README.md

Data Bags

This directory contains directories of the various data bags you create for your infrastructure. Each subdirectory corresponds to a data bag on the Chef Server, and contains JSON files of the items that go in the bag.

First, create a directory for the data bag.

mkdir data_bags/BAG

Then create the JSON files for items that will go into that bag.

$EDITOR data_bags/BAG/ITEM.json

The JSON for the ITEM must contain a key named "id" with a value equal to "ITEM". For example,

{
  "id": "foo"
}

Next, create the data bag on the Chef Server.

knife data bag create BAG

Then upload the items in the data bag's directory to the Chef Server.

knife data bag from file BAG ITEM.json

Encrypted Data Bags

Added in Chef 0.10, encrypted data bags allow you to encrypt the contents of your data bags. The content of attributes will no longer be searchable. To use encrypted data bags, first you must have or create a secret key.

openssl rand -base64 512 > secret_key

You may use this secret_key to add items to a data bag during a create.

knife data bag create --secret-file secret_key passwords mysql

You may also use it when adding ITEMs from files,

knife data bag create passwords
knife data bag from file passwords data_bags/passwords/mysql.json --secret-file secret_key

The JSON for the ITEM must contain a key named "id" with a value equal to "ITEM" and the contents will be encrypted when uploaded. For example,

{
  "id": "mysql",
  "password": "abc123"
}

Without the secret_key, the contents are encrypted.

knife data bag show passwords mysql
id:        mysql
password:  2I0XUUve1TXEojEyeGsjhw==

Use the secret_key to view the contents.

knife data bag show passwords mysql --secret-file secret_key
id:        mysql
password:  abc123