client.rb configuration file content of new clients should have a more flexible configuration

[nomadium]

Hi,

I'm finding I need to launch new nodes with the option no_lazy_load true in their chef-client configuration /etc/chef/client.rb but I don't find a good to achieve this.

I took at look at the source code and I found this: https://github.com/opscode/chef-provisioning/blob/8c82d69967fd0992870a956694a99eb569aa94fc/lib/chef/provisioning/convergence_strategy/precreate_chef_objects.rb#L184.

It looks like right now I can't configure this, right?

[kwilczynski]

@nomadium give chef-client cookbook a try: https://github.com/opscode-cookbooks/chef-client If you need to get this option set during bootstrap, consider custom bootstrap template: https://github.com/opscode/chef/blob/master/lib/chef/knife/bootstrap/chef-full.erb

Alternatively, you can set higher TTL on the server side with erchef['s3_url_ttl'] = 1800 (it's in seconds) in /etc/chef/chef-server.rb (you need to reconfigure afterwards). For more details: https://docs.getchef.com/config_rb_chef_server.html

[nomadium]

@kwilczynski but on the first chef-client run just after a node had been created with chef-provisioning (or chef-metal) I don't think I couldn't manage /etc/chef/client.rb with that cookbook yet, right? I could use it to setup my chef settings for subsequents chef-client run but not on the first one I believe.

I'm looking for a way to set arbitrary chef-client settings from chef-provisioning or at least to be able to setup the option no_lazy_load => true.

I read this setting is going to be the default for Chef 12 but in the meantime is annoying to don't have a way to set it at that early stage.

[kwilczynski]

@nomadium sadly, you are right. I thought it would play nice with client-side. What about bumping on the Chef Server side? Unless you are Hosted Chef user.

[nomadium]

@kwilczynski I'll test this with Chef Server. However, I'm using chef-provisioning mostly with Hosted Chef.

[johnewart]

I could being able to inject client.rb options would be a useful feature -- I'll mark it as post 1.0 for the meantime since it's not a show-stopping issue. Also, no_lazy_load should default to true, shouldn't it?

[nomadium]

I agree, it's not a show stopper and it will be mitigated when Chef 12 switches no_lazy_load to true but of course it would be great to have total control of chef client settings for the new machines.

[jkeiser]

It should be pretty easy to fix, too ... just add an option to convergence options.

[danielsdeleo]

I believe this is done. I'm happily creating machines with additional config using chef_config: chef_config in my convergence options. Definitely needs to be added to the official docs though.

[nomadium]

Great, I'll give a try.