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MadridDevops September 2014: "From chef09 to chef11, one approach to devops"

Antonio Peña
September 25, 2014

MadridDevops September 2014: "From chef09 to chef11, one approach to devops"

@MadridDevops September 2014: "From chef09 to chef11, one approach to devops"

Madrid, September 25, 2014

http://madrid.devops.es

An excuse to talk about devops, chef (and puppet as comparison), its community and a migration project I have been involved with.

Antonio Peña

September 25, 2014
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  1. From chef09 to chef11 my approach to a real devops

    task Antonio Peña @apenav for @MadridDevops September 2014 http://about.me/apenav
  2. My approach to a configuration management project Antonio Peña @apenav

    for @MadridDevops September 2014 http://about.me/apenav
  3. Best tool to make config mgmt? • cfengine • puppet

    • chef • salt • ansible -- Business decision-making. Make your choice -- Strengths/weakness. Tend to converge.
  4. What is Chef? • a company ◦ Opscode Inc. ◦

    getchef.com ◦ @chef • a product (with paid support) ◦ packages, not recommended install from gemfiles • an open source project • a community (open source but not only)
  5. Initial problem Problem to be solved (in aprox. 2 weeks):

    1. install chef-server 11 in a centos6 behind a VPN 2. install 2 web frontends + 2 backends a. (redis s/m + mysql m/s)
  6. Real problem 1. refactor/migrate/write from scratch about 20 old-fashioned (2009)

    but very reliable (daily used, very difficult to extend for an outsider) ubuntu ruby18-webapp-related recipes to newer ones 2. proof of concept to migrate chef09 company’ s repository to anything better
  7. Methodology or the like “Big bang” approach, but iterative: •

    use chef11 community cookbooks • almost no direct migration from chef09 ones
  8. Criteria to use community cookbooks? https://github.com/opscode-cookbooks/mysql When in doubt use

    popular opscode community cookbooks. So many content to follow!
  9. Let’s cook! 1. Hosting Environment 2. Cookbook Development 3. Monolithic

    cookbook approach 4. Everything is a cookbook 5. Production Cookbook Deployment 6. Production Cookbook Development 7. Opscode packages 8. Developers’ isolated ruby environment 9. Final Steps 10. Conclusions
  10. 1.- Hosting Environment (I) Open Source chef-server in a centos6.

    Modify and test undocumented chef-server config, with some “little” external problems: - shared server behind a VPN - unavailable ports: reassign 80/443 to 81/8443 - 8000 not opened in firewall (so no reports will be available)
  11. 2.- Cookbook Development (I) Opscode free(*) hosting • Great help

    because Multiproject! • http://learn.getchef.com • Berkshelf helped a lot with dependencies (**) • Good practices freezing versions (*) not open-source (limited to 10 nodes) (**) not so easy when not opscode server
  12. 2.- Cookbook Development (II) Chef-DK: • ruby binaries in specific

    /opt folders • not needed rvm/rbenv/ruby source code/... • own path & pre-installed useful gems and tools
  13. 2.- Cookbook Development (III) • http://jtimberman.housepub.org/blog/2014/04/30/chefdk- and-ruby/ • Berkshelf 3.0.

    • The Test Kitchen integration testing framework. • ChefSpec, for unit testing cookbooks. • Foodcritic, static code analysis on cookbooks. • All of the Chef tools you're already familiar with: Chef Client, Knife, Ohai and Chef Zero.
  14. 2.- Cookbook Development (IV) Better practices? Any? • No time

    for tests nor TDD (to learn about) • Not enough RAM in laptop nor in AWS micro instances for making testing/CI with Vagrant • Foodcritic and more, but later • I hope to use them ASAP: just because I like it. The same with Puppet.
  15. 2.- Cookbook Development (V) First stages of development • make

    risks, quick tests, quickwin, try and try • think in advance, virtualhosts library • ugly code you know it will be easy to change • the community code is better than yours • extend, not create from the ground • parametrize cookbooks: redis
  16. 3.- Monolithic cookbook approach Thanks a lot to Mathias Lafeldt

    @mlafeldt “monolithic cookbook” idea, easy to refactor later (see Puppet Module Structure Redux). • http://mlafeldt.github.io/practicing-ruby- cookbook • https://github.com/elm-city- craftworks/practicing-ruby-cookbook
  17. 5.-ProductionCookbookDevelopment • A new beginning. Almost from scratch. Develop new

    recipes and cookbooks against a new chef organization in opscode free hosting. • install, fix, check-apply and repeat in frontend staging instances (Poor’s man plan–do–check–adjust) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDCA
  18. 6.-ProductionCookbookDeployment • chef site cookbook install “cookbook” (new git branch

    in ~/chef-repo/cookbook/) • chef site cookbook install chef-client
  19. 7.- Opscode packages (I) • WARNING: chefdk.rpm installs binaries under

    /usr/bin and gems in its own gemsdir • REMOVE any puppet or ruby preexistent package or binary, no interferences please! • BEWARE: never use binaries without explicit PATH e.g. /opt/chef/bin/chef-client
  20. 7.- Opscode packages (II) NO RVM nor system ruby allowed

    • chef-server.rpm • chef.rpm • chefdk.rpm every opscode rpm package installs one or more ruby binaries in its own path
  21. 8.- Developers isolated ruby environment (I) • Developers need multiple

    rubies installed (1.9.3 & 2.0.X) • unprivileged users will install its own gems, without interfering with chef ruby-binaries SOLUTION: compile explicit versions from source code, rewrite PATH in user environment and install “bundler gem” as root.
  22. 8.- Developers isolated ruby environment (II) Opscode chef.rpm package provides

    2.1 ruby • install passenger-apache library+binary compiled and installed as a gem under chef. rpm gemlib path (a community recipe is in charge of it) • compatible to both 2.0.x and 1.9.x user rubies
  23. 8.- Developers isolated ruby environment(III) Explicit ruby version (1.9.3 or

    2.0.X) in appropriate virtualhost apache files (from templates) NOTE: Foodcritic tool helped a lot when looking for errors (e.g. specially with chef templates)
  24. 9. Final Steps (I) After just 2 weeks, it almost

    worked ok. Traditional approach to development: logrotate and monit forked recipes with “999” suffix added to “semver” in metadata.rb • not perfect • Explicit installation of dependencies when in Opensource Opscode server
  25. 9. Final Steps (II) Pareto principle! 80/20 Rule. • Two

    more weeks with “fringes” • create new organization in opscode free account • chef-solo-search for “local” databags • BIG CRISIS: no chef-server available -> chef-solo deployment
  26. 9. Final Steps (III) Create git repo (first commit in

    2 weeks) • install explicit dependencies • “chef cookbook site install” • only needed “ancient” (fork and modify) approach in two cookbooks: monit and passenger
  27. 9. Final Steps (IV) “In extremis”: Refactor the “monolithic” cookbook

    Monolithic cookbook refactored as 3 cookbooks Three layers of attribute+template files: • general cookbook (i.e. language, servers,...) ◦ company cookbook (i.e. final customer specific) ▪ project cookbook (i.e. virtualhost config)
  28. 9. Final Steps (V) • only two “old fashioned” forked

    recipes: monit and passenger • new recipes forces a different way to use databags
  29. 10. Conclusions (I) To FIX: • move logrotate recipes in

    railssites2 to another new bootstrapping-node-sysadmin cookbook • not exactly applied but inspired in "everything is a cookbook"
  30. 10. Conclusions (II) • You need to have “Luck” ◦

    no way to configure staging chef-server (only working through 127.0.0.1 and VPN) ◦ no way to configure ubuntu from opscode deb packages • You need big motivation to success
  31. 10. Conclusions (III) To be improved: • ubuntu/RHEL cookbooks •

    tests • mysql m/s cookbook • monit recipe • opensource chef-server hosting