Re: chef solo versus client/server

[AJ Christensen <aj@junglist.gen.nz>]

On 15/04/2009, at 7:20 PM, snacktime wrote:

> I'm wondering what I'd really give up by using chef solo and not  
> running the server at all.  If I have a cron job that pulls down the  
> latest cookbooks and dna, then runs chef solo on them, doesn't that  
> basically accomplish the same thing on the client side as using the  
> client and server together?

Basically, sure!

Using client and server allows you to query (via full text search) any  
node data ("what is the IP address of my syslog server").

Attributes loaded by the client are also persisted to CouchDB which  
are also exposed via the RESTful API.

> My biggest dilemma is that when you put together my own app plus  
> chef server, it's a lot of moving parts, and also some duplicated  
> functionality.  For example I already have a web ui, and it already  
> handles uploading cookbooks and json dna files.   And I already have  
> a client/server architecture for handing off tasks to nodes, getting  
> updates, etc..  I'm tempted to just stick with chef solo.

There is a ticket[1] open to extend the functionality of -j, hopefully  
giving it the ability to request JSON from a HTTP endpoint - this may  
be an itch you are interested in scratching.

Hope this clarifies things.

Regards,

AJ

[1] http://tickets.opscode.com/browse/CHEF-156