While using any tool, 80% of all work is accomplished by very small percentage of commands available. Following are some of the commonly used Chef Knife commands.

• To create a new cookbook

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knife cookbook create cookbook_name

Note: use underscore instead of “-” (hyphen) in cookbook names. Hypen seem to prevent identification of LWRPs included in the cookbook.

• To upload a new or modified cookbook

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knife cookbook upload cookbook_name

• To list all the nodes currently defined in Chef

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knife node list

• To show details about a node

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knife node show node_name -l

Note: -l option generates a detailed list of properties about the node. Leaving it out will generate a summary about the node. Use -a option to query about a particular node attribute

• To edit a new node or modifying an existing node

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knife node edit node_name

This will let you edit the node details using the default editor set

• To add a node defined in a file to Chef

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knife node from file file_name

• To list all the roles defined in Chef

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knife role list

• To show details about a role

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knife role show role_name

Use -a option to query about a particular role attribute value

• To add a role from a file

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knife role from file file_name

• To edit a new or existing role

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knife role edit role_name

• To add a role or recipe to a node

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knife node run_list add node_name "recipe[cookbook::recipe]"
knife node run_list add node_name "role[role_name]"
knife node run_list add node_name "role[role_name],recipe[cookbook::recipe]"

• To remove role or recipe from a node use “remove” instead of “add”

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knife node run_list remove node_name "role[role_name]"

• To bootstrap a new node with Chef

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knife bootstrap new-host-ip -x root -P password -N node_name

Happy Cheffing!!