Step-by-Step Guide to Set Up Chef Automate on AWS

Chef Automate is an enterprise platform that allows developers, operations and security engineers to collaborate effortlessly on delivering application & infrastructure changes at the speed of business. In this article, we will discuss How to setup Chef Automate on AWS. Please see Get Started with OpsWorks for Chef Automate, Chef – Node Bootstrapping, and how to install the Microsoft PSWindowsUpdate module silently.

Also, see AWS Opsworks For Chef Automate, and how to setup Chef Repository.

Setup Checf Automate

To setup Chef Automate, follow the following steps below. Navigate to the URL and select Create Chef Automate Server

Step 1

Now select the region. Enter the Chef Server Automate Instance (server) name and select the Instance type too.

Step 2: Select an SSH Key

No room to create a new key (either you select you don’t want to connect using SSH or you select an existing SSH key).

Step 3

Select the right VPC, Subnet, associate the right EIP, security group. Create a service role if non-exists at the moment

“AWS OpsWorks for Chef Automate needs your permission to create an IAM service role that allows us to perform actions in AWS CloudFormation, Amazon EC2, Amazon EC2 Simple Systems Manager, and Amazon S3. By continuing, you are allowing us to create a new role to work with these services.” Create an Instance Profile

“AWS OpsWorks for Chef Automate needs your permission to create an instance profile that allows us to perform actions in Amazon S3, and communicate with a Chef server by using Amazon EC2 Simple Systems Manager (SSM).

By continuing, you are allowing us to create a new role to work with these services.”

Select your maintenance Windows to allow AWS OpsWork to install Updates for Chef Automate minor versions or security packages.

Note: Weekends are always better to have this performed. (select whatever time suits you).

AWS OpsWorks Backup

AWS OpsWorks supports two ways to back up your Chef Automate server: manual or automated. Backups are uploaded to your Amazon S3 bucket. If you ever need to restore your Chef Automate server, you can restore it by applying your chosen backup.

When you choose yes to Enable automated backup, the options below are available

Settings interface for automated backup options, including options to enable backups, select frequency (daily or weekly), and specify the number of backup generations to keep.

Number of generations to keep: 30 is usually okay but this depends on your organization policy.

Step 4

Review and Launch: open its Properties page in the AWS OpsWorks for Chef Automate console. The page below will be prompted to show the progress bar of the AWS OpsWork for Chef Automate creation.

Screenshot of the AWS OpsWorks Chef Automate dashboard, displaying server setup instructions and options to download credentials and the Starter Kit.

Note: Make sure you download the following before your server is online. The download buttons are not available after a new server is online.

Finally, this message will appear on the dashboard stating your Chef Automate Server is successfully launched

Notification confirming successful launch of Chef Automate server with DNS configuration instructions.

Note: The created role will appear in the IAM section under roles as shown below

List of AWS roles including 'aws-opsworks-cm-ec2-role' and 'aws-opsworks-cm-service-role' with corresponding AWS services.

Now Access the URL (dashboard) of Chef Automate and perform all necessary configurations etc. as shown below

Screenshot of the Chef Automate Email Setup page, displaying fields for SMTP email server configuration including host, port number, login, password, sender's email, and sender's name. Navigation menu on the left shows options like Users, SCM Setup, SAML Setup, and Email Setup.

Note: Ensure you have the ChefDK downloaded and Installed on your local PC. Otherwise, you cannot work with Chef Automate with Windows 10. See how to install ChefDk on Windows in the next page.

I hope you found How to setup Chef Automate on AWS useful. Please feel free to leave a comment below.