[chef] Re: RE: RE: Re: Chef : the definitive date ?

[Stephen Nelson-Smith < >]

Hello all,

On 18 October 2013 08:18, Philippe Bérard < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

That’s really bad news. I still have « Test-driven infrastructure with Chef » but it’s a very small book covering only simple aspects of Chef.

The 2nd edition of this has just been released, it's 300+ pages long and is a complete rewrite.  Owners of the 1st edition can download the 2nd edition free of charge.
 

I can’t understand how Stephen Nelson-Smith can attend so many events telling people what to do or not, and then canceling this so much awaited book.

I have mentioned this several times on Twitter, but I guess I should have written on the list too.  The book has been cancelled for the following reasons:

1) Chef is large and fast moving.  Attempting to maintain a "definitive guide", especially one for which there is an expectation that it will be printed, and sold at a high price, is just unrealistic.  Especially for one person, who does more that write books for a living.  Chef isn't in a place where we could write a definitive introduction and not have it date.

2) The docs.opscode.com site is a valuable resource.  Opscode employs a professional technical writer, and is responsive to suggestions and help.  It is improving all the time, and by explicitly not backing a definitive guide, or expecting one, it encourages the community to cooperate on a "currently" definitive guide for the community to use and share.

3) The rewrite of Test-driven Infrastructure was a massive undertaking.  The decision was made to finish that rather than divert attention to the TDG book.  Initial feedback I have had is that TDI2 is a good book, and I will continue to work on and expand this.

4) For beginners, the learnchef website is great, and Seth Vargo is working on an introductory volume, also for O'Reilly.

5) The strategy we feel is right (that is O'Reilly, me and Nathen at Opscode) is to create subject-specific deeper dive books of a more manageable length.  I have a few ideas for this, and would welcome input from the community as to what the most important topics are.

To sum up - I remain committed to continuing to write on Chef, and will try to be responsive to suggestions and feedback.  I think it was a mistake to begin the TDG project, in retrospect, and while I do accept that the communication around the cancellation could have been handled much better, I do think it's the right decision.

S.

 

 

We still don’t have a “pro puppet” like documentation, and I think it’s a real handicap for CHEF’s community.

 

Regards,

 

-- Philippe Bérard

 

De : Stephen Corbesero [mailto: " target="_blank"> ]
Envoyé : jeudi 17 octobre 2013 19:22
À : ' " target="_blank"> '
Objet : [chef] RE: Re: Chef : the definitive date ?

 

Unfortunately, the latest word I have seen from the O’Reilly web site is that “Chef: The Definitive Guide” has been cancelled with very little explanation.

 

This link is the discussion thread: http://support.oreilly.com/oreilly/topics/chef_the_definitive_guide_missing_from_search_results

 

 

 

From: Torben Knerr [ " target="_blank">mailto: ]
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 12:49 PM
To: " target="_blank">
Subject: [chef] Re: Chef : the definitive date ?

 

Hi Philippe,

you might also be interested in the "Test-Driven Infrastructure with Chef (2nd Edition!)" book which was released just a few days ago.

Cheers,
Torben

On Oct 17, 2013 6:38 PM, "Philippe Bérard" < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

Hello all,

 

Is there any availability date for the « CHEF : the definitive guide » book, which seems to be delayed over and over ? There is still no complete and comprehensive guide on CHEF, and that’s a real pain for newcomers.

 

Thanks in advance for your answer.

 

Regards,

 

Philippe Bérard IT Manager
Tel : +33 (0)1 39 23 31 17 Mob : +33 (0)6 01 27 87 86 Fax : +33 (0)1 39 55 47 56
58, Rue Pottier 78150 Le Chesnay www.jalios.com

P Afin de contribuer au respect de l'environnement, merci de n'imprimer ce message qu'en cas de nécessité. 

 

De : Michael Hart [mailto: " target="_blank"> ]
Envoyé : jeudi 22 août 2013 02:45
À : < " target="_blank"> >
Objet : [chef] Re: how to know if a chef-client run is occuring

 

Thanks Daniel, the feature in Enterprise Chef sounds interesting. Do you know the timeline for this feature's release in Enterprise Chef?

 

cheers

mike

 

-- 

Michael Hart

Arctic Wolf Networks

M: 226.388.4773

 

On 2013-08-21, at 12:43 PM, Daniel DeLeo < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

 

 

On Wednesday, August 21, 2013 at 9:22 AM, Michael Hart wrote:

Is there a definitive way of querying the chef server to see if a chef-client run is occurring on a node? We've noticed that a "knife status" will return a timestamp of "382528 hours ago", or however many hours you are away from epoch, and but it's not entirely consistent and using that in code feels like a bit of a hack. Ideally I'd like an API to return true or false if a chef-client run is occurring. Thoughts?

Chef client communicates over HTTP, which is a stateless protocol, so there's no robust way for the server to know anything other than the last time a client made a request.

 

In Enterprise Chef (née Hosted and Private Chef), upcoming updates will include a node run history reporting feature that emulates the ability to track running clients by having them check in at the beginning and end of a run. How much of this makes it into the open source version and when is an open question at this point, but you could use a custom event dispatcher to track the state of clients in a similar way by integrating with a different system.

 

 

cheers

mike

 

-- 

Michael Hart

Arctic Wolf Networks

M: 226.388.4773

 

 

 

-- 

Daniel DeLeo

 

 

--
Stephen Nelson-Smith,
Founder, Principal Consultant,
Atalanta Systems Ltd,
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Twitter: @lordcope
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