My New Friend, Cinc-Auditor
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
My journey with cinc-auditor for CI/CD pipelines, replacing InSpec. Discover how she navigated dependency issues using PackageCloud over RubyGems.
Engineering
Terraform + Kitchen + InSpec
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Explore the integration of Terraform, Kitchen, and InSpec for efficient testing of Terraform deployments for a smoother development workflow.
Terraform + Azure + WinRM
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
How to set up a Windows VM in Terraform that joins a domain domain and allows WinRM access. Addresses Strict Group Policy issues.
Azure’s Managed Identity in Test Kitchen
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Explore how Azure’s Managed Identity enhances security in Test Kitchen by replacing client secrets with identities to your kitchen nodes for easier testing.
InSpec Basics: Day 11 - Validating Azure Resources with InSpec Azure
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Discover how to use InSpec to scan and validate your Azure resources. A step-by-step guide on how to use the InSpec Azure resource pack to ensure compliance.
Packer and Azure Managed Images
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Explore the process of creating managed images in Azure using Packer and Chef. Learn how to use these images across multiple subscriptions and regions.
Chef Certification Tests
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Discover the journey to becoming a Certified Chef Developer. This demystifies the Chef Certification tests and provides useful study materials and tips.
Your First DevOps Project to Automate Infrastructure
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Start your journey into DevOps with this comprehensive guide. Learn to automate infrastructure by doing with this simple project.
VM from Custom Image with Terraform and Azure
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Learn how to create virtual machines from custom images using Terraform and Azure with this step-by-step guide.
Terraform and Azure
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Explore the powerful combination of Terraform and Azure in this comprehensive guide. How to create, change, and improve production infrastructure using Terraform’s open-source tool with Azure.
Study Guide for the Basic Chef Fluency Badge Exam
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Prepare for the Basic Chef Fluency Badge Exam with our comprehensive study guide. Gain insights from my personal experience and access a community-driven study resource. Get ready to ace the test!
Chef is a Community Before It’s a Vendor
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Explore how Chef Software Inc. values its community, encouraging collaboration and innovation. Learn how this open-source community’s approach led to the adoption of a new feature.
Chef Artifacts with Artifactory
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Explore how Artifactory is an excellent tool for managing Chef artifacts for deployments. Learn how to install, upload, control access and integrate with Chef. Discover the benefits of Artifactory over other alternatives.
Chef Rollback with Policyfiles
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Explore the benefits of using Chef Policyfiles for rollback mechanisms in application release automation. Learn how to safely undo changes, simplify deployments, and plan for potential rollbacks.
Policyfile Pipeline with Jenkinsfile
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Discover how to manage Chef changes in all environments using policyfiles. Learn how to create a Jenkins pipeline for your policyfiles, ensuring secure and efficient deployment.
Cookbook Pipeline with Jenkinsfile
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Discover how to create a cookbook pipeline using Jenkinsfile for your CI environment. This blog post provides a detailed guide on setting up Jenkins as your tool of choice for managing deployment pipelines.
Cookbook Development with Rakefiles
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Explore the process of cookbook development with Rakefiles. Learn how to standardize cookbook quality, implement automated testing, and release cookbooks efficiently. Ideal for Ruby developers.
Why Habitat?
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Explore the journey of a software engineer discovering the benefits of Habitat for application deployment. Learn about the pros and cons of various application automation approaches, and why Habitat stands out as a game-changer in the field.
Policyfiles Update
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Discover the latest updates on Policyfiles and its integration with Chef Automate. Learn about the future of automation and how Policyfiles can enhance your operations.
A Chef Custom Resource
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Explore the process of creating a Chef custom resource for your certification exam preparation. This blog post provides a detailed walkthrough of the process, helping you understand and implement custom resources effectively.
Introducing Cafe
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Discover Cafe, a new project designed to simplify running Chef in a Windows environment. Learn about its features, installation process, and how it can streamline your Chef operations.
Funnel
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Explore the concept of the sales funnel through the lens of NCR’s history and its application to technology change initiatives. Learn how to effectively manage and implement change in your organization.
Jenkinsfile
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
The basics of configuring a Jenkinsfile to creating a CI/CD Pipeline in Jenkins. Includes version control, parallel commands, and an audit trail. Discover how to build, test, and publish.
My Devops Training Plan
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Discover my comprehensive DevOps training plan for the new year. Learn about my projects, tools, and technologies I’ll be using and comparing. Follow my journey on the blog!
7 Options for Implementing Policyfile Attributes in Any Environment
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Seven ways to move away from Chef node, environment, or role attributes to Chef policyfile attributes. This can be the hardest part of migrating to Policyfiles.
InSpec Basics: Day 10 - Attributes with Environment Variables
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Explore the final part of our InSpec Basics series, where we delve into using attributes with environment variables for testing different environments in TeamCity. Learn how to create and configure MySQL passwords using these attributes.
Chef Policyfiles—The Preferred Way to Package Chef
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Discover the benefits of using Policyfiles in Chef for managing dependencies and changes for nodes. Take control over change management, make Chef easier to learn and more secure.
Chef with Windows
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Explore the challenges and benefits of using Chef in a Windows environment. Learn from our experience at NCR and discover how to make a compelling business case for change.
Migrating from Chef Analytics to Chef Visibility
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Discover how to smoothly transition from Chef Analytics to Chef Visibility. Migrate your existing Chef Analytics Server to a Chef Visibility Server and to ensure a successful transition.
InSpec Basics: Day 9 - Attributes
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Discover the basics of InSpec Attributes in this Day 9 tutorial. Learn how to create an InSpec profile, declare attributes, use them in if statements, and run different tests. Ideal for database and webserver roles.
Elasticsearch Network Hosts
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Explore the process of creating a cookbook to spin up three nodes using Test Kitchen and installing Elasticsearch onto said nodes. Learn how to navigate the complexities of using ohai values, node hashes, and IP addresses in an Elasticsearch cluster.
My Chef Workflow
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Discover how to streamline your Chef workflow in this comprehensive guide. Learn how to set up a connection, bootstrap nodes, install policies, and more. Perfect for beginners and experienced users alike.
InSpec Basics: Day 8 - Regular Expressions
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Dive into the basics of InSpec and learn how to write a test to search for regular expressions in this Learning InSpec blog series.
Why and How I’m Learning Ruby
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Discover the journey of learning Ruby programming from scratch. This blog post shares personal experiences, challenges, and resources used in mastering Ruby.
Finding Habitat
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Explore the world of Habitat, a disruptive technology that revolutionizes configuration management. Learn about its integration with Chef’s ecosystem and how it can streamline your workflow.
InSpec Basics: Day 7 - How to Inherit a Profile from Chef Compliance Server
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Learn how to inherit a profile from Chef Compliance Server with our InSpec Basics tutorial. Modify controls to suit your needs and enhance your Chef Compliance usage.
InSpec Basics: Day 6 - Ways to Run It and Places to Store It
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Explore the different ways to run InSpec and the various places to store it in this comprehensive guide. From running and storing InSpec locally to using Chef Compliance, this blog post covers it all.
InSpec Tutorial: Day 5 - Creating a Profile
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Master the art of creating a profile in InSpec with our comprehensive tutorial. Learn from the basics to advanced techniques, and take your InSpec skills to the next level. Start now!
InSpec Tutorial: Day 4 - Custom Matchers
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Master the basics of InSpec with our Day 4 tutorial. Learn how to use custom matchers, understand file resources, and construct a regex in Rubular. Perfect for beginners!
InSpec Tutorial: Day 3 - File Resource
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Learn how to use the file resource in InSpec in this tutorial. Understand how to write a control that looks for specific text within a file. Perfect for beginners in InSpec.
InSpec Tutorial: Day 2 - Command Resource
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Deepen your understanding of InSpec with our Day 2 tutorial. Learn how to create a command resource, use Nathen Harvey’s InSpec workshop, set up a CentOS 6 VM, and more. Perfect for beginners.
InSpec Tutorial: Day 1 - Hello World
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Start your journey with Chef Compliance and InSpec framework through this beginner-friendly tutorial. Learn how to set up and run a simple ‘Hello World’ test, and gain a deeper understanding of Compliance. No prior coding experience required.
Tour of Chef Compliance
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Explore the basics of Chef Compliance in this easy-to-follow guide. Learn how to add a node, scan your server, fix compliance failures, and more. Get started with Chef Compliance today!
Tutorial for Setting Up Chef Compliance Server on Azure
By Annie Hedgpeth ·
Learn how to set up a Chef Compliance Server on Azure with our easy-to-follow tutorial. Ideal for beginners, we break down the process into simple steps.
Promoting Cookbooks into a Private Chef Supermarket with TeamCity
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Discover how to promote cookbooks into a private chef supermarket with TeamCity. Learn to control version dependencies, ensure cookbook availability, and streamline the approval process for external cookbooks.
Orchestration Maturity Model with Chef
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Explore the orchestration maturity model with Chef, a configuration management tool. Understand the three phases of orchestration, from modeling existing processes to managing state declaratively, and finally, decoupling nodes for scalability.
Chef Cookbook Builds in TeamCity
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Explore how to standardize your Chef Cookbook builds in TeamCity. Learn how to set up project structure, version control settings, build steps, and more. Ensure quality gates for your infrastructure creation.
chef-vault - Tutorial from Beginner to Expert
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
chef-vault is the build-in secrets management system for Chef. Become an expert with this post, and learn when to use this vs. Hashicorp Vault.
Tutorial for Test Kitchen with Azure
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Learn how to run Test Kitchen with Azure in this step-by-step tutorial. Discover the benefits of using Azure, how to set up, and the commands to use. Ideal for those seeking a hassle-free testing environment.
Test Kitchen: Required, not Optional
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Explore the importance of Test Kitchen in Chef workflow. Learn how it’s not just for testing, but an essential part of coding with Chef. Don’t miss out on this essential tool for your infrastructure.
Programming Ruby (Pickaxe) Book Review
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Discover how the Programming Ruby (Pickaxe) book can help you master Ruby programming. This comprehensive guide demystifies Ruby, making it an essential tool in your coding arsenal. Perfect for beginners and experts alike.
Customizing Chef Book Review
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Explore our in-depth review of Customizing Chef by Jon Cowie. Discover how this book can help you understand Chef’s extensibility and tackle complex organizational challenges. Perfect for those with basic Chef knowledge.
Learning Chef Book Review
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Discover the world of Chef with the Learning Chef book. Understand and use Chef, including testing techniques and Windows-friendly commands.
Solving SSL Validation failure with knife
By Michael Hedgpeth ·
Solve SSL Validation failure issues with knife after moving to a hosted version of the Chef server. Discover short-term and long-term solutions for your blog or website.