Using Chef Client with Cisco NX-OS
Feature History for Chef Support
This table lists the release history for this feature.
Feature Name |
Releases |
Feature Information |
---|---|---|
Support for Chef |
7.3(0)D1(1) |
This feature was introduced in Cisco Nexus 7000 and Cisco Nexus 7700 switches. |
About Chef
Chef is an open-source software package developed by Chef Software, Inc. It is a systems and cloud infrastructure automation framework that deploys servers and applications to any physical, virtual, or cloud location, no matter the size of the infrastructure. Each organization is comprised of one or more workstations, a single server, and every node that will be configured and maintained by the chef-client. Cookbooks and recipes are used to tell the chef-client how each node should be configured. The chef-client, which is installed on every node, does the actual configuration.
A Chef cookbook is the fundamental unit of configuration and policy distribution. A cookbook defines a scenario and contains everything that is required to support that scenario, including libraries, recipes, files, and more. A Chef recipe is a collection of property definitions for setting state on the device. The details for checking and setting these property states are abstracted away so that a recipe may be used for more than one operating system or platform. While recipes are commonly used for defining configuration settings, they can also be used to install software packages, copy files, start services, and more.
The following references provide more information from Chef:
Topic |
Link |
---|---|
Chef home |
|
Chef overview |
|
Chef documentation (all) |
Prerequisites
The following are prerequisites for Chef:
-
You must have a Cisco device and operating system software release that supports the installation:
-
Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switch
-
Cisco Nexus 7700 Series switch
-
Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(0)D1(1) or later for Cisco Nexus 7000 and Cisco Nexus 7700 series switches.
-
-
Chef agents cannot run natively on Cisco Nexus 7000 and Cisco Nexus 7700 switches. Instead they run in a special environment called the Open Agent Container (OAC). For information on how to install OAC on your switch, refer to the chapter Open Agent Container
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You need a Chef server with Chef 12.4.1 or higher.
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You need Chef Client 12.4.1 or higher.
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You need Cisco Chef Cookbook Version 1.0.0. or later.
Chef Client NX-OS Environment
The chef-client software must be installed in a Linux environment provided by the Cisco Nexus platforms:
-
Open Agent Container (OAC):
It is a 32-bit CentOS 6.6 based container that is targeted to specifically allow Chef Agents on Nexus platforms. Although the container will have the ability to provide a "bash" shell, it will restrict the applications that can be installed in the Container.
You have to download and install OAC on your device before you install Chef on your device. For information on how to download and install OAC, refer to the chapter Open Agent Container.
The following table provides information about agent software download, installation, and setup:
Topic |
Link |
---|---|
Chef Client (OAC, 32-bit CentOS6 root file system) |
For latest information on Client RPM, go to https://packagecloud.io/chef/stable/packages/el/6/chef-12.5.1-1.el6.i386.rpm. |
Chef Client: Installation and setup on Cisco Nexus platform (manual setup) |
|
Chef Client: Installation and setup on Cisco Nexus platform (automated installation using the Chef provisioner) |
cisco-cookbook
cisco-cookbook is a Cisco-developed open-source interface between the abstract resources configuration in a Chef recipe and the specific implementation details of the Cisco Nexus operating system and platforms. This cookbook is installed on the Chef Server and is required for proper Chef Client operation on Cisco Nexus devices.
cisco-cookbook can be found on Chef Supermarket. For information about cisco-cookbook location and setup instructions, see:
https://supermarket.chef.io/cookbooks/cisco-cookbook
The following table contains links to documents that provide additional information about cisco-cookbook:
Topic |
Link |
---|---|
cisco-cookbook: Setup and usage |
|
cisco-cookbook: Source Code Repository |
https://github.com/cisco/cisco-network-chef-cookbook/tree/master |
Resource Type Catalog |
https://github.com/cisco/cisco-network-chef-cookbook/tree/master#resource-reference |
Chef Supermarket |