Applying Chef roles to environments

Chef roles describe automation tasks to be run on a target system. You can apply roles to images in a blueprint.

Before you begin

Note: These instructions are for using Chef when you provision environments on cloud systems via OpenStack Heat. To use Chef in component processes, see the Chef automation plugin.

Chef roles are supported on only OpenStack, VMware, and SoftLayer clouds.
Connect to a Chef server. See Integrating with Chef.
Configure your images to work with Chef. See Creating Chef-compatible images.
Connect the blueprint design server to a cloud system. See Connecting to clouds through OpenStack Heat.

About this task

When you provision an environment that includes Chef roles, the virtual image contacts the Chef server, downloads the associated roles and cookbooks, and runs the specified automation.

Procedure

In a blueprint, add one or more images. These images must be configured to work with Chef as described in Creating Chef-compatible images.
From the Components palette drawer, drag one or more Chef roles to the images. Two resources are added to the blueprint source code for each Chef role. The OS::Heat::SoftwareDeployment resource type represents the deployment instance of the role, and the OS::Heat::SoftwareConfig resource type represents the configuration properties for the role, including its inputs and outputs.
Note: When you add a Chef role to an image, the name property is removed from the image. When you use a Chef role on an image, the engine generates a unique name for the image automatically.
Specify the properties for the OS::Heat::SoftwareDeployment.
- Set the ENV_NAME property. This property must have the name of an environment on the Chef server. By default, Chef servers have an environment that is named _default. This environment must exist on the Chef server. The blueprint design server does not create environments on the Chef server. Do not confuse Chef environments with cloud environments. For information about Chef environments, see http://docs.chef.io/environments.html.
- Optional: Assign the Chef node name. To assign the node name, specify a value in the NODE_NAME property, as shown in the following code.
```
  Chef_tutorial:
    type: OS::Heat::SoftwareDeployment
    properties:
      config: { get_resource: Chef_tutorial_sw_config }
      server: { get_resource: rhel-7-chef_image }
      input_values:
        CHEF_SERVER_URL: { get_param: chef_server_url }
        CHEF_VALID_PEM_URL: { get_param: chef_valid_pem_url }
        ENV_NAME: { get_param: chef_env }
        VALIDATOR_NAME: { get_param: chef_validator_name }
        RUN_LIST: "role[tutorial]"
        NODE_NAME: Tutorial_node
        CHEF_METADATA:
      actions:
        - CREATE
        - DELETE
```
  If you do not specify a value, the fully qualified host name of the server that you create is the Chef node name.
  
  Note: If you place multiple Chef roles on the same instance, set the NODE_NAME property for only the first role that you run. To specify the deployment order of the roles, see Deploying components with blueprints.
- Optional: Set any metadata for the Chef role in the CHEF_METADATA section. By providing values in the CHEF_METADATA property, you can set attributes for the Chef role. For an example of using CHEF_METADATA, see Using output properties from a Chef recipe.

Results

When you provision environments from this blueprint, the Chef server applies the roles to the environments. If any of the Chef roles fails, the provisioning process fails, in the same way as a step in a process fails.

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