[chef] Re: Re: How to create services with the service resource?

[Steve Bennett < >]

On 16 August 2012 13:24, AJ Christensen 
<
 >
 wrote:
> You are correct in assuming that the service resource (when told to
> use the Simple or Init Service Providers)

Sorry, what do you mean "when told to..."? A comprehensive example in
the doco would be really helpful.


> can be used to define and
> run services.

Great!

> Please post the relevant debug output surrounding any problems you're
> having with the service resource and provider.

115.146.94.40 [2012-08-16T03:21:44+00:00] INFO: Processing
service[atom-dataset-provider] action enable
(/var/chef/cache/cookbooks/atom-dataset-provider/recipes/default.rb
line 94)
115.146.94.40 [2012-08-16T03:21:44+00:00] ERROR:
service[atom-dataset-provider]
(/var/chef/cache/cookbooks/atom-dataset-provider/recipes/default.rb
line 94) has had an error
115.146.94.40 [2012-08-16T03:21:44+00:00] ERROR:
service[atom-dataset-provider]
(/var/chef/cache/cookbooks/atom-dataset-provider/recipes/default.rb:94:in
`from_file') had an error:
115.146.94.40 service[atom-dataset-provider]
(/var/chef/cache/cookbooks/atom-dataset-provider/recipes/default.rb
line 94) had an error: Chef::Exceptions::Exec: /usr/sbin/update-rc.d
atom-dataset-provider defaults returned 1, expected 0


> Additionally, using bash scripts as your start/stop command is uh.. a
> little suboptimal? Have you considered using a process supervision
> system, e.g.; Runit, Upstart, Monit, s6, .. (...?)

It's probably ok for my current  dev/testing purposes - my learning
curve is steep enough already :)

> Feel free to make edits (need an account) based on my comments here,
> although I'd love to know what problems you were having or what
> documentation in particular is lacking.

Sure - like much of the Chef doco, it's just lacking explicitness, and
doesn't give any guidance on typical uses. Consider this description:

----
Service
Manage a service.
----

The reader has to read between the lines to work out what this
resource does and doesn't do. Here's a quick suggestion:
----
Service
A wrapper around the service subsystem (init.d, upstart etc as
appropriate), allowing you to start and stop existing system services,
or define new services.
----

And the Providers section assume  that the reader knows (and cares)
what a Provider is, when they just came here to create a service. I
don't know enough about providers (see!) to really help, but an
improved text might look something like:
----
Providers
The Service resource uses a different subsystem Provider depending on
the platform. You can override this (for example, to use Upstart even
when it's not the default) as follows:...
----

I have edited some of the other doco already, but prefer to only make
changes when I'm confident what I'm talking about

Steve [former tech writer, perpetual critic...]


>
> Cheers,
>
> --AJ
>
> On 16 August 2012 15:00, Steve Bennett 
> <
 >
>  wrote:
>> Hi,
>>   I naively assumed (and am not the only one:
>> http://lists.opscode.com/sympa/arc/chef/2012-05/msg00267.html) that
>> the service resource could be used to define, then run services:
>>
>> ...
>>     service "atom-dataset-provider" do
>>        start_command "/opt/atom-dataset-provider/current/provider.sh"
>>        stop_command "/opt/atom-dataset-provider/current/kill_provider.sh"
>>        action [:enable]
>>      end
>>
>>    end
>>    restart_command do
>>      current_release = release_path
>>      service "atom-dataset-provider" do
>>        action [:restart]
>>      end
>>   end
>>
>>
>> But apparently it doesn't. In that case:
>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Steve