chef_client_cron Resource

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Use the chef_client_cron resource to setup the Chef Infra Client to run as a cron job. This resource will also create the specified log directory if it doesn’t already exist.

New in Chef Infra Client 16.0.

Syntax

The full syntax for all of the properties that are available to the chef_client_cron resource is:

chef_client_cron 'name' do
  accept_chef_license      true, false # default value: false
  append_log_file          true, false # default value: true
  chef_binary_path         String # default value: "/opt/chef/bin/chef-client"
  comment                  String
  config_directory         String # default value: "/etc/chef"
  daemon_options           Array # default value: []
  day                      Integer, String # default value: "*"
  environment              Hash # default value: {}
  hour                     Integer, String # default value: "*"
  job_name                 String # default value: "chef-client"
  log_directory            String
  log_file_name            String # default value: "client.log"
  mailto                   String
  minute                   Integer, String # default value: "0,30"
  month                    Integer, String # default value: "*"
  nice                     Integer, String
  splay                    Integer, String # default value: 300
  user                     String # default value: "root"
  weekday                  Integer, String # default value: "*"
  action                   Symbol # defaults to :add if not specified
end

where:

• chef_client_cron is the resource.
• name is the name given to the resource block.
• action identifies which steps Chef Infra Client will take to bring the node into the desired state.
• accept_chef_license, append_log_file, chef_binary_path, comment, config_directory, daemon_options, day, environment, hour, job_name, log_directory, log_file_name, mailto, minute, month, nice, splay, user, and weekday are the properties available to this resource.

Actions

The chef_client_cron resource has the following actions:

:add

Add a cron job to run Chef Infra Client. (default)

:nothing

This resource block doesn’t act unless notified by another resource to take action. Once notified, this resource block either runs immediately or is queued up to run at the end of a Chef Infra Client run.

:remove

Remove a cron job for Chef Infra Client.

Properties

The chef_client_cron resource has the following properties:

accept_chef_license

Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false

Accept the Chef Online Master License and Services Agreement. See https://www.chef.io/online-master-agreement

append_log_file

Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: true

Append to the log file instead of overwriting the log file on each run.

chef_binary_path

Ruby Type: String | Default Value: /opt/chef/bin/chef-client

The path to the chef-client binary.

comment

Ruby Type: String

A comment to place in the cron.d file.

config_directory

Ruby Type: String | Default Value: /etc/chef

The path of the config directory.

daemon_options

Ruby Type: Array | Default Value: []

An array of options to pass to the chef-client command.

day

Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value: *

The day of month at which Chef Infra Client is to run (1 - 31) or a cron pattern such as ‘1,7,14,21,28’.

environment

Ruby Type: Hash | Default Value: {}

A Hash containing additional arbitrary environment variables under which the cron job will be run in the form of ({'ENV_VARIABLE' => 'VALUE'}).

hour

Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value: *

The hour at which Chef Infra Client is to run (0 - 23) or a cron pattern such as ‘0,12’.

job_name

Ruby Type: String | Default Value: chef-client

The name of the cron job to create.

log_directory

Ruby Type: String | Default Value: /Library/Logs/Chef on macOS and /var/log/chef otherwise

The path of the directory to create the log file in.

log_file_name

Ruby Type: String | Default Value: client.log

The name of the log file to use.

mailto

Ruby Type: String

The e-mail address to e-mail any cron task failures to.

minute

Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value: 0,30

The minute at which Chef Infra Client is to run (0 - 59) or a cron pattern such as ‘0,30’.

month

Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value: *

The month in the year on which Chef Infra Client is to run (1 - 12, jan-dec, or *).

nice

Ruby Type: Integer, String

The process priority to run the chef-client process at. A value of -20 is the highest priority and 19 is the lowest priority.

New in Chef Infra Client 16.5

splay

Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value: 300

A random number of seconds between 0 and X to add to interval so that all chef-client commands don’t execute at the same time.

user

Ruby Type: String | Default Value: root

The name of the user that Chef Infra Client runs as.

weekday

Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value: *

The day of the week on which Chef Infra Client is to run (0-7, mon-sun, or *), where Sunday is both 0 and 7.

Common Resource Functionality

Chef resources include common properties, notifications, and resource guards.

Common Properties

The following properties are common to every resource:

compile_time

Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false

Control the phase during which the resource is run on the node. Set to true to run while the resource collection is being built (the compile phase). Set to false to run while Chef Infra Client is configuring the node (the converge phase).

ignore_failure

Ruby Type: true, false, :quiet | Default Value: false

Continue running a recipe if a resource fails for any reason. :quiet won’t display the full stack trace and the recipe will continue to run if a resource fails.

retries

Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value: 0

The number of attempts to catch exceptions and retry the resource.

retry_delay

Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value: 2

The delay in seconds between retry attempts.

sensitive

Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false

Ensure that sensitive resource data isn’t logged by Chef Infra Client.

Notifications

notifies

Ruby Type: Symbol, 'Chef::Resource[String]'

A resource may notify another resource to take action when its state changes. Specify a 'resource[name]', the :action that resource should take, and then the :timer for that action. A resource may notify more than one resource; use a notifies statement for each resource to be notified.

If the referenced resource doesn’t exist, an error is raised. In contrast, subscribes won’t fail if the source resource isn’t found.

A timer specifies the point during a Chef Infra Client run at which a notification is run. The following timers are available:

:before

Specifies that the action on a notified resource should be run before processing the resource block in which the notification is located.

:delayed

Default. Specifies that a notification should be queued up, and then executed at the end of a Chef Infra Client run.

:immediate, :immediately

Specifies that a notification should be run immediately, for each resource notified.

The syntax for notifies is:

notifies :action, 'resource[name]', :timer

subscribes

Ruby Type: Symbol, 'Chef::Resource[String]'

A resource may listen to another resource, and then take action if the state of the resource being listened to changes. Specify a 'resource[name]', the :action to be taken, and then the :timer for that action.

Note that subscribes doesn’t apply the specified action to the resource that it listens to - for example:

file '/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt' do
  mode '0600'
  owner 'root'
end

service 'nginx' do
  subscribes :reload, 'file[/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt]', :immediately
end

In this case the subscribes property reloads the nginx service whenever its certificate file, located under /etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt, is updated. subscribes doesn’t make any changes to the certificate file itself, it merely listens for a change to the file, and executes the :reload action for its resource (in this example nginx) when a change is detected.

If the other resource doesn’t exist, the subscription won’t raise an error. Contrast this with the stricter semantics of notifies, which will raise an error if the other resource doesn’t exist.

A timer specifies the point during a Chef Infra Client run at which a notification is run. The following timers are available:

:before

Specifies that the action on a notified resource should be run before processing the resource block in which the notification is located.

:delayed

Default. Specifies that a notification should be queued up, and then executed at the end of a Chef Infra Client run.

:immediate, :immediately

Specifies that a notification should be run immediately, for each resource notified.

The syntax for subscribes is:

subscribes :action, 'resource[name]', :timer

Guards

A guard property can be used to evaluate the state of a node during the execution phase of a Chef Infra Client run. Based on the results of this evaluation, a guard property is then used to tell Chef Infra Client if it should continue executing a resource. A guard property accepts either a string value or a Ruby block value:

• A string is executed as a shell command. If the command returns 0, the guard is applied. If the command returns any other value, then the guard property isn’t applied. String guards in a powershell_script run Windows PowerShell commands and may return true in addition to 0.
• A block is executed as Ruby code that must return either true or false. If the block returns true, the guard property is applied. If the block returns false, the guard property isn’t applied.

A guard property is useful for ensuring that a resource is idempotent by allowing that resource to test for the desired state as it’s being executed, and then if the desired state is present, for Chef Infra Client to don’thing.

The following properties can be used to define a guard that’s evaluated during the execution phase of a Chef Infra Client run:

not_if

Prevent a resource from executing when the condition returns true.

only_if

Allow a resource to execute only if the condition returns true.

Examples

The following examples demonstrate various approaches for using the chef_client_cron resource in recipes:

Setup Chef Infra Client to run using the default 30 minute cadence:

chef_client_cron 'Run Chef Infra Client as a cron job'

Run Chef Infra Client twice a day:

chef_client_cron 'Run Chef Infra Client every 12 hours' do
  minute 0
  hour '0,12'
end

Run Chef Infra Client with extra options passed to the client:

chef_client_cron 'Run an override recipe' do
  daemon_options ['--override-runlist mycorp_base::default']
end