[chef] bootstrapping Chef server fails with "no valid gem 'chef-server-api' (= 11.0.0)"

[Phil Mocek < >]

I would appreciate any suggestions for troubleshooting my failed
Chef server bootstrap process.

I installed chef-solo by running the [Omnibus installer script][1],
then, as described on the [Installing Chef Server using Chef Solo
page][2], I ran chef-solo with a JSON attributes file referencing
the rubygems-install recipe of the chef-server cookbook.  I'm using
version 1.1.1 of that cookbook.

The [output from chef-solo][3] includes the following:
> Recipe: chef-server::rubygems-install
>   * gem_package[chef-server-api] action install
> ================================================================================
> Error executing action `install` on resource 'gem_package[chef-server-api]'
> ================================================================================
> 
> Mixlib::ShellOut::ShellCommandFailed
> ------------------------------------
> Expected process to exit with [0], but received '2'
> ---- Begin output of /opt/chef/embedded/bin/gem install chef-server-api -q 
> --no-rdoc --no-ri -v "11.0.0" ----
> STDOUT: 
> STDERR: ERROR:  Could not find a valid gem 'chef-server-api' (= 11.0.0) in 
> any repository
> ERROR:  Possible alternatives: chef-server-api
> ---- End output of /opt/chef/embedded/bin/gem install chef-server-api -q 
> --no-rdoc --no-ri -v "11.0.0" ----
> Ran /opt/chef/embedded/bin/gem install chef-server-api -q --no-rdoc --no-ri 
> -v "11.0.0" returned 2
> 
> Resource Declaration:
> ---------------------
> # In /tmp/chef-solo/cookbooks/chef-server/recipes/rubygems-install.rb
> 
>  83:   gem_package gem do
>  84:     version node['chef_packages']['chef']['version']
>  85:   end
>  86: end
> 
> Compiled Resource:
> ------------------
> # Declared in 
> /tmp/chef-solo/cookbooks/chef-server/recipes/rubygems-install.rb:83:in 
> `block in from_file'
> 
> gem_package("chef-server-api") do
>   provider Chef::Provider::Package::Rubygems
>   action :install
>   retries 0
>   retry_delay 2
>   package_name "chef-server-api"
>   version "11.0.0"
>   cookbook_name :"chef-server"
>   recipe_name "rubygems-install"
>   gem_binary "/opt/chef/embedded/bin/gem"
> end

I'm running chef-solo 11.0.0:
> 
 :~#
>  chef-solo --version
> Chef: 11.0.0
> 
 :~#
>  which chef-solo
> /usr/bin/chef-solo
> 
 :~#
>  ll /usr/bin/chef-solo 
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 Feb  4 22:03 /usr/bin/chef-solo -> 
> /opt/chef/bin/chef-solo*

Thanks in advance for any guidance.  I'll follow up here with
resolution.


References:

 [1]: <https://www.opscode.com/chef/install.sh>
 [2]: 
<http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Installing+Chef+Server+using+Chef+Solo>
 [3]: <https://gist.github.com/4710420>

-- 
Phil Mocek
http://mocek.org/