How to Add a Windows Node for Chef

Most of this is taken from https://www.itzgeek.com/how-tos/linux/centos-how-tos/setup-chef-12-centos-7-rhel-7.html which is about 90% correct the parts that did not work might have been because the page references an older version of chef

3 Servers

Centos 7 - 192.168.1.200 chefmaster.local chefmaster

Centos 7 - 192.168.1.201 chefworkstation.local workstation

Windows Server 2016 Datacenter (Desktop Experence) - 192.168.1.210 winsrv2016n1.local winsrv2016n1

Configure the chefmaster server:

cat /etc/hosts

192.168.1.200  chefmaster.local  chefmaster
192.168.1.201  chefworkstation.local  chefworkstation
192.168.1.210  winsrv2016n1.local winsrv2016n1

Diable selinux - not sure if this is needed.

sed -i 's/=enforcing/=disabled/g' /etc/selinux/config

Update host name

sed -i "1s/.*/chefmaster.local/" /etc/hostname
hostnamectl set-hostname chefmaster.local

Update the server if needed

yum update -y

Reboot the server

reboot now

Installed needed stuff

yum -y install wget vim

Install chef infa server

wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chef-server/13.1.13/el/7/chef-server-core-13.1.13-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
rpm -ivh chef-server-core-*.rpm
chef-server-ctl reconfigure
chef-server-ctl status

Create an Admin user:

Example:

chef-server-ctl user-create USER_NAME FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME EMAIL 'PASSWORD' -f PATH_FILE_NAME

What I used:

chef-server-ctl user-create chefadmin chef admin chefadmin@example.com 'PASSWORD' -f /etc/chef/chefadmin.pem

Create an Organization:

Example:

chef-server-ctl org-create short_name 'full_organization_name' --association_user user_name --filename ORGANIZATION-validator.pem

What I used:

chef-server-ctl org-create Myorgname "Myorg Name" --association_user chefadmin -f /etc/chef/Myorgname-validator.pem

Open Firewall:

firewall-cmd --permanent --zone public --add-service http
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone public --add-service https
firewall-cmd --reload

Install management console:

chef-server-ctl install chef-manage
chef-server-ctl reconfigure
chef-manage-ctl reconfigure

==============================================================

Configure the chefworkstation server:

cat /etc/hosts

192.168.1.200  chefmaster.local  chefmaster
192.168.1.201  chefworkstation.local  chefworkstation
192.168.1.210  winsrv2016n1.local winsrv2016n1

Diable selinux - not sure if this is needed.

sed -i 's/=enforcing/=disabled/g' /etc/selinux/config

Update host name

sed -i "1s/.*/chefworkstation.local/" /etc/hostname
hostnamectl set-hostname chefworkstation.local

Update the server if needed

yum update -y

Reboot the server

reboot now

Install chefdk

wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chefdk/4.6.35/el/7/chefdk-4.6.35-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
rpm -ivh chefdk-*.rpm
chef verify

Verify Ruby:

which ruby
echo 'eval "$(chef shell-init bash)"' >> ~/.bash_profile
. ~/.bash_profile
which ruby

Verify Ruby Output should look like the following:

/opt/chefdk/embedded/bin/ruby

Install and configure git

yum -y install git
cd ~
chef generate repo chef-repo
ls -al ~/chef-repo/
git config --global user.name "chefadmin"
git config --global user.email "chefadmin@anthonyfornito.com"
cd ~/chef-repo/
git init
mkdir -p ~/chef-repo/.chef
echo '.chef' >> ~/chef-repo/.gitignore
cd ~/chef-repo/
git add .
git commit -m "initial commit"
git status

Copy over the pem files created in the Configure the chefmaster server section

scp -pr root@chefmaster:/etc/chef/chefadmin.pem ~/chef-repo/.chef/
scp -pr root@chefmaster:/etc/chef/anthonyfornito-validator.pem ~/chef-repo/.chef/

Create the knife file:

vi ~/chef-repo/.chef/knife.rb

knife.rb contents

current_dir = File.dirname(__FILE__)
log_level                :info
log_location             STDOUT
node_name                "chefadmin"
client_key               "#{current_dir}/chefadmin.pem"
validation_client_name   "Myorgname-validator"
validation_key           "#{current_dir}/Myorgname-validator.pem"
chef_server_url          "https://chefmaster.local/organizations/Myorgname"
syntax_check_cache_path  "#{ENV['HOME']}/.chef/syntaxcache"
cookbook_path            ["#{current_dir}/../cookbooks"]

Check the ssl connection:

knife client list

Might see and ssl error

Run ssl check the see what is missing

knife ssl check
.....
* ssl_ca_path: nil
* ssl_ca_file: nil
----

Fetch ssl

knife ssl fetch

Now recheck the client list:

knife client list

You should see:

Myorgname-validator

===================================================

Configure the Window Server 2016 server:

Enable access to port 5985

From the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security:

Click Inbound Rules

Sort list by Local Port

Find the "Windows Remote Management (HTTP-In)" rules (There are 2)

Being that I am not using a domain all I had to do was configure the Public

Right click the rule

Select Properties

Click the scope tab

Change the Remote IP address from:

These IP addresses:

To:

Any IP address

Run the below command using powershell administrator

winrm set winrm/config/client/auth '@{Basic="true"}'
winrm set winrm/config/service/auth '@{Basic="true"}'
winrm set winrm/config/service '@{AllowUnencrypted="true"}'

===================================================

On the chefworkstation server run the following command to add the windows server 2016 client.

Example:

knife bootstrap -o winrm CLIENTHOSTNAME -u ADMINWINUSER -P ADMINPASSWORD -VV

What I used:

knife bootstrap -o winrm winsrv2016n1 -u Administrator -P PASSWORD -VV

This takes some time however after about 20 minutes it was added as a client under the management console.

Keep in mind there are some major security holes that would need to fixed however this should get anyone started