[chef] Chef Server Backup and Restore

[Vincent Jorgensen < >]

Hi all!

I'm attempting to create a clone of the running chef server. Since it's 
running in AWS, I created an EBS/AMI and re-launched it. Everything almosts, 
but when I attempt to do "knife cookbook upload mycookbook -V" I get the 
following error:

Uploading mycookbook             [1.0.0]
INFO: Saving mycookbook
INFO: Validating ruby files
INFO: Validating templates
INFO: Syntax OK
INFO: Uploading files
INFO: HTTP Request Returned 500 Internal Server Error: Connection failed - 
user: chef
ERROR: Server returned error for 
http://107.21.8.91:4000/cookbooks/mycookbook/1.0.0, retrying 1/5 in 4s
INFO: HTTP Request Returned 500 Internal Server Error: Connection failed - 
user: chef
ERROR: Server returned error for 
http://107.21.8.91:4000/cookbooks/mycookbook/1.0.0, retrying 2/5 in 7s
INFO: HTTP Request Returned 500 Internal Server Error: Connection failed - 
user: chef
ERROR: Server returned error for 
http://107.21.8.91:4000/cookbooks/mycookbook/1.0.0, retrying 3/5 in 9s
INFO: HTTP Request Returned 500 Internal Server Error: Connection failed - 
user: chef
ERROR: Server returned error for 
http://107.21.8.91:4000/cookbooks/mycookbook/1.0.0, retrying 4/5 in 18s
INFO: HTTP Request Returned 500 Internal Server Error: Connection failed - 
user: chef
ERROR: Server returned error for 
http://107.21.8.91:4000/cookbooks/mycookbook/1.0.0, retrying 5/5 in 52s
INFO: HTTP Request Returned 500 Internal Server Error: Connection failed - 
user: chef
ERROR: internal server error
Response: Connection failed - user: chef

I suspect that "chef-client" is going to fail as well. As near as my 
rudimentary google search could ascertain, this appears related to rabbitmq's 
DB. What's the safe way to change chef hosts without regenerating all of my 
validation.pem and client.pem files? I have the original instance still 
running, so I can copy any files from the original if need be.

Thanks!
Vincent