Chef

Chef server part 1
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Enviroments
===============
think of it as development enviroment..development,test,staging,production
etc
model lif stages
may include url,location of your package repository,version of chef configuration

ROLES
=======
-->represents the type of servers in your infrastructure
like load balancer,app server ,monitoring server, DB server,DB cache server etc.

--allows you to define policy,may include list of chef config files (also called run list) to be applied.
--may include data attributes necessary for configuring your infrastructure, eg port that app server listens on,list of app to be deployed

Nodes
=============
nodes represents physical/virtual server in your infrastructure(may be in a public or pvt cloud).
each node will --belong to one organization,one enviroment,
have zero or more role.

Resources
===========
represents piece of system and its desired state eg. a package that should be installed,service to run,
file to be configured, cron job to run,a user which should be managed etc.
~ are fundamental building blocks of chef configuration.
~  are gathered into recipes...recipes ensure system is in desired state.

Recipe
========
collection of resources..help define the policy that should be  applied to node or in any component of  infrastructure,,it is configuration files that describe resources and its desired state
--it can install and configure s/w components.
--~ can manage files,deploy apps,execute other recipes

Cookbooks
==================
multiple recipes are taken and packaged into Cookbook.
recipes are stored in cookbooks.
contains recipes,templates,files,custom.
it makes use of code reuse and modularity.

Runlist
=======
runlist is the thing that is applied to the node.
it is marrying of policy and the node.
run list is composed of recipes and roles(application server role,database server role etc).

Search feature
=================
application server nodes can ask Chef server to search for other available servers with Roles,topology data
can use ip address,hostnames,FQDNs