Walkthrough: Running Chef cookbooks from the BMC Server Automation console

In the BSA console, select Actions > Chef > Create Chef Agent Bundle. 

Select the location of Chef Solo Agent installer file on the Select Chef Agent Installable Sources dialog box and click OK to import the Chef Solo installer.

The Create Chef Agent Bundle General dialog box is displayed.

1. On the Create Chef Agent Bundle General dialog box, verify the location of the Chef Agent installer, and specify the version of the Chef Agent. 
2. Specify the the location of the Ruby installer, as well as any dependent installers.
3. Specify the OS details of the target server.
4. Click Finish.

Completing this wizard automatically executes the Chef Packager Script Job NSH script job, as you can see in the Tasks in progress pane.

This job creates several artifacts in the console folders:

• A Depot folder named Agent under the Chef > ChefContent Depot folder. This folder has all installers that you just uploaded as well as a BLPackage for the Chef-solo Agent and Ruby installables.
• A Jobs folder named Agent under the Chef > ChefContent Job folder. This folder has the deploy job for deploying the Chef-Solo Agent and Ruby installers.

Import the JSON files for Chef Data Bags, Role and Environments to the corresponding Depot folders under Chef > ChefContent > ChefAccessories.

To add a file to a folder:

1. Right-click the depot folder where you want to add a file. 
2. From the pop-up menu, select New > File.
3. Provide information for the file by completing the panels in the wizard.  
4. Click Finish to close the wizard and save your changes.

Next, we need to add the cookbook to the Depot.

Select Actions > Chef > Create Cookbook Bundle.

Next, you need to import the Chef cookbook, roles, environment, and databags. 

1. Select a cookbook that was previously created or downloaded. In this example, we select a Chef Cookbook that includes two recipes: on that installs Java and one that creates a license file on target.
2. Click OK.

Note: If desired, you can import an individual recipe instead of the whole cookbook.

1. On the Create Chef CookBook Bundle dialog box, select the JSON file for the node (node_web.json). The JSON file contains the run list and attributes for the cookbook.
2. Specify a data bag name in the Data Bag Name field.. 
3. Click the Add button () and select one or more JSON files for each of the following to import them into the Depot:
   1. Data Bags
   2. Roles
   3. Environments 
4. Click Finish.

Completing this wizard executes the Chef Cookbook2BlPkgScript Job, as shown in the Tasks in progress bar to the right.

This job creates several artifacts in the console folders:

• A Depot folder named CookBooks under the Chef > ChefContent folder. This folder has a sub folder with the name of the cookbook you imported. The sub folder contains the node.json file, .the tar.gz file, and the BLPackage that was created for the cookbook.
• Jobs folder named CookBooks under the Chef > ChefContent folder. This folder has a sub folder with the name of the cookbook you imported. The sub folder contains a Deploy Job for the cookbook. The sub-folder also has a Batch Job which contains the Deploy Job for both the Chef-Solo Agent and Chef Cookbook.

Depot folder

Job folder

The next step is to execute the batch job (shown in the example to the right) against the target on which you want to install Chef Solo and run the Chef Cookbook.

1. Right-click the job and select Execute against.
2. On the Targets panel, select the server on which to run the cook book.
3. Select OK.

The Batch Job copies and installs Chef-solo and Ruby on the target if the target does not have them already installed. It then deploys the cookbooks to the target and executes them through the Chef-solo Agent. You can evaluate the results of the Batch Job run and the Deploy Job run to see the status of the cookbook deployment.

Verify that the cookbook was successfully executed on the target.

For example, using the command line in the figure to the right indicates that both Java and the license file have been installed.

Import the JSON files for Chef Data Bags, Role and Environments to the corresponding Depot folders under Chef > ChefContent > ChefAccessories.

To add a file to a folder:

1. Right-click the depot folder where you want to add a file. 
2. From the pop-up menu, select New > File.
3. Provide information for the file by completing the panels in the wizard.  
4. Click Finish to close the wizard and save your changes.

Next, we need to add the cookbook to the Depot.

Select Actions > Chef > Create Cookbook Bundle.

Next, you need to import the Chef cookbook, roles, environment, and databags. 

1. Select a cookbook that was previously created or downloaded. In this example, we select a Chef Cookbook that includes two recipes: on that installs Java and one that creates a license file on target.
2. Click OK.

Note: If desired, you can import an individual recipe instead of the whole cookbook.

1. On the Create Chef CookBook Bundle dialog box, select the JSON file for the node (node_web.json). The JSON file contains the run list and attributes for the cookbook.
2. Specify a data bag name in the Data Bag Name field.. 
3. Click the Add button () and select one or more JSON files for each of the following to import them into the Depot:
   1. Data Bags
   2. Roles
   3. Environments 
4. Click Finish.

Completing this wizard executes the Chef Cookbook2BlPkgScript Job, as shown in the Tasks in progress bar to the right.

This job creates several artifacts in the console folders:

• A Depot folder named CookBooks under the Chef > ChefContent folder. This folder has a sub folder with the name of the cookbook you imported. The sub folder contains the node.json file, .the tar.gz file, and the BLPackage that was created for the cookbook.
• Jobs folder named CookBooks under the Chef > ChefContent folder. This folder has a sub folder with the name of the cookbook you imported. The sub folder contains a Deploy Job for the cookbook. The sub-folder also has a Batch Job which contains the Deploy Job for both the Chef-Solo Agent and Chef Cookbook.

Depot folder

Job folder

Run the Deploy Job created in the previous step to execute the Chef cookbook on the target development server.

This job deploys the cookbook to the target and executes it through the Chef-solo Agent. You can evaluate the results of the Deploy Job run to see the status of the cookbook deployment.