private_key¶

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.

Use the private_key resource to create, delete, and regenerate private keys, including RSA, DSA, and .pem file keys.

Syntax¶

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

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

where

private_key tells the chef-client to use the Chef::Provider::PrivateKey provider during the chef-client run
name is the name of the resource block; when the path property is not specified as part of a recipe, name is also the name of the private key
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 an RSA private key.
:delete: Use to delete an RSA private key.
: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.
:regenerate: Use to regenerate an RSA private key.

Properties¶

This resource has the following properties:

cipher

Use to specify the cipher for a .pem file. Default value: DES-EDE3-CBC.

exponent

Use to specify the exponent for an RSA private key. This is always an odd integer value, often a prime Fermat number, and typically 5, 17, 257, or 65537.

format

Use to specify the format of a private key. Possible values: pem and der. Default value: pem.

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

pass_phrase

Use to specify the pass phrase for a .pem file.

path

Use to specify the path to a private key. Set to none to create a private key in-memory and not on-disk. Default value: the name of the resource block. See “Syntax” section above for more information.

public_key_format

Use to specify the format of a public key. Possible values: der, openssh, and pem. Default value: openssh.

public_key_path

The path to a public key.

regenerate_if_different

Use to regenerate a private key if it does not have the desired size, type, and so on. Default value: false.

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).

size

Use to specify the size of an RSA or DSA private key. Default value: 2048.

source_key

Use to copy a private key, but apply a different format and password. Use in conjunction with source_key_pass_phrase` and source_key_path.

source_key_pass_phrase

The pass phrase for the private key. Use in conjunction with source_key` and source_key_path.

source_key_path

The path to the private key. Use in conjunction with source_key` and source_key_pass_phrase.

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

type

Use to specify the type of private key. Possible values: dsa and rsa. Default value: rsa.

Examples¶

None.