Chef Server

The Chef Server provides a central point for the distribution of Cookbooks, management & authentication of Nodes, and the use of Search Indexes. It provides two layers of functionality - a REST API and a human-readable Web Interface.

Web Interface Feedback

The original web interface was a bit ugly, and we think it's a lot better now. If you think of improvements, please file a ticket under Chef, Improvement, Chef Server component.

Table of Contents

Overview
Cookbooks
Nodes
Search Indexes
You must run two servers!
Command Line
CouchDB
Stomp
Securing Chef Server
Chef Server Configuration

Overview

The Chef Server is a Merb application.

Cookbooks

The Chef Server distributes Cookbooks to Chef Clients - specifically, it distributes:

Directly to each node. This means that every node has every Library, Attribute, Definition and Recipe from every Cookbook!.

The Server also serves up Files and Templates on an as-needed basis.

Nodes

The Chef Server provides for the management and authentication of Nodes via OpenID. See the Nodes section for more details on how to manage Nodes.

Search Indexes

Chef Server provides the front-end to the Search Indexes created by Chef Indexer. See the Search Indexes section for information on how to use the Web Interface to search the indexes.

You must run two servers!

When you are deploying the Chef Server, you must be running two Chef Server processes on different ports. This is a side-effect of OpenID.

Command Line

The Chef Server command is chef-server. It is a Merb application, and it's command line is essentially a slightly tweaked version of Merb's own command line interface. The important thing here is to use the -c 2 option whenever running chef-server, to make sure you run two servers.

CouchDB

Chef Server utilizes CouchDB for storing data about Nodes and OpenID Registrations. CouchDB currently does not have any access control - so make sure you are running CouchDB on the local loopback interface of your Chef Server.

Stomp

The Chef Server sends events to the Chef Indexer via Stomp - see the Chef Indexer#Stomp section for more information.

Securing Chef Server

As the server can contain sensitive information about nodes, please read Securing Chef Server for information on further locking down your Chef Server.

Chef Server Configuration

Since the Chef Server is a Merb application, there's a variety of ways to configure it. To learn more, read about Chef Server Configuration Stacks.