[chef] Ohai and Chef...

[Russell Bateman < >]

I've installed a Chef server by downloading/curling a package from opscode.com. I've installed Chef clients by downloading a Debian package from the same page, copying and installing it on a number of VMs. I'm pleased by the relative success I'm achieving in using Chef.

I'm pretty sure that what I'm doing is not what's called Chef Solo, which as I understand it, is using opscode somehow in place of managing my own Chef server.

In http://docs.opscode.com/essentials_nodes_chef_run.html, I see something called Ohai, and I've heard it referenced in this group forum, read about it in references in documentation here and there. I don't have /etc/chef/ohai_plugins yet. Etc.

1. What is the significance of Ohai?
2. Is it "just there"?
3. Why single it out a name in the first place rather than it just being "Chef"?
4. Is it something that wasn't there originally?
5. If I'm not explicitly listing it as a cookbook/recipe in my runs, am I nevertheless using it anyway?

Thanks for any comments--I'm still as green as they come at this Chef stuff.

Russ