PowerPoint Presentation

Managing Your VMware Infrastructure with ChefAn intro to Chef and the various tools you can use to administer your VMware environment

Yvo van DoornOpscode, Inc.

A quick agendaQuick overview of Chef (some basic lingo & concepts)Integration pointsDemo of vagrant & VMware FusionDemo of knife-vsphere & VMware vCenterQ&A Chef A quick introductionChef A quick overviewChef is an Configuration Management ToolThink Chef as Infrastructure as CodeChefs server is completely API driven. Uses an utility called knife on a workstation to talk to the Chef serverChef client is written in Ruby, but you do not need to learn Ruby to use Chef.Chef supports Linux variants, Unix variants and Windows, all as first class citizens.Comes in two flavors: Open source & Enterprise Chef.

Chef Lets break down the terms: ResourceA resource is a definition of an action that can be taken.Example would be the installation of a package or maintaining a configuration file.The chef-client will parse every resource and associate them with a provider. Example: Yum provider is used during the installation of a package on a CentOS / Red Hat host or enabling / installing IIS on a Windows Server

On Linux based OSes:On Windows based OSes:

Chef Lets break down the terms: RecipeA recipe is a collection of resources. Each resource is executed in the order they are listed. Chef client does not get opinionated. It depends on the user (you) to know in what order things should be put down.A basic recipe would consist of the package, template, and service resources

On Linux based OSes:On Windows based OSes:Chef Lets break down the terms: CookbookA cookbook is a set of recipes. A cookbook is a defined set of items and different outcomes that you expect to addressA cookbook could have a recipe to install apache2/httpd but also another set of recipe to activate modules required.The default recipe will be run when no specific recipe is specified.

Chef Workstation / Node / ServerWorkstationA host that has a copy of the chef environment setupOften your personal workstation you are working fromA workstation can be a Linux, Mac or Windows based host, we dont care. Uses a management tool called knife which talks to Chef APIs over HTTPSKnife can (and should) be extended to provide additional functionalityThis is where a lot of our integration story will take placeServerHosts the cookbooks, attributes, search data, node data, and user information for your organization. Very scalable. The server is a repository of your cookbooks, but the actual work is done on the nodeNodeThe end point, whether it is bare metal, ec2 or a VMware virtual machine instance, is something running the chef-client.

Putting it all together

Open Source Chef serverFull single org Chef serverSame API & client as Enterprise ChefSearch based capabilitiesAbsolutely free & code is available on github

Enterprise ChefBoth offered as a hosted by Opscode solution and on premise / in your own datacenter solution.Hosted Enterprise Chef comes with 5 free nodes (0 billing information required)Fastest way to get started with Chef. All you do is set up your workstation and bootstrap your first instance.Enterprise Chef featuresmulti tenancy supportrole based access (including integration into Active Directory)Soon: pushy & reportingTwo flavors of Chef ServerSo where does VMware fit into this?4 integration points for Chef with VMwareVMware Fusion / VMware Workstation

VMware ESXi

VMware vCenter

VMware vCloud DirectorVagrant Plugin

knife-esx

knife-vsphere

knife-vcloudVMware Fusion / Workstation & VagrantVagrant is a tool used to quickly spin up & down new development environments, locally, on your workstation or laptop. Used for development to test automation or deployments of new software, or in Chefs case: cookbooks. The vagrant plugin for Vmware Fusion/Workstation is an pay for add on for the free vagrant (http://www.vagrantup.com)

VMWare ESXi & knife-esxi Interacts with your solo, or non managed ESXi host.Uses knife & fog to interact with APIs presented on the ESXi host.Can list, delete and clone VMs on a single ESXi host.Installs (bootstraps) Chef & makes it part of a chef server and, additionally, can be configured to add the new node to specific environments and/or roles on your Chef server. Community maintained & under active development @ https://github.com/maintux/knife-esx

VMWare vSphere & knife-vsphereIntegrates with your existing vSphere vCenter installationUses knife & fog to interact with the vSphere API.Can list, clone, delete, snapshot VMs via knifeCan also list datastores, resource pools and clusters.Can also execute commands on running VMsWhen cloning a VM, can interact with a customization specs to customize vCPUs, vRAM, IPs, hostname, etc at VM creation.Requires a VM template that can be customized like Ubuntu, Red Hat or Windows. Hint: when using CentOS, set the OS type to Red Hat not CentOS to take advantage of this! Community maintained & under active development @ https://github.com/ezrapagel/knife-vsphere

VMWare vCloud Director & knife-vcloudIntegrates with your vCloud Director installationUses knife & fog to interact with the APIs presented by vCloud DirectorLike knife-vsphere, can list, add, delete VMs through knifeIn addition to knife-vsphere, can also deploy vApps.Maintained by Opscode but seeking more community contributions @ https://github.com/opscode/knife-vcloud

Advantages when using Chef in a VMware environmentNo more golden images. Dont simply brush this off, think about it.Maintain a VMware template that is just enough OS.Use Chefs bootstrapping through various integration points to install Chef & configure the node as you specified in the command. Instead of managing snapshot chains of a VM, you update the Chef recipe, create a new VM and delete the old.Your VMs are no longer special snow flakes, they are objects that are defined from the Chef cookbooks youve written.Knife uses APIs to communicate with your ESXi/vCenter/vCloud host. Demo: Vagrant & VMware FusionDemo: knife-vsphere & VMware vCenter