Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 9. Manage Multiple Nodes at
Once with Chef Server
We've shown you how much you can do with Chef without ever needing to install its server
component. However, to get the full benefits of Chef, you need to set up a Chef Server in
your production environment. Using a Chef Server is recommended when you need to man-
age more than one machine at a time with Chef, which is typically how Chef is used. Chef
Server adds more capabilities that can be used in your cookbooks, including roles, environ-
ments, data bags, and powerful search.
As of this writing, there are three flavors of Chef Server, as detailed in
Table 9-1
. Although
there are subtle differences, they all contain common features, including an API endpoint,
data bags, environments, node objects, roles, and search. Some of these terms are new; we
will cover them in the remaining chapters of the topic.
Table 9-1. Types of Chef Server
Flavor
Details
Hosted
Enterprise
Chef
Formerly called Hosted Chef, Hosted Enterprise Chef is “Chef as a Service”—software as a ser-
vice. It is cloud-based and highly scalable, and comes with an industry-standard service-level
agreement. It requires no setup or configuration of the server itself.
Enterprise
Chef On-
Premises
Enterprise Chef On-Premises, formerly called Private Chef, is a Chef Server inside an organiza-
tion's firewall. It is designed to be deployed inside an organization's infrastructure, and includes
additional features on top of Hosted Enterprise Chef. Enterprise Chef On-Premises is most useful
to organizations that must comply with HIPAA or PCI compliance issues, large organizations
that wish to manage their own servers, and companies that require tight control and auditing of
data.
Open
Source
Chef
Server
As the name suggests, Open Source Chef Server is a free, open source version of Chef Server
that includes a subset of premium Chef Server features available in Enterprise Chef, most useful
to small organizations.
