value of the from_email configuration option
oc_id['email_from_address'] = "oc_id@example.com"
# defaults to the api_fqdn
oc_id['origin'] = "mail.yourco.io"

What’s New in 12.11¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.11:

New Endpoints¶

/organizations/ORGNAME/validate/PATH accepts a signed request and validates it as if it had been sent to PATH. It returns 200 if the request is authentic and 401 if it is not.
/organizations/ORGNAME/data-collector forwards requests for a data-collector service after authenticating the request using Chef Server’s standard authentication headers. To use this endpoint, users must set both of the following options in /etc/opscode/chef-server.rb:
```
data_collector['token']
data_collector['root_url']
```
/organizations/ORGNAME/owners/OWNER/compliance[/PROFILE] forwards requests for compliance profiles to a user-configurable Chef Automate server after authenticating the request using Chef Server’s standard authentication headers. To use this endpoint, users must set both of the following options in /etc/opscode/chef-server.rb:
```
profiles['root_url']
data_collector['token']
```

Security Updates¶

The default allowed SSL ciphers now include AES256-GCM-SHA384 to ensure compatibility with AWS’s Classic ELB health check tool.
chef-server-ctl psql previously revealed the postgresql password via ps.

What’s New in 12.10¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.10:

Smaller download - the download size has been reduced by around 35% via removal of redundant, cached, and unused components. The installed size has been similarly reduced.
add retry support to opscode-expander
chef-server-ctl reindex will now continue even if some objects are not indexable, and will show which objects failed at the conclusion of the run.
Data Collector support for Policyfiles.
chef-server-ctl install add-on installation now pulls from the correct source.
Regression fix: that caused errors on reconfigure when LDAP bind password is nil has been fixed.

Security Updates¶

Upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.2j. The prior release (1.0.1u) is approaching EOL.
Updated TLS ciphers. See compatibility notes, below.

Compatibility Notes¶

The change of TLS ciphers can cause older tooling to fail to negotiate SSL sessions with the Chef Server. The changes to the cipher list are captured here. Upgrading any custom clients of the Chef Server API to use a current SSL release will resolve this.

Alternatively, you can set nginx['ssl_protocols'] in /etc/opscode/chef-server.rb to a set of ciphers that are compatible with your tooling, then running chef-server-ctl reconfigure to pick up the changes.
With this TLS cipher suite change, the Reporting add-on will report errors when opscode-reporting-ctl test is run. A fix for this is available in the current channel for reporting, and will be released to stable in November. This issue does not otherwise affect the Reporting add-on, but you can resolve this locally by modifying /etc/opscode-reporting/pedant_config.rb and adding the following line: ssl_version :TLSv1_2

What’s New in 12.9.1¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.9.1:

The update of OpenSSL 1.0.1u addresses the following CVEs:

CVE-2016-6304
CVE-2016-2183
CVE-2016-6303
CVE-2016-6302
CVE-2016-2182
CVE-2016-2180
CVE-2016-2177
CVE-2016-2178
CVE-2016-2179
CVE-2016-2181
CVE-2016-6306

What’s New in 12.9¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.9:

New warning and functionality when trying to delete user in multiple ‘admin’ groups If a user is in an administrator group in any organization, the chef-server-ctl user-delete subcommand does not allow you to remove the user from that group. To provide more information when the user-delete subcommand fails for this reason, the error message contains a list of organizations the user is an administrator of. Using the new flag --remove-from-admin-groups, you can now remove that user provided they are not the only user in the admin group.
LDAP bind passwords now support special characters
Updated to OpenSSL 1.0.1u Updated version of OpenSSL to address security vulnerabilities.
Multiple ACL updates on the Chef server API The _acl endpoint now requires that any users being added to an object’s ACL exist in the same organization as the object itself. Existing users that are not organization members and have already been added to an ACL will not be affected, and will still be in the GET response for this API. Additional changes can be found here.

What’s New in 12.8¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.8:

Initial support for sending updates to a data collector service
Minor bug fixes in postgresql setup

What’s New in 12.7¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.7:

Support for service credential rotation through Veil Veil is a library for securely creating, storing, and rotating Chef server secrets. It is also required when using the new chef-server-ctl require-credential-rotation command.
Filtering by external authentication ID in Chef server API Users can now be filtered by external_authentication_uid, which is needed to support SAML authentication in Chef Manage.
Updated to OpenSSL 1.0.1t Version 1.0.1t contains several security fixes.

Service credential rotation support¶

Veil is a new library to manage Chef server secrets. It allows any Chef server with a given set of secrets to create new service credentials and rotate them without requiring the secrets files to be copied between each Chef server in a cluster.

Five new commands have been created to support credential rotation:

Your secrets file is located at /etc/opscode/private-chef-secrets.json, so whenever you rotate your service credentials, or update your shared secrets, this file will contain the changes.

Supporting SAML-authentication in Chef Manage¶

To support SAML-authentication in Chef Manage, you can now filter users using external_authentication_uid in a GET request against the Chef server API. For example, to retrieve users where the external_authentication_uid is jane@doe.com, do the following:

GET /users?external_authentication_uid=jane%40doe.com

What’s New in 12.6¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.6:

Chef licenses All Chef products have a license that governs the entire product and includes links to license files for any third-party software included in Chef packages. This release updates the Chef server for the Chef license.

About Chef Licenses¶

All Chef products have a license that governs the entire product and includes links to license files for any third-party software included in Chef packages. The /opt/<PRODUCT-NAME>/LICENSES directory contains individual copies of all referenced licenses.

Warning

The chef-server-ctl install command no longer works in the 12.5 (and earlier) versions of the Chef server due to a change in how packages are downloaded from Chef.

Apache 2.0¶

All open source Chef products—such as the Chef client, the Chef server, or InSpec—are governed by the Apache 2.0 license.

What’s New in 12.5¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.5:

New group for key-related Chef server API endpoints The public_key_read_access group defines which users and clients have read permissions to key-related endpoints in the Chef server API.

public_key_read_access¶

The public_key_read_access group controls which users and clients have read permissions to the following endpoints:

GET /clients/CLIENT/keys
GET /clients/CLIENT/keys/KEY
GET /users/USER/keys
GET /users/USER/keys/

By default, the public_key_read_access assigns all members of the users and clients group permission to these endpoints:

Group	Create	Delete	Grant	Read	Update
admins	no	no	no	no	no
clients	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
users	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes

What’s New in 12.4¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.4:

/universe endpoint Use the /universe endpoint to retrieve the known collection of cookbooks, and then use it with Berkshelf and Chef Supermarket.
opscode-expander-reindexer service The opscode-expander-reindexer service is deprecated.
Global server administrator list Use the grant-server-admin-permissions, remove-server-admin-permissions, and list-server-admins to manage the list of users who belong to the server-admins group.

/universe¶

Use the /universe endpoint to retrieve the known collection of cookbooks, and then use it with Berkshelf and Chef Supermarket.

The /universe endpoint has the following methods: GET.

GET¶

The GET method is used to retrieve the universe data.

This method has no parameters.

Request

GET /universe

Response

The response will return an embedded hash, with the name of each cookbook as a top-level key. Each cookbook will list each version, along with its location information and dependencies:

{
  "ffmpeg": {
    "0.1.0": {
      "location_path": "http://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/ffmpeg/0.1.0/download"
      "location_type": "supermarket",
      "dependencies": {
        "git": ">= 0.0.0",
        "build-essential": ">= 0.0.0",
        "libvpx": "~> 0.1.1",
        "x264": "~> 0.1.1"
      },
    },
    "0.1.1": {
      "location_path": "http://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/ffmpeg/0.1.1/download"
      "location_type": "supermarket",
      "dependencies": {
        "git": ">= 0.0.0",
        "build-essential": ">= 0.0.0",
        "libvpx": "~> 0.1.1",
        "x264": "~> 0.1.1"
      },
    },
   "pssh": {
    "0.1.0": {
      "location_path": "http://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/pssh.1.0/download"
      "location_type": "supermarket",
      "dependencies": {},
    }
  }
}

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful. One (or more) cookbooks and associated cookbook version information was returned.

Server Admins¶

The server-admins group is a global group that grants its members permission to create, read, update, and delete user accounts, with the exception of superuser accounts. The server-admins group is useful for users who are responsible for day-to-day administration of the Chef server, especially user management via the knife user subcommand. Before members can be added to the server-admins group, they must already have a user account on the Chef server.

Scenario¶

The following user accounts exist on the Chef server: pivotal (a superuser account), alice, bob, carol, and dan. Run the following command to view a list of users on the Chef server:

$ chef-server-ctl user-list

and it returns the same list of users:

pivotal
alice
bob
carol
dan

Alice is a member of the IT team whose responsibilities include day-to-day administration of the Chef server, in particular managing the user accounts on the Chef server that are used by the rest of the organization. From a workstation, Alice runs the following command:

$ knife user list -c ~/.chef/alice.rb

and it returns the following error:

ERROR: You authenticated successfully to <chef_server_url> as alice
       but you are not authorized for this action
Response: Missing read permission

Alice is not a superuser and does not have permissions on other users because user accounts are global to organizations in the Chef server. Let’s add Alice to the server-admins group:

$ chef-server-ctl grant-server-admin-permissions alice

and it returns the following response:

User alice was added to server-admins.

Alice can now create, read, update, and delete user accounts on the Chef server, even for organizations to which Alice is not a member. From a workstation, Alice re-runs the following command:

$ knife user list -c ~/.chef/alice.rb

which now returns:

pivotal
alice
bob
carol
dan

Alice is now a server administrator and can use the following knife subcommands to manage users on the Chef server:

knife user-create
knife user-delete
knife user-edit
knife user-list
knife user-show

For example, Alice runs the following command:

$ knife user edit carol -c ~/.chef/alice.rb

and the $EDITOR opens in which Alice makes changes, and then saves them.

Superuser Accounts¶

Superuser accounts may not be managed by users who belong to the server-admins group. For example, Alice attempts to delete the pivotal superuser account:

$ knife user delete pivotal -c ~/.chef/alice.rb

and the following error is returned:

ERROR: You authenticated successfully to <chef_server_url> as user1
       but you are not authorized for this action
Response: Missing read permission

Alice’s action is unauthorized even with membership in the server-admins group.

Manage server-admins Group¶

Membership of the server-admins group is managed with a set of chef-server-ctl subcommands:

chef-server-ctl grant-server-admin-permissions
chef-server-ctl list-server-admins
chef-server-ctl remove-server-admin-permissions

Add Members¶

The grant-server-admin-permissions subcommand is used to add a user to the server-admins group. Run the command once per user added.

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl grant-server-admin-permissions USER_NAME

where USER_NAME is the user to add to the list of server administrators.

For example:

$ chef-server-ctl grant-server-admin-permissions bob

returns:

User bob was added to server-admins. This user can now list,
read, and create users (even for orgs they are not members of)
for this Chef Server.

Remove Members¶

The remove-server-admin-permissions subcommand is used to remove a user from the server-admins group. Run the command once per user removed.

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl remove-server-admin-permissions USER_NAME

where USER_NAME is the user to remove from the list of server administrators.

For example:

$ chef-server-ctl remove-server-admin-permissions bob

returns:

User bob was removed from server-admins. This user can no longer
list, read, and create users for this Chef Server except for where
they have default permissions (such as within an org).

List Membership¶

The list-server-admins subcommand is used to return a list of users who are members of the server-admins group.

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl list-server-admins

and will return a list of users similar to:

pivotal
alice
bob
carol
dan

What’s New in 12.3¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.3:

Nginx stub_status module is enabled The Nginx stub_status module is enabled by default and may be viewed at the /nginx_status endpoint. The settings for this module are configurable.
RabbitMQ queue tuning New settings for managing RabbitMQ queues allow the size of the queue used by Chef Analytics to be configured, including settings for the queue length monitor and for tuning the rabbitmq-management plugin.

Nginx stub_status Module¶

The following configuration settings are new and enable the Nginx stub_status module:

nginx['enable_stub_status']: Enables the Nginx stub_status module. See nginx['stub_status']['allow_list'], nginx['stub_status']['listen_host'], nginx['stub_status']['listen_port'], and nginx['stub_status']['location']. Default value: true.
nginx['stub_status']['allow_list']: The IP address on which accessing the stub_status endpoint is allowed. Default value: ["127.0.0.1"].
nginx['stub_status']['listen_host']: The host on which the Nginx stub_status module listens. Default value: "127.0.0.1".
nginx['stub_status']['listen_port']: The port on which the Nginx stub_status module listens. Default value: "9999".
nginx['stub_status']['location']: The name of the Nginx stub_status endpoint used to access data generated by the Nginx stub_status module. Default value: "/nginx_status".

RabbitMQ Queues¶

If the RabbitMQ queue that is used by Chef Analytics stops consuming messages, the Chef server data partition will fill up and may affect the overall performance of the Chef server application itself. The settings for the RabbitMQ queue are tunable, including for queue length monitoring, queue capacity, maximum number of messages that can be in the queue before messages are dropped, the point at which messages are dropped, for settings used by the rabbitmq-management plugin, and so on.

The following settings may be used for tuning RabbitMQ queues used by Chef Analytics and the Chef server:

rabbitmq['analytics_max_length']: The maximum number of messages that can be queued before RabbitMQ automatically drops messages from the front of the queue to make room for new messages. Default value: 10000.
rabbitmq['drop_on_full_capacity']: Specify if messages will stop being sent to the RabbitMQ queue when it is at capacity. Default value: true.
rabbitmq['management_enabled']: Specify if the rabbitmq-management plugin is enabled. Default value: true.
rabbitmq['management_password']: The rabbitmq-management plugin password. Default value: 'chefrocks'.
rabbitmq['management_port']: The rabbitmq-management plugin port. Default value: 15672.
rabbitmq['management_user']: The rabbitmq-management plugin user. Default value: 'rabbitmgmt'.
rabbitmq['prevent_erchef_startup_on_full_capacity']: Specify if the Chef server will start when the monitored RabbitMQ queue is full. Default value: false.
rabbitmq['queue_at_capacity_affects_overall_status']: Specify if the _status endpoint in the Chef server API will fail if the monitored queue is at capacity. Default value: false.
rabbitmq['queue_length_monitor_enabled']: Specify if the queue length monitor is enabled. Default value: true.
rabbitmq['queue_length_monitor_millis']: The frequency (in milliseconds) at which the length of the RabbitMQ queue is checked. Default value: 30000.
rabbitmq['queue_length_monitor_timeout_millis']: The timeout (in milliseconds) at which calls to the queue length monitor will stop if the Chef server is overloaded. Default value: 5000.
rabbitmq['queue_length_monitor_queue']: The RabbitMQ queue that is observed by queue length monitor. Default value: 'alaska'.
rabbitmq['queue_length_monitor_vhost']: The virtual host for the RabbitMQ queue that is observed by queue length monitor. Default value: '/analytics'.
rabbitmq['rabbit_mgmt_http_cull_interval']: The maximum cull interval (in seconds) for the HTTP connection pool that is used by the rabbitmq-management plugin. Default value: 60.
rabbitmq['rabbit_mgmt_http_init_count']: The initial worker count for the HTTP connection pool that is used by the rabbitmq-management plugin. Default value: 25.
rabbitmq['rabbit_mgmt_http_max_age']: The maximum connection worker age (in seconds) for the HTTP connection pool that is used by the rabbitmq-management plugin. Default value: 70.
rabbitmq['rabbit_mgmt_http_max_connection_duration']: The maximum connection duration (in seconds) for the HTTP connection pool that is used by the rabbitmq-management plugin. Default value: 70.
rabbitmq['rabbit_mgmt_http_max_count']: The maximum worker count for the HTTP connection pool that is used by the rabbitmq-management plugin. Default value: 100.
rabbitmq['rabbit_mgmt_ibrowse_options']: An array of comma-separated key-value pairs of ibrowse options for the HTTP connection pool that is used by the rabbitmq-management plugin. Default value: '{connect_timeout, 10000}'.
rabbitmq['rabbit_mgmt_timeout']: The timeout for the HTTP connection pool that is used by the rabbitmq-management plugin. Default value: 30000.
rabbitmq['ssl_versions']: The SSL versions used by the rabbitmq-management plugin. (See RabbitMQ TLS Support for more details.) Default value: ['tlsv1.2', 'tlsv1.1'].

What’s New¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.2:

Solr to Solr4 settings Built-in transition for Apache Solr memory and JVM settings from Enterprise Chef to Chef server version 12.
Configurable Postgresql Postgresql can be configured for an external database.
New endpoints for the Chef server API Endpoints have been added to the Chef server API: DELETE /policy_groups.
New subcommmands for chef-server-ctl Use the backup and restore subcommmands to back up and restore Chef server data. Use the psql subcommmand to log into a PostgreSQL database that is associated with a service running in the Chef server configuration.
New options for chef-server-ctl reindex The reindex subcommand has new options: --all-orgs (reindex all organizations), --disable-api (disable the Chef server API during reindexing), --with-timing (print timing information), and --wait (wait for reindex queue to clear before exiting).

Solr => Solr 4 Changes¶

Chef server version 12 is upgraded to Apache Solr 4. If Apache Solr options were added to the private-chef.rb file under opscode_solr for Enterprise Chef, those configuration options are now stored under opscode_solr4 in the chef-server.rb file for Chef server version 12.

Some opscode_solr settings are imported automatically, such as heap, new size, and Java options, but many settings are ignored. If your Enterprise Chef configuration is highly tuned for Apache Solr, review these configuration settings before re-tuning Apache Solr for Chef server version 12.

External PostgreSQL¶

The following diagram highlights the specific changes that occur when PostgreSQL is configured and managed independently of the Chef server configuration.

The following table describes the components in an external PostgreSQL configuration that are different from the default configuration of the Chef server:

Component

Description

Chef Server

The Chef server configuration file is updated to point to an independently configured set of servers for PostgreSQL.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is the data storage repository for the Chef server.

This represents the independently configured set of servers that are running PostgreSQL and are configured to act as the data store for the Chef server.

Note

The following chef-server-ctl subcommands for managing services are disabled when an external PostgreSQL database is configured for the Chef server: hup, int, kill, once, restart, start, stop, tail, and term.

Settings¶

Use the following configuration settings in the chef-server.rb file to configure PostgreSQL for use with the Chef server:

Setting	Description
`postgresql['db_superuser']`	Required when `postgresql['external']` is set to `true`. The PostgreSQL user name. This user must be granted either the `CREATE ROLE` and `CREATE DATABASE` permissions in PostgreSQL or be granted `SUPERUSER` permission. This user must also have an entry in the host-based authentication configuration file used by PostgreSQL (traditionally named `pg_hba.conf`). Default value: `'superuser_userid'`.
`postgresql['db_superuser_password']`	Required when `postgresql['external']` is set to `true`. The password for the user specified by `postgresql['db_superuser']`. Default value: `'the password'`.
`postgresql['external']`	Required. Set to `true` to run PostgreSQL external to the Chef server. Must be set once only on a new installation of the Chef server before the first `chef-server-ctl reconfigure` command is run. If this is set after a reconfigure or set to `false`, any reconfigure of the Chef server will return an error. Default value: `false`.
`postgresql['port']`	Optional when `postgresql['external']` is set to `true`. The port on which the service is to listen. The port used by PostgreSQL if that port is not 5432. Default value: `5432`.
`postgresql['vip']`	Required when `postgresql['external']` is set to `true`. The virtual IP address. The host for this IP address must be online and reachable from the Chef server via the port specified by `postgresql['port']`. Set this value to the IP address or hostname for the machine on which external PostgreSQL is located when `postgresql['external']` is set to `true`.

Backup / Restore¶

Use the following commands to manage backups of Chef server data, and then to restore those backups.

backup¶

The backup subcommand is used to back up all Chef server data. This subcommand:

Requires rsync to be installed on the Chef server prior to running the command
Requires a chef-server-ctl reconfigure prior to running the command
Should not be run in a Chef server configuration with an external PostgreSQL database; use knife ec backup instead
Puts the initial backup in the /var/opt/chef-backup directory as a tar.gz file; move this backup to a new location for safe keeping

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

-y, --yes: Use to specify if the Chef server can go offline during tar.gz-based backups.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl backup

restore¶

The restore subcommand is used to restore Chef server data from a backup that was created by the backup subcommand. This subcommand may also be used to add Chef server data to a newly-installed server. This subcommand:

Requires rsync to be installed on the Chef server prior to running the command
Requires a chef-server-ctl reconfigure prior to running the command
Should not be run in a Chef server configuration with an external PostgreSQL database; use knife ec backup instead

Note

The restore command does not support transferring backups across different versions of Chef server. Backups taken with the backup command must restore to the same version of Chef server that was in use when they were created.

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

-c, --cleanse: Use to remove all existing data on the Chef server; it will be replaced by the data in the backup archive.
-d DIRECTORY, --staging-dir DIRECTORY: Use to specify that the path to an empty directory to be used during the restore process. This directory must have enough disk space to expand all data in the backup archive.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl restore PATH_TO_BACKUP (options)

Examples

$ chef-server-ctl restore /path/to/tar/archive.tar.gz

psql¶

The psql subcommand is used to log into the PostgreSQL database associated with the named service. This subcommand:

Uses psql (the interactive terminal for PostgreSQL)
Has read-only access by default
Is the recommended way to interact with any PostgreSQL database that is part of the Chef server
Automatically handles authentication

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl psql SERVICE_NAME (options)

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

--write: Use to enable write access to the PostgreSQL database.

reindex Options¶

This subcommand has the following options:

-a, --all-orgs: Use to reindex all organizations on the Chef server. This option will override any organization specified as part of the command, i.e. chef-server-ctl reindex ORG_NAME -a will reindex all organizations and not just the specified organization.
-d, --disable-api: Use to disable the Chef server API to prevent writes during reindexing.
-t, --with-timing: Use to print timing information for the reindex processes.
-w, --wait: Use to wait for the reindexing queue to clear before exiting. This option only works when run on a standalone Chef server, or on a primary backend Chef server within a legacy tier or DRBD HA system. This option should not be used on a HA frontend.

Chef server API Endpoints¶

The following endpoints have been added to the Chef server API:

/policy_groups/NAME¶

The /policy_groups endpoint has the following methods: GET.

DELETE¶

The DELETE method is used to delete a policy group that is stored on the Chef server.

This method has no parameters.

Request

DELETE /organizations/NAME/policy_groups/NAME

Response

The response returns the policy details and is similar to:

{
  "uri": "https://chef.example/organizations/org1/policy_groups/dev",
  "policies": {
    "aar": {
      "revision_id": "95040c199302c85c9ccf1bcc6746968b820b1fa25d92477ea2ec5386cd58b9c5"
    },
    "jenkins": {
      "revision_id": "613f803bdd035d574df7fa6da525b38df45a74ca82b38b79655efed8a189e073"
    }
  }
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

/policies/NAME¶

The /policies/NAME endpoint has the following methods: DELETE and GET. These endpoints enables the management of policies as they relate to a specific policy group.

GET¶

The GET method is used to return a policy document.

This method has no parameters.

Request

GET /organizations/NAME/policies/NAME

Response

The response is similar to:

xxxxx

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

DELETE¶

The DELETE method is used to delete a policy.

This method has no parameters.

Request

DELETE /organizations/NAME/policies/NAME

Response

The response returns the policy details and is similar to:

{
  "revisions":
    {
      "37f9b658cdd1d9319bac8920581723efcc2014304b5f3827ee0779e10ffbdcc9": {},
      "95040c199302c85c9ccf1bcc6746968b820b1fa25d92477ea2ec5386cd58b9c5": {},
      "d81e80ae9bb9778e8c4b7652d29b11d2111e763a840d0cadb34b46a8b2ca4347": {}
    }
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

/policies/NAME/revisions¶

The /roles endpoint has the following methods: POST.

POST¶

The POST method is used to create a new policy revision.

This method has no parameters.

Request

POST /organizations/NAME/policies/NAME/revisions

with a request body similar to:

xxxxx

Response

The response is similar to:

xxxxx

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`201`	OK. The request was successful.
`400`	Bad request. The contents of the request are not formatted correctly.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`409`	Conflict. The object already exists.
`413`	Request entity too large. A request may not be larger than 1000000 bytes.

/policies/NAME/revisions/ID¶

The /policies/NAME/revisions/ID endpoint has the following methods: DELETE and GET.

GET¶

The GET method is used to return a policy document for a specific policy revision.

This method has no parameters.

Request

GET /organizations/NAME/GROUP/policies/NAME/revisions/ID

Response

The response is similar to:

{
  "revision_id": "37f9b658cdd1d9319bac8920581723efcc2014304b5f3827ee0779e10ffbdcc9",
  "name": "aar",
  "run_list": [
    "recipe[aar::default]"
  ],
  "cookbook_locks": {
    "aar": {
      "version": "0.1.0",
      "identifier": "29648fe36333f573d5fe038a53256e23733618aa",
      "dotted_decimal_identifier": "11651043203167221.32604909279531813.121098535835818",
      "source": "cookbooks/aar",
      "cache_key": null,
      "scm_info": {
        "scm": "git",
        "remote": null,
        "revision": "a2c8cbb24a08625921d753cde36e8320465116c3",
        "working_tree_clean": false,
        "published": false,
        "synchronized_remote_branches": []
      },
      "source_options": {
        "path": "cookbooks/aar"
      }
    },
    "apt": {
      "version": "2.7.0",
      "identifier": "16c57abbd056543f7d5a15dabbb03261024a9c5e",
      "dotted_decimal_identifier": "6409580415309396.17870749399956400.55392231660638",
      "cache_key": "apt-2.7.0-supermarket.chef.io",
      "origin": "https://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/apt/versions/2.7.0/download",
      "source_options": {
        "artifactserver": "https://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/apt/versions/2.7.0/download",
        "version": "2.7.0"
      }
    }
  },
  "default_attributes": {},
  "override_attributes": {},
  "solution_dependencies": {
    "Policyfile": [
      [
        "aar",
        ">= 0.0.0"
      ],
      [
        "apt",
        "= 2.7.0"
      ],
    ],
    "dependencies": {
      "apt (2.7.0)": [],
      "aar (0.1.0)": [
        [
          "apt",
          ">= 0.0.0"
        ]
      ]
    }
  }
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

DELETE¶

The DELETE method is used to delete a policy document for a specific policy revision.

This method has no parameters.

Request

DELETE /organizations/NAME/GROUP/policies/NAME/revisions/ID

Response

The response returns the policy details and is similar to:

{
  "revision_id": "37f9b658cdd1d9319bac8920581723efcc2014304b5f3827ee0779e10ffbdcc9",
  "name": "aar",
  "run_list": [
    "recipe[aar::default]"
  ],
  "cookbook_locks": {
    "aar": {
      "version": "0.1.0",
      "identifier": "29648fe36333f573d5fe038a53256e23733618aa",
      "dotted_decimal_identifier": "11651043203167221.32604909279531813.121098535835818",
      "source": "cookbooks/aar",
      "cache_key": null,
      "scm_info": {
        "scm": "git",
        "remote": null,
        "revision": "a2c8cbb24a08625921d753cde36e8320465116c3",
        "working_tree_clean": false,
        "published": false,
        "synchronized_remote_branches": []
      },
      "source_options": {
        "path": "cookbooks/aar"
      }
    },
    "apt": {
      "version": "2.7.0",
      "identifier": "16c57abbd056543f7d5a15dabbb03261024a9c5e",
      "dotted_decimal_identifier": "6409580415309396.17870749399956400.55392231660638",
      "cache_key": "apt-2.7.0-supermarket.chef.io",
      "origin": "https://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/apt/versions/2.7.0/download",
      "source_options": {
        "artifactserver": "https://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/apt/versions/2.7.0/download",
        "version": "2.7.0"
      }
    }
  },
  "default_attributes": {},
  "override_attributes": {},
  "solution_dependencies": {
    "Policyfile": [
      [
        "aar",
        ">= 0.0.0"
      ],
      [
        "apt",
        "= 2.7.0"
      ],
    ],
    "dependencies": {
      "apt (2.7.0)": [],
      "aar (0.1.0)": [
        [
          "apt",
          ">= 0.0.0"
        ]
      ]
    }
  }
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

What’s New in 12.1¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12.1:

chef-server-ctl key commands use the chef-client Chef::Key object The key rotation commands (chef-server-ctl key) for create, delete, edit, list, and show keys for users and clients. These were a preview in the Chef server 12.0.3 release, and are now fully integrated.
New version headers for Chef Server API The Chef server API uses the X-Ops-Server-API-Version header to specify the version of the API that is used as part of a request to the Chef server API.
New endpoints for policy and policy files The Chef server API adds the following endpoints: /policies, /policy_groups, and /POLICY_GROUP/policies/POLICY_NAME.
New endpoints for client key management The Chef server API adds the following endpoints: /clients/CLIENT/keys and /clients/CLIENT/keys/KEY.
New endpoints for user key management The Chef server API adds the following endpoints: /user/USER/keys and /user/USER/keys/KEY.
New configuration setting Use the estatsd['protocol'] setting to send application statistics with StatsD protocol formatting.

Key Rotation¶

The knife user and knife client subcommands support key rotation. Use the create, delete, edit, list, and show subcommands to manage keys for users and clients, such as creating multiple expiring keys for a single user and also for basic key management. See /knife_user.html and /knife_client.html for more information about these subcommands.

X-Ops-Server-API-Version¶

Use X-Ops-Server-API-Version to specify the version of the Chef server API. For example: X-Ops-Server-API-Version: 1. X-Ops-Server-API-Version: 0 is supported for use with the version 12 Chef server, but will be deprecated as part of the next major release.

/clients/CLIENT/keys/¶

The /clients/CLIENT/keys endpoint has the following methods: GET and POST.

GET¶

The GET method is used to retrieve all of the named client’s key identifiers, associated URIs, and expiry states.

This method has no parameters.

Request

GET /organizations/NAME/clients/CLIENT/keys

Response

The response is similar to:

[
  { "name" : "default",
             "uri" : "https://chef.example/organizations/example/clients/client1/keys/default",
             "expired" : false },
  { "name" : "key1",
             "uri" : "https://chef.example/organizations/example/clients/client1/keys/key1",
             "expired" : true }
]

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

POST¶

The POST method is used to add a key for the specified client.

This method has no parameters.

Request

POST /organizations/NAME/clients/CLIENT/keys

with a request body similar to:

{
  "name": "key1",
  "public_key": "-------- BEGIN PUBLIC KEY ----and a valid key here",
  "expiration_date": "infinity"
}

Response

The response is similar to:

{
  "uri": "https://chef.example/organizations/example/clients/client1/keys/key1"
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`201`	Created. The object was created.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

/clients/CLIENT/keys/KEY¶

The /clients/CLIENT/keys/KEY endpoint has the following methods: DELETE, GET, and PUT.

DELETE¶

The DELETE method is used to delete the specified key for the specified client.

This method has no parameters.

Request

DELETE /organizations/NAME/clients/CLIENT/keys/KEY

Response

The response returns the information about the deleted key and is similar to:

{
  "name" : "default",
  "public_key" : "-------- BEGIN PUBLIC KEY --------- ...",
  "expiration_date" : "2020-12-31T00:00:00Z"
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

GET¶

The GET method is used to return details for a specific key for a specific client.

This method has no parameters.

Request

GET /organizations/NAME/clients/CLIENT/keys/KEY

Response

The response is similar to:

{
  "name" : "default",
  "public_key" : "-------- BEGIN PUBLIC KEY --------- ...",
  "expiration_date" : "2020-12-31T00:00:00Z"
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

PUT¶

The PUT method is used to update one or more properties for a specific key for a specific client.

This method has no parameters.

Request

PUT /organizations/NAME/clients/CLIENT/keys/KEY

with a request body similar to:

{
  "name" : "new_key_name",
  "public_key" : "-------- BEGIN PUBLIC KEY ----and a valid key here",
  "expiration_date" : "2020-12-31T00:00:00Z"
}

Response

The response contains the updated inforamtion for the key, and is similar to:

{
  "name" : "new_key_name",
  "public_key" : "-------- BEGIN PUBLIC KEY --------- ...",
  "expiration_date" : "2020-12-31T00:00:00Z"
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`201`	Created. The object was created.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

/user/USER/keys/¶

The /users/USER/keys endpoint has the following methods: GET and POST.

GET¶

The GET method is used to retrieve all of the named user’s key identifiers, associated URIs, and expiry states.

This method has no parameters.

Request

GET /users/USER/keys/

Response

The response is similar to:

[
  { "name" : "default",
             "uri" : "https://chef.example/users/USER/keys/default",
             "expired" : false },
  { "name" : "key1",
             "uri" : "https://chef.example/users/USER/keys/key1",
             "expired" : false}
]

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

POST¶

The POST method is used to add a key for the specified user.

This method has no parameters.

Request

POST /users/USER/keys/

with a request body similar to:

{
  "name" : "key1",
  "public_key" : "-------- BEGIN PUBLIC KEY ----and a valid key here",
  "expiration_date" : "infinity"
}

Response

The response is similar to:

{
  "uri" : "https://chef.example/users/user1/keys/key1"
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`201`	Created. The object was created.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

/user/USER/keys/KEY¶

The /users/USER/keys/KEY endpoint has the following methods: DELETE, GET, and PUT.

DELETE¶

The DELETE method is used to delete the specified key for the specified user.

This method has no parameters.

Request

DELETE /users/USER/keys/KEY

Response

The response returns the information about the deleted key and is similar to:

{
  "name" : "default",
  "public_key" : "-------- BEGIN PUBLIC KEY --------- ...",
  "expiration_date" : "2020-12-31T00:00:00Z"
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

GET¶

The GET method is used to return details for a specific key for a specific user.

This method has no parameters.

Request

GET /users/USER/keys/KEY

Response

The response is similar to:

{
  "name" : "default",
  "public_key" : "-------- BEGIN PUBLIC KEY --------- ...",
  "expiration_date" : "2020-12-31T00:00:00Z"
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

PUT¶

The PUT method is used to update one or more properties for a specific key for a specific user.

This method has no parameters.

Request

PUT /users/USER/keys/KEY

with a request body similar to:

{
  "name" : "new_key_name",
  "public_key" : "-------- BEGIN PUBLIC KEY ----and a valid key here",
  "expiration_date" : "2020-12-31T00:00:00Z"
}

Response

The response contains the updated inforamtion for the key, and is similar to:

{
  "name" : "new_key_name",
  "public_key" : "-------- BEGIN PUBLIC KEY --------- ...",
  "expiration_date" : "2020-12-31T00:00:00Z"
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`201`	Created. The object was created.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

/policies¶

The /policies endpoint has the following methods: GET.

GET¶

The GET method is used to get a list of policies (including policy revisions) from the Chef server.

This method has no parameters.

Request

GET /organizations/NAME/policies

Response

The response groups policies by name and revision and is similar to:

{
  "aar": {
    "uri": "https://chef.example/organizations/org1/policies/aar",
    "revisions": {
      "37f9b658cdd1d9319bac8920581723efcc2014304b5f3827ee0779e10ffbdcc9": {
      },
      "95040c199302c85c9ccf1bcc6746968b820b1fa25d92477ea2ec5386cd58b9c5": {
      },
      "d81e80ae9bb9778e8c4b7652d29b11d2111e763a840d0cadb34b46a8b2ca4347": {
      }
    }
  },
  "jenkins": {
    "uri": "https://chef.example/organizations/org1/policies/jenkins",
    "revisions": {
      "613f803bdd035d574df7fa6da525b38df45a74ca82b38b79655efed8a189e073": {
      },
      "6fe753184c8946052d3231bb4212116df28d89a3a5f7ae52832ad408419dd5eb": {
      },
      "cc1a0801e75df1d1ea5b0d2c71ba7d31c539423b81478f65e6388b9ee415ad87": {
      }
    }
  }
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.

/policy_groups¶

The /policy_groups endpoint has the following methods: GET.

Each node has a 1:many relationship with policy settings stored on the Chef server. This relationship is based on the policy group to which the node is associated, and then the policy settings assigned to that group:

A policy is typically named after the functional role ahost performs, such as “application server”, “chat server”, “load balancer”, and so on
A policy group defines a set of hosts in a deployed units, typically mapped to organizational requirements such as “dev”, “test”, “staging”, and “production”, but can also be mapped to more detailed requirements as needed

GET¶

The GET method is used to retrieve all of the policy groups that are stored on the Chef server.

This method has no parameters.

Request

GET /organizations/NAME/policy_groups

Response

The response is similar to:

{
  "dev": {
    "uri": "https://chef.example/organizations/org1/policy_groups/dev",
      "policies": {
        "aar": {
          "revision_id": "95040c199302c85c9ccf1bcc6746968b820b1fa25d92477ea2ec5386cd58b9c5"
        },
        "jenkins": {
          "revision_id": "613f803bdd035d574df7fa6da525b38df45a74ca82b38b79655efed8a189e073"
      }
    }
    },
    "production": {
    "uri": "https://chef.example/organizations/org1/policy_groups/production",
      "policies": {
        "aar": {
          "revision_id": "95040c199302c85c9ccf1bcc6746968b820b1fa25d92477ea2ec5386cd58b9c5"
      }
    }
  }
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

/policies/NAME¶

The /policies/NAME endpoint has the following methods: DELETE, GET, and PUT. These endpoints enable the management of policies as they relate to a specific policy group.

Each node has a 1:many relationship with policy settings stored on the Chef server. This relationship is based on the policy group to which the node is associated, and then the policy settings assigned to that group:

A policy is typically named after the functional role ahost performs, such as “application server”, “chat server”, “load balancer”, and so on
A policy group defines a set of hosts in a deployed units, typically mapped to organizational requirements such as “dev”, “test”, “staging”, and “production”, but can also be mapped to more detailed requirements as needed

Each policy group and individual policy are separate objects for the purposes of authentication. This enables each policy and policy group to have restricted access, such as for specific nodes that handle sensitive data or for specific production groups that require sign-off as part of organizational requirements.

A requestor must have permission to both the policy and the policy group in order for any action to be authorized.

DELETE¶

The DELETE method is used to delete the association between a specific policy document, specific policy group, and specific policy revision. This method does not delete anything from the Chef server.

This method has no parameters.

Request

DELETE /organizations/NAME/GROUP/policies/NAME

Response

The response returns the policy details and is similar to:

{
  "revision_id": "37f9b658cdd1d9319bac8920581723efcc2014304b5f3827ee0779e10ffbdcc9",
  "name": "aar",
  "run_list": [
    "recipe[aar::default]"
  ],
  "cookbook_locks": {
    "aar": {
      "version": "0.1.0",
      "identifier": "29648fe36333f573d5fe038a53256e23733618aa",
      "dotted_decimal_identifier": "11651043203167221.32604909279531813.121098535835818",
      "source": "cookbooks/aar",
      "cache_key": null,
      "scm_info": {
        "scm": "git",
        "remote": null,
        "revision": "a2c8cbb24a08625921d753cde36e8320465116c3",
        "working_tree_clean": false,
        "published": false,
        "synchronized_remote_branches": [
        ]
      },
      "source_options": {
        "path": "cookbooks/aar"
      }
    },
    "apt": {
      "version": "2.7.0",
      "identifier": "16c57abbd056543f7d5a15dabbb03261024a9c5e",
      "dotted_decimal_identifier": "6409580415309396.17870749399956400.55392231660638",
      "cache_key": "apt-2.7.0-supermarket.chef.io",
      "origin": "https://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/apt/versions/2.7.0/download",
      "source_options": {
        "artifactserver": "https://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/apt/versions/2.7.0/download",
        "version": "2.7.0"
      }
    }
  },
  "default_attributes": {
  },
  "override_attributes": {
  },
  "solution_dependencies": {
    "Policyfile": [
      [
        "aar",
        ">= 0.0.0"
      ],
      [
        "apt",
        "= 2.7.0"
      ],
    ],
    "dependencies": {
      "apt (2.7.0)": [
      ],
      "aar (0.1.0)": [
        [
          "apt",
          ">= 0.0.0"
        ]
      ]
    }
  }
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

GET¶

The GET method is used to return a policy document for a specific policy group and policy.

This method has no parameters.

Request

GET /organizations/NAME/GROUP/policies/NAME

Response

The response is similar to:

{
  "revision_id": "37f9b658cdd1d9319bac8920581723efcc2014304b5f3827ee0779e10ffbdcc9",
  "name": "aar",
  "run_list": [
    "recipe[aar::default]"
  ],
  "cookbook_locks": {
    "aar": {
      "version": "0.1.0",
      "identifier": "29648fe36333f573d5fe038a53256e23733618aa",
      "dotted_decimal_identifier": "11651043203167221.32604909279531813.121098535835818",
      "source": "cookbooks/aar",
      "cache_key": null,
      "scm_info": {
        "scm": "git",
        "remote": null,
        "revision": "a2c8cbb24a08625921d753cde36e8320465116c3",
        "working_tree_clean": false,
        "published": false,
        "synchronized_remote_branches": [
        ]
      },
      "source_options": {
        "path": "cookbooks/aar"
      }
    },
    "apt": {
      "version": "2.7.0",
      "identifier": "16c57abbd056543f7d5a15dabbb03261024a9c5e",
      "dotted_decimal_identifier": "6409580415309396.17870749399956400.55392231660638",
      "cache_key": "apt-2.7.0-supermarket.chef.io",
      "origin": "https://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/apt/versions/2.7.0/download",
      "source_options": {
        "artifactserver": "https://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/apt/versions/2.7.0/download",
        "version": "2.7.0"
      }
    }
  },
  "default_attributes": {
  },
  "override_attributes": {
  },
  "solution_dependencies": {
    "Policyfile": [
      [
        "aar",
        ">= 0.0.0"
      ],
      [
        "apt",
        "= 2.7.0"
      ],
    ],
    "dependencies": {
      "apt (2.7.0)": [
      ],
      "aar (0.1.0)": [
        [
          "apt",
          ">= 0.0.0"
        ]
      ]
    }
  }
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

PUT¶

The PUT method is used to create or update an association between a specific policy document, specific policy group, and specific policy revision.

This method has no parameters.

Request

PUT /organizations/NAME/GROUP/policies/NAME

with a request body similar to:

{
  "revision_id": "37f9b658cdd1d9319bac8920581723efcc2014304b5f3827ee0779e10ffbdcc9",
  "name": "aar",
  "run_list": [
    "recipe[aar::default]"
  ],
  "cookbook_locks": {
    "aar": {
      "version": "0.1.0",
      "identifier": "29648fe36333f573d5fe038a53256e23733618aa",
      "dotted_decimal_identifier": "11651043203167221.32604909279531813.121098535835818",
      "source": "cookbooks/aar",
      "cache_key": null,
      "scm_info": {
        "scm": "git",
        "remote": null,
        "revision": "a2c8cbb24a08625921d753cde36e8320465116c3",
        "working_tree_clean": false,
        "published": false,
        "synchronized_remote_branches": [
        ]
      },
      "source_options": {
        "path": "cookbooks/aar"
      }
    },
    "apt": {
      "version": "2.7.0",
      "identifier": "16c57abbd056543f7d5a15dabbb03261024a9c5e",
      "dotted_decimal_identifier": "6409580415309396.17870749399956400.55392231660638",
      "cache_key": "apt-2.7.0-supermarket.chef.io",
      "origin": "https://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/apt/versions/2.7.0/download",
      "source_options": {
        "artifactserver": "https://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/apt/versions/2.7.0/download",
        "version": "2.7.0"
      }
    }
  },
  "default_attributes": {
  },
  "override_attributes": {
  },
  "solution_dependencies": {
    "Policyfile": [
      [
        "aar",
        ">= 0.0.0"
      ],
      [
        "apt",
        "= 2.7.0"
      ],
    ],
    "dependencies": {
      "apt (2.7.0)": [
      ],
      "aar (0.1.0)": [
        [
          "apt",
          ">= 0.0.0"
        ]
      ]
    }
  }
}

Response

The response returns the policy details and is similar to:

{
  "revision_id": "37f9b658cdd1d9319bac8920581723efcc2014304b5f3827ee0779e10ffbdcc9",
  "name": "aar",
  "run_list": [
    "recipe[aar::default]"
  ],
  "cookbook_locks": {
    "aar": {
      "version": "0.1.0",
      "identifier": "29648fe36333f573d5fe038a53256e23733618aa",
      "dotted_decimal_identifier": "11651043203167221.32604909279531813.121098535835818",
      "source": "cookbooks/aar",
      "cache_key": null,
      "scm_info": {
        "scm": "git",
        "remote": null,
        "revision": "a2c8cbb24a08625921d753cde36e8320465116c3",
        "working_tree_clean": false,
        "published": false,
        "synchronized_remote_branches": [
        ]
      },
      "source_options": {
        "path": "cookbooks/aar"
      }
    },
    "apt": {
      "version": "2.7.0",
      "identifier": "16c57abbd056543f7d5a15dabbb03261024a9c5e",
      "dotted_decimal_identifier": "6409580415309396.17870749399956400.55392231660638",
      "cache_key": "apt-2.7.0-supermarket.chef.io",
      "origin": "https://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/apt/versions/2.7.0/download",
      "source_options": {
        "artifactserver": "https://supermarket.chef.io/api/v1/cookbooks/apt/versions/2.7.0/download",
        "version": "2.7.0"
      }
    }
  },
  "default_attributes": {
  },
  "override_attributes": {
  },
  "solution_dependencies": {
    "Policyfile": [
      [
        "aar",
        ">= 0.0.0"
      ],
      [
        "apt",
        "= 2.7.0"
      ],
    ],
    "dependencies": {
      "apt (2.7.0)": [
      ],
      "aar (0.1.0)": [
        [
          "apt",
          ">= 0.0.0"
        ]
      ]
    }
  }
}

Response Codes

Response Code	Description
`200`	OK. The request was successful.
`201`	Created. The object was created.
`401`	Unauthorized. The user or client who made the request could not be authenticated. Verify the user/client name, and that the correct key was used to sign the request.
`403`	Forbidden. The user who made the request is not authorized to perform the action.
`404`	Not found. The requested object does not exist.

New Config Settings¶

The following configuration settings are new for the Chef server:

Setting	Description
`estatsd['protocol']`	Use to send application statistics with StatsD protocol formatting. Set this value to `statsd` to apply StatsD protocol formatting.

What’s New in 12.0¶

The following items are new for Chef server 12:

Upgrades from Open Source Chef and Enterprise Chef servers to Chef 12 server Upgrades to Chef server 12 are supported from Enterprise Chef 11 high availability and standalone configurations and Open Source Chef 11 standalone configurations. View the topic Upgrade to Chef Server 12 for more information about these processes.
chef-server.rb configuration file is created by default Previous versions of the Chef server did not create the chef-server.rb file and users had to create the file first, before updates to tuneable settings could be made.
Pluggable high availability architecture Support for high availability now provides alternatives to DRBD, including using Amazon Web Services (AWS).
High availability using Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a supported high availability configuration option for the Chef server. Machines are stored as Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes. A passive node monitors the availabilty of the active node, and will take over if required.
Chef server replication Chef replication provides a way to asynchronously distribute cookbook, environment, role, and data bag data from a single, primary Chef server to one (or more) replicas of that Chef server.
New chef-server-ctl command line tool The chef-server-ctl command line tool is an update of the private-chef-ctl command line tool. All of the previous functionality remains, with some new commands added that are specific to Chef server version 12.
New command for installing features of the Chef server The install subcommand may be used to install Chef management console, Chef push jobs, Chef replication, and Reporting.
New commands for managing organizations New subcommands for the chef-server-ctl command line tool: org-user-add, org-create, org-delete, org-user-remove, org-list, and org-show.
New commands for managing users New subcommands for the chef-server-ctl command line tool: user-create, user-delete, user-edit, user-list, and user-show.
New command for log files Use the gather-logs command to create a tarball of important log files and system information.
Solr has been upgraded to Solr 4 The search capabilities of the Chef server now use Apache Solr 4. The config item for Apache Solr 4 has changed names from opscode-solr to opscode-solr4. Change /etc/opscode/chef-server.rb accordingly.
CouchDB removed CouchDB is no longer a component of the Chef server. All data is migrated to PostgreSQL.
Services removed The following services have been removed from the Chef server: opscode-account, opscode-certificate, oc_authz_migrator, opscode-org-creator, orgmapper, and opscode-webui. opscode-webui is replaced by the Chef management console.
private-chef.rb is now called chef-server.rb The name of the configuration file used by the Chef server has been changed. A symlink from private-chef.rb to chef-server.rb is created during upgrades from older versions of the Chef server.
New setting for the default organization name Use the default_orgname setting to ensure compatibility with Open Source Chef version 11.
New settings for oc_chef_authz The opscode-authz service handles authorization requests to the Chef server.
Organization policy changes Users must be removed from the admins security group before they can be removed from an organization. The chef-client is not granted Create, Delete, or Update permissions to data bags when organizations are created.
Administrators cannot be removed from organizations The Chef server requires that a member of an organization’s admins group cannot be removed from the organization without first being removed from the admins group.
New settings for managing LDAP encryption New settings that manage LDAP encryption have been added, existing settings have been deprecated.
New commands for managing keys The following commands are new: add-client-key, add-user-key, delete-client-key, delete-user-key, list-client-keys, and list-user-keys. (These are preview commands, new as-of the Chef server 12.0.3 release.)

Upgrade to Chef server 12!¶

Upgrades to Chef server 12 are supported for both Enterprise Chef and Open Source Chef users. See /server/upgrade_server.html for more information about upgrades. If you are upgrading from Open Source Chef, please see /server/upgrade_server_open_source_notes.html as well.

HA using AWS¶

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a supported high availability configuration option for the Chef server.

Backend servers make use of a single Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volume.

For more information about Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), see http://aws.amazon.com/ebs/.

View the topic High Availability: AWS for more information about how to set up the Chef server for high availability in Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Chef Replication¶

Chef replication provides a way to asynchronously distribute cookbook, environment, role, and data bag data from a single, primary Chef server to one (or more) replicas of that Chef server.

Scenarios

Replication is configured on a per-organization and also a per-replica basis. Each organization must be configured to synchronize with each replica instance. Each organization may be configured to synchronize with all, some, or none of the available replica instances.

For example, a single primary Chef server and a single replica:

and for example, a single primary Chef server and multiple replicas:

_images/chef_server_replication_many.png

Chef replication should not be used for:

Disaster recovery or backup/restore processes. The replication process is read-only and cannot be changed to read-write
Synchronizing a replica instance with another replica instance
Node re-registration. A node may be associated only with a single Chef server

How Replication Works

A daemon named ec-syncd runs on each of the replica instances of the Chef server and periodically polls the primary Chef server via the updated_since endpoint in the Chef server API. The ec-syncd daemon requests a list of objects that have been updated since the last successful synchronization time. If there are updates, the ec-syncd daemon then pulls down the updated data from the primary Chef server to the replica.

_images/chef_server_replication_sequence.png

View the topic Chef Replication for more information about how to set up the Chef server for replication.

chef-server-ctl¶

The command line tool for the Chef server has been renamed from private-chef-ctl to chef-server-ctl. The same set of subcommands available for private-chef-ctl are also available for chef-server-ctl, but with an updated syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl command

In addition, the install subcommand is added, plus two new subcommand groupings—org-* and user-*—have been added for managing organizations and users. See below for more information about these new subcommands.

install Command¶

The install subcommand is used to install premium features of the Chef server: Chef management console, Chef Analytics, chef-client run reporting, high availability configurations, Chef push jobs, and Chef server replication.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl install name_of_addon (options)

where name_of_addon represents the command line value associated with the add-on or premium feature.

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

--path PATH: Use to specify the location of a package. This option is not required when packages are downloaded from https://packages.chef.io/.

Use Downloads

The install subcommand downloads packages from https://packages.chef.io/ by default. For systems that are not behind a firewall (and have connectivity to https://packages.chef.io/), these packages can be installed as described below.

Feature Command

Chef Manage

Use Chef management console to manage data bags, attributes, run-lists, roles, environments, and cookbooks from a web user interface.

On the Chef server, run:

$ chef-server-ctl install chef-manage

then:

$ chef-server-ctl reconfigure

and then:

$ chef-manage-ctl reconfigure

Note

Starting with the Chef management console 2.3.0, the Chef MLSA must be accepted when reconfiguring the product. If the Chef MLSA has not already been accepted, the reconfigure process will prompt for a yes to accept it. Or run chef-manage-ctl reconfigure --accept-license to automatically accept the license.

Chef Push Jobs

Use Chef push jobs to run jobs—an action or a command to be executed—against nodes independently of a chef-client run.

On the Chef server, run:

$ chef-server-ctl install opscode-push-jobs-server

then:

$ chef-server-ctl reconfigure

and then:

$ opscode-push-jobs-server-ctl reconfigure

Reporting

Use Reporting to keep track of what happens during every chef-client runs across all of the infrastructure being managed by Chef. Run Reporting with Chef management console to view reports from a web user interface.

On the Chef server, run:

$ chef-server-ctl install opscode-reporting

then:

$ chef-server-ctl reconfigure

and then:

$ opscode-reporting-ctl reconfigure

Use Local Packages

The install subcommand downloads packages from https://packages.chef.io/ by default. For systems that are behind a firewall (and may not have connectivity to packages.chef.io), these packages can be downloaded from https://downloads.chef.io/chef-manage/, and then installed manually. First download the package that is appropriate for the platform, save it to a local path, and then run the install command using the --path option to specify the directory in which the package is located:

$ chef-server-ctl install PACKAGE_NAME --path /path/to/package/directory

For example:

$ chef-server-ctl install chef-manage --path /root/packages

The chef-server-ctl command will install the first chef-manage package found in the /root/packages directory.

gather-logs Command¶

The gather-logs subcommand is used to gather the Chef server log files into a tarball that contains all of the important log files and system information.

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl gather-logs

user-* Commands¶

The following subcommands can be used to manage users:

user-create¶

The user-create subcommand is used to create a user. (The validation key for the organization may be returned to STDOUT when creating a user with this command.)

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl user-create USER_NAME FIRST_NAME [MIDDLE_NAME] LAST_NAME EMAIL 'PASSWORD' (options)

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

-f FILE_NAME, --filename FILE_NAME: Write the USER.pem to a file instead of STDOUT.

Examples

$ chef-server-ctl user-create john_smith John Smith john_smith@example.com p@s5w0rD!

$ chef-server-ctl user-create jane_doe Jane Doe jane_doe@example.com p@s5w0rD! -f /tmp/jane_doe.key

$ chef-server-ctl user-create waldendude Henry David Thoreau waldendude@example.com excursions

user-delete¶

The user-delete subcommand is used to delete a user.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl user-delete USER_NAME

Examples

$ chef-server-ctl user-delete john_smith

$ chef-server-ctl user-delete jane_doe

user-edit¶

The user-edit subcommand is used to edit the details for a user. The data will be made available in the $EDITOR for editing.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl user-edit USER_NAME

Examples

$ chef-server-ctl user-edit john_smith

$ chef-server-ctl user-edit jane_doe

user-list¶

The user-list subcommand is used to view a list of users.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl user-list (options)

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

-w, --with-uri: Show the corresponding URIs.

user-show¶

The user-show subcommand is used to show the details for a user.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl user-show USER_NAME (options)

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

-l, --with-orgs: Show all organizations.

org-* Commands¶

The following subcommands can be used to manage organizations:

org-create¶

The org-create subcommand is used to create an organization. (The validation key for the organization is returned to STDOUT when creating an organization with this command.)

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl org-create ORG_NAME "ORG_FULL_NAME" (options)

where:

The name must begin with a lower-case letter or digit, may only contain lower-case letters, digits, hyphens, and underscores, and must be between 1 and 255 characters. For example: chef.
The full name must begin with a non-white space character and must be between 1 and 1023 characters. For example: "Chef Software, Inc.".

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

-a USER_NAME, --association_user USER_NAME: Associate a user with an organization and add them to the admins and billing_admins security groups.
-f FILE_NAME, --filename FILE_NAME: Write the ORGANIZATION-validator.pem to FILE_NAME instead of printing it to STDOUT.

Examples

$ chef-server-ctl org-create prod Production

$ chef-server-ctl org-create staging Staging -a chef-admin

$ chef-server-ctl org-create dev Development -f /tmp/id-dev.key

org-delete¶

The org-delete subcommand is used to delete an organization.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl org-delete ORG_NAME

Examples

$ chef-server-ctl org-delete infra-testing-20140909

$ chef-server-ctl org-delete pedant-testing-org

org-list¶

The org-list subcommand is used to list all of the organizations currently present on the Chef server.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl org-list (options)

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

-a, --all-orgs: Show all organizations.
-w, --with-uri: Show the corresponding URIs.

org-show¶

The org-show subcommand is used to show the details for an organization.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl org-show ORG_NAME

org-user-add¶

Warning

Early RC candidates for the Chef server 12 release named this command org-associate. This is the same command, with the exception of the --admin flag, which is added to the command (along with the rename) for the upcoming final release of Chef server 12.

The org-user-add subcommand is used to add a user to an organization.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl org-user-add ORG_NAME USER_NAME (options)

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

--admin: Add the user to the admins group.

Examples

$ chef-server-ctl org-user-add prod john_smith

$ chef-server-ctl org-user-add preprod testmaster

$ chef-server-ctl org-user-add dev grantmc --admin

org-user-remove¶

Warning

Early RC candidates for the Chef server 12 release named this command org-disociate. This is the same command, but renamed for the upcoming final release of Chef server 12.

The org-user-remove subcommand is used to remove a user from an organization.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl org-user-remove ORG_NAME USER_NAME (options)

Examples

$ chef-server-ctl org-user-remove prod john_smith

$ chef-server-ctl org-user-remove prod testmaster

Configuration Settings¶

The name of the Chef server configuration file is now chef-server.rb.

The following configuration settings are new for Chef server version 12:

Setting Description

default_orgname The Chef server API used by the Open Source Chef server does not have an /organizations/ORG_NAME endpoint. Use this setting to ensure that migrated Open Source Chef servers are able to connect to the Chef server API. This value should be the same as the name of the organization that was created during the upgrade from Open Source Chef version 11 to Chef server version 12, which means it will be identical to the ORG_NAME part of the /organizations endpoint in Chef server version 12. Default value: the name of the organization specified during the upgrade process from Open Source Chef 11 to Chef server 12.

postgresql['log_min_duration_statement'] When to log a slow PostgreSQL query statement. Possible values: -1 (disabled, do not log any statements), 0 (log every statement), or an integer greater than zero. When the integer is greater than zero, this value is the amount of time (in milliseconds) that a query statement must have run before it is logged. Default value: -1.

The following configuration settings have updated default values starting with Chef server version 12:

Setting	Description
`api_version`	The version of the Chef server. Default value: `"12.0.0"`.

The following configuration settings are new in Chef server version 12.0.5:

Setting	Description
`opscode_erchef['nginx_bookshelf_caching']`	Whether Nginx is used to cache cookbooks. When `:on`, Nginx serves up the cached content instead of forwarding the request. Default value: `:off`.
`opscode_erchef['s3_url_expiry_window_size']`	The frequency at which unique URLs are generated. This value may be a specific amount of time, i.e. `15m` (fifteen minutes) or a percentage of the value of `s3_url_ttl`, i.e. `10%`. Default value: `:off`.

oc_chef_authz¶

The opscode-authz service is used to handle authorization requests to the Chef server.

This configuration file has the following settings for oc_chef_authz:

oc_chef_authz['http_cull_interval']: Default value: '{1, min}'.
oc_chef_authz['http_init_count']: Default value: 25.
oc_chef_authz['http_max_age']: Default value: '{70, sec}'.
oc_chef_authz['http_max_connection_duration']: Default value: '{70, sec}'.
oc_chef_authz['http_max_count']: Default value: 100.
oc_chef_authz['ibrowse_options']: The amount of time (in milliseconds) to wait for a connection to be established. Default value: '[{connect_timeout, 5000}]'.

Data Bag Policy Changes¶

In previous versions of the Chef server, the default permissions allowed data bags to be updated by the chef-client during a chef-client run. Starting with Chef server version 12, the chef-client is not granted Create, Delete, or Update permissions to data bags when organizations are created. Use the Chef management console or the knife-acl plugin (https://github.com/chef/knife-acl) to manage permissions to data bags as required. For example:

$ knife acl add containers data update group clients

For cookbooks that create or delete data bags:

$ knife acl add containers data create group clients

$ knife acl add containers data delete group clients

For existing organizations that want to remove the Create, Delete, or Update permissions from existing nodes:

$ knife acl remove containers data update group clients

$ knife acl remove containers data delete group clients

$ knife acl remove containers data create group clients

See this blog post for more information about the knife-acl plugin: https://www.chef.io/blog/2014/11/10/security-update-hosted-chef/

New Settings for LDAP¶

The following settings are new:

Setting	Description
`ldap['ssl_enabled']`	Use to enable SSL. Default value: `false`. Must be `false` when `ldap['tls_enabled']` is `true`.
`ldap['tls_enabled']`	Use to enable TLS. When enabled, communication with the LDAP server is done via a secure SSL connection on a dedicated port. When `true`, `ldap['port']` is also set to `636`. Default value: `false`. Must be `false` when `ldap['ssl_enabled']` is `true`.

Note

Previous versions of the Chef server used the ldap['ssl_enabled'] setting to first enable SSL, and then the ldap['encryption'] setting to specify the encryption type. These settings are deprecated.

Key Rotation¶

Use the following commands to manage public and private key rotation for users and clients.

add-client-key¶

Use the add-client-key subcommand to add a client key.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl add-client-key ORG_NAME CLIENT_NAME [--public-key-path PATH] [--expiration-date DATE] [--key-name NAME]

Warning

All options for this subcommand must follow all arguments.

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

CLIENT_NAME: The name of the client that you wish to add a key for.
-e DATE --expiration-date DATE: An ISO 8601 formatted string: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ. For example: 2013-12-24T21:00:00Z. If not passed, expiration will default to infinity.
-k NAME --key-name NAME: String defining the name of your new key for this client. If not passed, it will default to the fingerprint of the public key.
ORG_NAME: The short name for the organization to which the client belongs.
-p PATH --public-key-path PATH: The location to a file containing valid PKCS#1 public key to be added. If not passed, then the server will generate a new one for you and return the private key to STDOUT.

add-user-key¶

Use the add-user-key subcommand to add a user key.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl add-user-key USER_NAME [--public-key-path PATH] [--expiration-date DATE] [--key-name NAME]

Warning

All options for this subcommand must follow all arguments.

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

-e DATE --expiration-date DATE: An ISO 8601 formatted string: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ. For example: 2013-12-24T21:00:00Z. If not passed, expiration will default to infinity.
-k NAME --key-name NAME: String defining the name of your new key for this user. If not passed, it will default to the fingerprint of the public key.
-p PATH --public-key-path PATH: The location to a file containing valid PKCS#1 public key to be added. If not passed, then the server will generate a new one for you and return the private key to STDOUT.
USER_NAME: The user name for the user for which a key is added.

delete-client-key¶

Use the delete-client-key subcommand to delete a client key.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl delete-client-key ORG_NAME CLIENT_NAME KEY_NAME

Options

This subcommand has the following arguments:

ORG_NAME: The short name for the organization to which the client belongs.
CLIENT_NAME: The name of the client.
KEY_NAME: The unique name to be assigned to the key you wish to delete.

delete-user-key¶

Use the delete-user-key subcommand to delete a user key.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl delete-user-key USER_NAME KEY_NAME

Warning

The parameters for this subcommand must be in the order specified above.

Options

This subcommand has the following arguments:

USER_NAME: The user name.
KEY_NAME: The unique name to be assigned to the key you wish to delete.

list-client-key¶

Use the list-client-keys subcommand to list client keys.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl list-client-keys ORG_NAME CLIENT_NAME [--verbose]

Warning

All options for this subcommand must follow all arguments.

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

CLIENT_NAME: The name of the client.
ORG_NAME: The short name for the organization to which the client belongs.
--verbose: Use to show the full public key strings in command output.

list-user-key¶

Use the list-user-keys subcommand to list client keys.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl list-user-keys USER_NAME [--verbose]

Warning

All options for this subcommand must follow all arguments.

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

USER_NAME: The user name you wish to list keys for.
--verbose: Use to show the full public key strings in command output.

Example

$ chef-server-ctl list-user-keys applejack

Returns:

2 total key(s) found for user applejack

key_name: test-key
expires_at: Infinity
public_key:
-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEA4q9Dh+bwJSjhU/VI4Y8s
9WsbIPfpmBpoZoZVPL7V6JDfIaPUkdcSdZpynhRLhQwv9ScTFh65JwxC7wNhVspB
4bKZeW6vugNGwCyBIemMfxMlpKZQDOc5dnBiRMMOgXSIimeiFtL+NmMXnGBBHDaE
b+XXI8oCZRx5MTnzEs90mkaCRSIUlWxOUFzZvnv4jBrhWsd/yBM/h7YmVfmwVAjL
VST0QG4MnbCjNtbzToMj55NAGwSdKHCzvvpWYkd62ZOquY9f2UZKxYCX0bFPNVQM
EvBQGdNG39XYSEeF4LneYQKPHEZDdqe7TZdVE8ooU/syxlZgADtvkqEoc4zp1Im3
2wIDAQAB
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----

key_name: default
expires_at: Infinity
public_key:
-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEA4q9Dh+bwJSjhU/VI4Y8s
9WsbIPfpmBpoZoZVPL7V6JDfIaPUkdcSdZpynhRLhQwv9ScTFh65JwxC7wNhVspB
4bKZeW6vugNGwCyBIemMfxMlpKZQDOc5dnBiRMMOgXSIimeiFtL+NmMXnGBBHDaE
b+XXI8oCZRx5MTnzEs90mkaCRSIUlWxOUFzZvnv4jBrhWsd/yBM/h7YmVfmwVAjL
VST0QG4MnbCjNtbzToMj55NAGwSdKHCzvvpWYkd62ZOquY9f2UZKxYCX0bFPNVQM
EvBQGdNG39XYSEeF4LneYQKPHEZDdqe7TZdVE8ooU/syxlZgADtvkqEoc4zp1Im3
2wIDAQAB
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----

Changelog¶

For the list of issues that were addressed for this release, please see the changelog on GitHub: https://github.com/chef/chef-server/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md