Chef Workstation Chef

This is a wrapper cookook that uses several codenamephp resources to setup a workstation for developing chef cookbook. This includes installing chef workstation, setting up the bash environment to init chef, set a local dokken environment variable, etc. and installing VSCode with chef extensions.

Usage

Add the cookbook to your Berksfile or metadata.rb:

cookbook 'codenamephp_workstation_chef'

You can then add the cookbook to your runlist. The default recipe will setup everything EXCEPT the user(s). I recommend creating the users yourself using a databag or just use the user. This cookbook creates all users in node['users'] from a databag. The attribute defaults to chef.

There is also the codenamephp_workstation_chef::recipe that does the bare minimum to create the users from node['users']. You can add this recipe before the default recipe in your runlist.

Attributes

• default['codenamephp']['workstation_chef']['vscode']['extensions']: An array of extension names that will be installed for the users for vscode, defaults to ['chef-software.chef', 'eamodio.gitlens', 'github.vscode-pull-request-github', 'tabnine.tabnine-vscode']
• default['codenamephp']['workstation_chef']['timezone']: The timezone to set, defaults to 'Europe/Berlin'
• default['codenamephp']['workstation_chef']['locale']: The locale to set, defaults to 'de_DE.UTF-8'
• default['users']: This is used for a lot of different things, defaults to ['chef']
  • If you include the optional users recipe these users will be created and added to the chef group
  • These users will get the bash chef environment installed
  • These users will get the VSCode extensions installed
  • If the gnome recipe is included it is used to setup keyboard shortcuts

users_from_data_bag

Used in the optional users_from_data_bag recipe:

• default['codenamephp']['workstation_chef']['users_from_data_bag']['data_bag_name']: The name of the databag to get the users from, defaults to 'users'
• default['codenamephp']['workstation_chef']['users_from_data_bag']['groups']: The groups to find the users that will be managed. Defaults to %w(chef docker sudo sysadmin)

users

Used in the optional users cookbook:

The recipe checks for a specific path within the attributes that corresponds to the values of default['users'] to copy ssh keys and manage git configs. There is a default set for the default 'chef' user:

• default['codenamephp']['workstation_chef']['ssh_keys']['local_copy']['chef']['private_key_source']: '/var/workspace/id_rsa'
• default['codenamephp']['workstation_chef']['git_client']['chef']['config'] = {}

Recipes

These are the recipes that are not included in the default recipe and can be used to "customize" the chef run. The default recipe sets up everything else by including the recipes not listed here. Most notably, users and gui are optional.

Gnome

Installs the gnome desktop and sets serveral settings and keyboard shortcuts

Creating users

There are several ways to create users. These should be included before the default recipe so the users are already set up when the other tools are installed. If you don't use one of those recipes make sure to create the users yourself since you might run into problems when the recipes try to setup tools that are bound to a user (like vscode)

Users

The users recipe is very very simple user setup. It just creates all users in the default['users'] attribute with a home directory and an empty password and add them to the chef group.

It checks for a specific path within the attributes that corresponds to the values of default['users'] to copy ssh keys. There is a default set for the default 'chef' user:

• default['codenamephp']['workstation_chef']['ssh_keys']['local_copy']['chef']['private_key_source']: '/var/workspace/id_rsa'

You can change this value or add additional attributes for additional users. If you need anything more sophisticated you should provide your own logic in a wrapper cookbook.

It also manages the git config for the set users. By default it's empty but you can set this the same way as attributes:

• default['codenamephp']['workstation_chef']['git_client']['chef']['config'] = {}

Users From Data Bag

A more sophisticated method of creating users. It looks for a databag with the name in default['codenamephp']['workstation_chef']['users_from_data_bag']['data_bag_name'] and adds all users that have one the groups from default['codenamephp']['workstation_chef']['users_from_data_bag']['groups'].

Note that the default['users'] attribute is still important since this is used to setup things like vscode and chef. The databag is just for the creation of the users so you should try to match them (for now).

Also any users according to the codenamephp_git_client_config_users_from_data_bag resource are managed as well.