Migrate databases to and from AWS RDS instances
Amazon Web Services do not provide tools to migrate data to, from and between AWS RDS instances. There is a free utility that can do the job. SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) Install Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), because the utility…
Launch Windows instances locally with Chef Test Kitchen
Most Linux distributions are free, and do not require product keys to launch them. The steps below are based on the great article at http://kitchen.ci/blog/test-kitchen-windows-test-flight-with-vagrant/ I have summarized the steps below to create a free…
Serialize SSH and RSA private keys to store them in a Chef Data Bag
To send RSA private keys to instances, store them in encrypted data bags. The data bag item is a JSON file that contains keys and values inline. Use base64 encoding Base64 encoding converts binary data to ASCII format to represent special characters,…
HTTP Request Returned 409 Conflict: Client already exists
The Chef server maintains the list of registered nodes and clients in its database. When you launch a new instance with Chef you may encounter the following error message: *** Input CHEF_CLIENT_NODE_NAME is undefined, using: IP-0AFE6965 ... *** Starting…
DevOps Engineering part 7. – Launching production instances in the cloud
In the previous parts of this tutorial we have launched instances (servers) in the cloud, but those were created by Test Kitchen, running on our workstation. Those instances are as good as they can be, but the cookbook did not reside on the Chef server.…
DevOps Engineering part 5. – Create an enterprise cookbook
In this exercise we will create a Chef cookbook for a corporation. It will be robust and include all the necessary elements to be used in a large enterprise. If your company already has established standards, as you progress with this tutorial, copy the…
DevOps Engineering part 4. – Connect to the Chef server
Find a Chef Server To work in a corporate environment, your organization needs access to a Chef server. To learn Chef and test your cookbooks for free, you can create an account on the “hosted” Chef server, maintained by the Chef company. The…
Remove Policyfile.rb from your Chef cookbook
When you test your cookbook in Chef Test Kitchen and get the following error, delete the “Policyfile.rb” from your Chef cookbook directory. $$$$$$ You must set your run_list in your policyfile instead of kitchen config. The run_list your…
Chef Data Bags
Create an encrypted Chef data bag There are secrets in most of the Chef cookbooks that we want to protect. We don’t want to give out user names, passwords and AWS keys. In Chef the best place to hide these secrets is the Encrypted Data Bag. A Data…
DevOps Engineering part 2. – Create and test your first cookbook in 5 minutes
In the first part of the series, Beginner’s Guide to DevOps Engineering Part 1. we have already installed the DevOps development tools. Create and test your first cookbook in 5 minutes Set up the Chef working folder Create a folder for the Chef…