Linux – setting chef hostname to nodename on/after bootstrap

chefcookbooklinux

I do tests atm with Chef and I have a virtual machine which I'm cloning to generate new nodes. I do bootstrap with the knife command and the -N Parameter to give each host a nodename. The Problem is tough, that the hostname on the VM doesn't change and if I'm trying to bootstrap another client it fails because Chef has this node already signed up.
I did now try to set the hostname in my base Role with the hostname cookbok but when I run chef-client it gives me a:

---- Begin output of hostname @config[:chef_node_name] ----
STDOUT: 
STDERR: hostname: the specified hostname is invalid
---- End output of hostname @config[:chef_node_name] ----
Ran hostname @config[:chef_node_name] returned 1

The Attributes for the base Role are:

name "base"
description "Base role applied to all nodes"
override_attributes(
  "chef_client" => {
    "init_style" => "upstart",
    "server_url" => "http://chef.ws:4000"
    },
  "set_fqdn" => 
        "@config[:chef_node_name]"
)
run_list(
  "recipe[hostname]",
  "recipe[chef-client::delete_validation]",
  "recipe[chef-client::service]"
)

Do I have a syntax error here in the set_fqdn or is the @config variable simply not accessible on the node? Is there a better way to set the hostname to the nodename?

Best Answer

After so trial and error I'm quite sure the @config and node variables are not accessible in role files. My solution was to rewrite the hostname cookbook to look for an attribute nodename_as_fqdn and set it accordingly.

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