[chef] Role driven recipes

[Warren Bain < >]

Ohai Chefs!

We have a cookbook that deploys applications and has a number of recipes some 
of which set up preliminary things like firewall settings and http proxy.  We 
are considering using roles to drive the different roles of a node and there 
are two approaches we are considering:

1. Apply roles that pull in all the relevant recipes

2. Apply roles and one controlling recipe and then have that recipe determine 
the other dependencies based on the roles that have been applied.

It seems to me that the second approach means that updating that cookbook 
will change the way any role operates without needing to update individual 
roles.  And any pre and post recipe action can be managed without needing to 
add them to every role.  

Any thoughts as to the pros and cons?

Regards,
Wazza

http://ninefold.com
+61 414 867 559
@thoughtcoft