[chef] node client deletions before recreating the same client

hiya. i'm still hoping to hear from the community how this is being
handled...

how are people handling reinstantiating a chef client using the same
node_name (i'm using FQDN)? before i can recreate hostXYZ.chefruulz.com
i first need to delete its previous cryptographic API identity. then the
new hostXYZ.chefruulz.com registers itself with the chef server using
validation.pem.

is there anything else available besides issuing "knife client delete
hostXYZ.chefruulz.com" prior to relaunching the new hostXYZ.chefruulz.com?

i'm assuming at this point i'll need to create a launch wrapper that has
the right privileges to make the API call to delete the previous client,
then launch anew. i think i would wrap this in bash inside a knife ec2
template or something else homegrown.

i just now noticed "knife client reregister" and
http://help.opscode.com/discussions/problems/397-help-with-creating-an-ec2-bootstrap-replace-functionality.
 haven't played with it yet. perhaps soon.


thanks,
kallen


On Fri, 06 Jan 2012, 

 
 wrote:

> 
> hi. hosts are expenable, right? i deploy a host, i kill it and redeploy
> it. yay automation. yay cookie cutters.
> 
> how are people solving the issue where you need to first run a "knife
> client delete -y hostXYZ.chefruulz.com" before you can redeploy that
> same host and have it successfully re-register with the chef-server?
> 
> my environment is ec2. i'm slowly moving my team away from using
> ElasticFox to launch instances, and moving toward launching them
> using a smarter script that runs ec2-run-instances command (i'm not yet
> ready for knife ec2).
> 
> right now i'm knife client deleting by hand, but that blows. i think
> i'd rather not add crisco and fishing line to my launch script that
> calls the knife client delete first. doing so might involve using ssh
> as an API (blech). or maybe calling knife client delete might not be
> so gross. i haven't decided yet. this launch script isn't even the
> final solution, but it's a step i've taken as an incremental improvement.
> 
> what smarter ways y'all're using? even tho i'm not yet using knife ec2,
> don't hesitate telling me solutions that use it :>
> 
> tia,
> kallen