Welcome to the Chef Wiki!

Chef is a systems integration framework, built to bring the benefits of configuration management to your entire infrastructure.

With Chef, you can:

Manage your servers by writing code, not by running commands. (via Cookbooks)
Integrate tightly with your applications, databases, LDAP directories, and more. (via Libraries)
Easily configure applications that require knowledge about your entire infrastructure ("What systems are running my application?" "What is the current master database server?") (via Search)
Create perfect clones of QA environments, pre-production environments, partner preview environments and more. (via Environments)

Once automated, you hold a blueprint for your infrastructure, enabling you to build, or rebuild, automatically in minutes or hours – not weeks or months. Better still, when you take those environments live and reality intrudes - which, trust us, it will - Chef gives you endless flexibility to adapt on the fly.

It works the way you want it to:

We provide the building blocks that help you to accomplish your goals. At the end of the day, it's about your infrastructure being easy to manage. Chef provides the horse-power to get you to where you need to be - it doesn't start out telling you where you should be going.

The open-source systems integration framework built specifically for automating the cloud	Some central concepts for obtaining configuration management benefits in your infrastructure
Tell me why! Should I use Chef? What is Chef anyway? What are Chef's core principles? How many types of Chef are there? How is it licensed and why?	New to Chef? Start Here! Includes an Architecture Introduction, an overview of the Chef concepts and terminology, an Introduction to cookbooks, recipes, resources, and roles, and an Introduction to Search and Data Bags
There are several clients for interacting with a Chef Server, Hosted or Private Chef, or Chef Solo	Understand these essential components for utilizing the full capability and power of Chef
How does Chef run? Understand the architecture Understand the authentication and authorization models applied, the anatomy of a chef-client run within the architecture, architectural components the Chef Client, Chef Server, and Chef Solo, interaction with the REST API and more.	Ready for more in-depth information? Dive into Details An in depth exploration of all the features and functions of Chef Explore Cookbooks more fully Reach into Attributes, Definitions, Environments, Exception and Report Handlers, Resources, Roles, Ohai, and more.
No matter the complexity of your business, Chef makes it easy to deploy servers and scale applications across infrastructure	Manage your infrastructure via command line, a WebUI, an irb session, and through adding plugins for additional functionality
Ready to start automating? Install Chef! Set up your Chef Workstation, OS specific installation instructions for Installing Chef Client and Chef Solo, or Installing the Open Source Chef Server. Upgrade Instructions Use of Vagrant for building and distributing virtualized development environments.	Manage your Infrastructure: With Chef Use of Knife - the powerful Chef command line utility to bootstrap new nodes, launch cloud instances and more. The Management Console WebUI Interface, Use of Shef for running in an irb session, Community Plugins to extend Chef, Ohai and Knife, Spiceweasel for batch-loading, and more.
Reference documentation and related information - Read up here!	Walkthrough Guides, Webcasts, Tutorials, Training - Learn here!
Want to broaden your understanding? Read up! A Can of Condensed Chef Documentation with a Glossary of terms, technologies and concepts. Reference material on the Chef Configuration Settings and Just Enough Ruby for Chef, along with Chef OmniGraffle & Visio Stencils. Release Notes for each version All the Getting Started Docs, community member books and reference cards, and more.	Seeking Instruction? Learn Here! Walkthrough guides and webcasts to go step by step through installing 6 common server stacks including a rails stack, a java web stack, and others. “How To Guides” including a Guide to Creating A Cookbook and Writing A Recipe, Deploying OpenStack with Chef and more. Multiple excellent tutorials put together by Chef community members, and Access to training courses and materials.
The Chef Open Source Community - Join and Contribute here!	Need assistance? You have support!
Want to Contribute? Join the Community! When you use Chef, you join a vibrant community of professionals. Here you'll find How to Contribute and Approved Contributors. The Release MVPs from the Community, The Release Process for Opscode Open Source Projects. Feature Proposals that are larger than a more standard request, and more. Gather with fellow Chefs and others facing similar challenges - come to a Community Event! Official Community Events, including: FoodFight - a bi-weekly Chef Community Podcast, Opscode Events, MeetUps and Conferences we're attending, and the inaugural Opscode Community Summit 1 plus #chefconf: the Chef User Conference.	Seeking Help? You have Support! Supportresources for all Chef users - including: Common Errors, and a Troubleshooting and Technical FAQ. Real-time interactive community support from IRC, with IRC logs to review previous discussions. You can sign up for Chef Mailing Lists File an Open Source Ticket You can also follow us on Twitter through @opscode The Opscode Blog is updated regularly with company and product information, and has an RSS feed for your convenience. *Hosted and Private Chef users can also receive support by contacting* *support@opscode.com*. Periodic maintenance is announced in advance via the Opscode Status site, as are any emergent issues with availability. Sign up for @opscode_status for timely notice of any information on Hosted Chef availability and performance.