Manage Multiple Nodes at Once with Chef Server - Learning Chef - page 205

The <organization>.pem file is a unique identifier used to authenticate your organization
against Chef Server. This should be treated like a password, but it must also be shared among
all your Chef developers. Anyone needing access to your Chef organization will also need a
copy of this file. Do not alter the contents of this file.
Figure 9-9. Click on your username link
RSA KEY-PAIRS
Chef .pem files contain the RSA private key generated during the signup process. Chef generates
an RSA key-pair for your organization for you to download. The associated public key is stored
on the Enterprise Chef Server and used to authenticate your organization when programs make re-
quests to the server.
Unlike a .pem file, the knife.rb file is meant to be edited, altered, and customized. The
knife.rb file is recognized as Ruby and read by Chef when it issues commands: