Chef Zero Provisioner reports itself as being Chef Solo?

[tknerr]

Wondering if this is as intended -- it's confusing at least...

This is my Vagrantfile:

Vagrant::configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.define :foo do | foo_config |
    foo_config.vm.box = "ubuntu/precise32"
    foo_config.vm.provision :chef_zero do |chef|
      chef.cookbooks_path = "./cookbooks"
      chef.add_recipe "hello"
    end
  end 
end

On vagrant up it outputs this:

...
==> foo: Running provisioner: chef_zero...
    foo: Installing Chef (latest)...
Generating chef JSON and uploading...
==> foo: Running chef-solo...
==> foo: stdin: is not a tty
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:03+00:00] INFO: Started chef-zero at http://localhost:8889 with repository at /tmp/vagrant-chef-4/chef-solo-1
==> foo:   One version per cookbook
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:03+00:00] INFO: Forking chef instance to converge...
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:03+00:00] INFO: *** Chef 12.0.3 ***
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:03+00:00] INFO: Chef-client pid: 2121
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:04+00:00] INFO: Setting the run_list to ["recipe[hello]"] from CLI options
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:04+00:00] INFO: Run List is [recipe[hello]]
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:04+00:00] INFO: Run List expands to [hello]
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:04+00:00] INFO: Starting Chef Run for vagrant-ubuntu-precise-32
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:04+00:00] INFO: Running start handlers
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:04+00:00] INFO: Start handlers complete.
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:04+00:00] INFO: Chef Run complete in 0.028230979 seconds
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:04+00:00] INFO: Skipping removal of unused files from the cache
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:04+00:00] INFO: Running report handlers
==> foo: [2014-12-28T00:22:04+00:00] INFO: Report handlers complete

It's the ==> foo: Running chef-solo... line that is confusing.

It should read ==> foo: Running chef-zero instead...

[sethvargo]

Hi @tknerr

This is not a bug. Chef Zero is a subclass (subset) of Chef Solo both in Vagrant and Chef land. As you can see here, the only difference is the local_mode attribute, which tells Chef to run an in-memory Chef Server adjacent to the Chef Solo run.

We can certainly improve the message, but this is the intended behavior of the provisioner.

[tknerr]

Thanks @sethvargo.

One thing just got clear to me:

• chef-zero exists as a binary (in ChefDK at least), but it does not initiate chef run but rather starts the in-memory chef zero server
• so as you said there ain't no such thing as a chef-zero provisioner

However, I'm sill confused that it's a sublcass of Chef-Solo even though it's a chef client run. Especially since --local-mode is a parameter to chef-client and not chef-solo:

C:\Repos\_github\bills-kitchen\target\build\repo\tmp>chef-solo --help | grep local

C:\Repos\_github\bills-kitchen\target\build\repo\tmp>chef-solo --help | grep zero

C:\Repos\_github\bills-kitchen\target\build\repo\tmp>chef-client --help | grep local
    -z, --local-mode                 Point chef-client at local repository

C:\Repos\_github\bills-kitchen\target\build\repo\tmp>chef-client --help | grep zero
        --chef-zero-host HOST        Host to start chef-zero on
        --chef-zero-port PORT        Port to start chef-zero on

[tknerr]

Trying to understand how chef is being called with the :chef_zero provisioner.

When started in debug mode, you can see the actual command which is chef-solo indeed (there's no sign of --local-mode or -z yet):

...
==> foo: Running chef-solo...
DEBUG ssh: Re-using SSH connection.
 INFO ssh: Execute: chef-solo -c /tmp/vagrant-chef-3/solo.rb -j /tmp/vagrant-chef-3/dna.json (sudo=true)
...

Still, it initiates a chef client run against an inmemory chef zero server:

...
DEBUG ssh: stdout: [2014-12-29T12:48:52+00:00] INFO: Starting chef-zero on port 8889 with repository at repository at /tmp/vagrant-chef-3/chef-solo-1
  One version per cookbook

[2014-12-29T12:48:52+00:00] INFO: Forking chef instance to converge...
[2014-12-29T12:48:52+00:00] INFO: *** Chef 11.8.2 ***
[2014-12-29T12:48:52+00:00] INFO: Chef-client pid: 2156
[2014-12-29T12:48:52+00:00] INFO: Setting the run_list to ["recipe[hello]"] from JSON
[2014-12-29T12:48:52+00:00] INFO: Run List is [recipe[hello]]
[2014-12-29T12:48:52+00:00] INFO: Run List expands to [hello]
[2014-12-29T12:48:52+00:00] INFO: Starting Chef Run for vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-32
[2014-12-29T12:48:52+00:00] INFO: Running start handlers
...

The "secret" lies in the solo.rb config - which finally sets local mode to true:

vagrant@vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-32:~$ cat  /tmp/vagrant-chef-3/solo.rb | grep local
local_mode true

[tknerr]

So I got it know how it works, but it might be confusing for others too.

Especially since in the chef docs --local-mode is clearly associated with chef-client and not chef-solo:

• http://docs.chef.io/ctl_chef_client.html#run-in-local-mode
• https://docs.chef.io/chef_solo.html

[sethvargo]

@tknerr did you see #5077?

[tknerr]

@sethvargo looks good to me and will probably avoid the confusion for most users 👍

Whoever wants to look behind the vagrant console output will have to dig into the code anyway and eventually find out what we discussed above (or even find this ticket first ;-))

Thanks!

[darkn3rd]

Maybe rename the provisioner to chef_solo_zero. 😸