chef_data_bag_item

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Warning

This functionality is available with Chef provisioning and is packaged in the Chef development kit. Chef provisioning is a framework that allows clusters to be managed by the chef-client and the Chef server in the same way nodes are managed: with recipes. Use Chef provisioning to describe, version, deploy, and manage clusters of any size and complexity using a common set of tools.

A data bag is a container of related data bag items, where each individual data bag item is a JSON file. knife can load a data bag item by specifying the name of the data bag to which the item belongs and then the filename of the data bag item. The only structural requirement of a data bag item is that it must have an id:

{
  /* This is a supported comment style */
  // This style is also supported
  "id": "ITEM_NAME",
  "key": "value"
}

where

  • key and value are the key:value pair for each additional attribute within the data bag item
  • /* ... */ and // ... show two ways to add comments to the data bag item

Use the chef_data_bag_item resource to manage data bag items.

Syntax

The syntax for using the chef_data_bag_item resource in a recipe is as follows:

chef_data_bag_item 'name' do
  attribute 'value' # see properties section below
  ...
  action :action # see actions section below
end

where

  • chef_data_bag_item tells the chef-client to use the Chef::Provider::ChefDataBagItem provider during the chef-client run
  • name is the name of the resource block and also the name of the data bag item
  • attribute is zero (or more) of the properties that are available for this resource
  • action identifies which steps the chef-client will take to bring the node into the desired state

Actions

This resource has the following actions:

:create
Default. Use to create a data bag item.
:delete
Use to delete a data bag item.
:nothing
Define this resource block to do nothing until notified by another resource to take action. When this resource is notified, this resource block is either run immediately or it is queued up to be run at the end of the Chef Client run.

Properties

This resource has the following properties:

chef_server
The URL for the Chef server.
complete
Use to specify if this resource defines a data bag item completely. When true, any property not specified by this resource will be reset to default property values.
encrypt
Use to specify whether encryption is used for a data bag item.
encryption_version
The minimum required version of data bag encryption. Possible values: 0, 1, and 2. When all of the machines in an organization are running chef-client version 11.6 (or higher), it is recommended that this value be set to 2.
ignore_failure

Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false

Continue running a recipe if a resource fails for any reason.

notifies

Ruby Type: Symbol, ‘Chef::Resource[String]’

A resource may notify another resource to take action when its state changes. Specify a 'resource[name]', the :action that resource should take, and then the :timer for that action. A resource may notify more than one resource; use a notifies statement for each resource to be notified.

A timer specifies the point during the Chef Client run at which a notification is run. The following timers are available:

:before
Specifies that the action on a notified resource should be run before processing the resource block in which the notification is located.
:delayed
Default. Specifies that a notification should be queued up, and then executed at the end of the Chef Client run.
:immediate, :immediately
Specifies that a notification should be run immediately, per resource notified.

The syntax for notifies is:

notifies :action, 'resource[name]', :timer
raw_data
Use to create a data bag from a local file from ./data_bags/bag_name/file.
raw_json

The data bag item as JSON data. For example:

{
  "id": "adam",
  "real_name": "Adam Brent Jacob"
}
retries

Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value: 0

The number of times to catch exceptions and retry the resource.

retry_delay

Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value: 2

The retry delay (in seconds).

subscribes

Ruby Type: Symbol, ‘Chef::Resource[String]’

A resource may listen to another resource, and then take action if the state of the resource being listened to changes. Specify a 'resource[name]', the :action to be taken, and then the :timer for that action.

Note that subscribes does not apply the specified action to the resource that it listens to - for example:

file '/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt' do
   mode '0600'
   owner 'root'
end

service 'nginx' do
   subscribes :reload, 'file[/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt]', :immediately
end

In this case the subscribes property reloads the nginx service whenever its certificate file, located under /etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt, is updated. subscribes does not make any changes to the certificate file itself, it merely listens for a change to the file, and executes the :reload action for its resource (in this example nginx) when a change is detected.

A timer specifies the point during the Chef Client run at which a notification is run. The following timers are available:

:before
Specifies that the action on a notified resource should be run before processing the resource block in which the notification is located.
:delayed
Default. Specifies that a notification should be queued up, and then executed at the end of the Chef Client run.
:immediate, :immediately
Specifies that a notification should be run immediately, per resource notified.

The syntax for subscribes is:

subscribes :action, 'resource[name]', :timer

Examples

None.