Heavy Weight Resource Provider (HWRP) is one of the options Chef offers to create custom resources and the other being LWRP. It would be good to read the notes on LWRP to understand the context and the difference between LWRP and HWRP.

Similar to LWRP, HWRP requires a resource definition and the corresponding provider. The key difference is that there are no DSL in the HWRP as in LWRP and everything is coded in Ruby code. So taking the same example of HDFS directory resource used in the notes on LWRP, the following is the skeleton of the resource definition.

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class Chef
  class Resource
    class HdfsDir < Chef::Resource

      #
      # What provider this resource provides
      #
      provides :hdfsdir

      def initialize(name, run_context=nil)
        super

        #
        # Set the resource name
        #
        @resource_name = :hdfsdir

        #
        # Allowed actions in this resource
        #
        @allowed_actions = [:create, :delete, :chown, :chmod, :rename, :chgrp, :nothing]

        #
        # Default action if none specified when using the resource
        #
        @action = :create

        #
        # Set default values for resource attributes
        #
        @path = name
        @namenode = nil
        ...
      end
      
      #
      # Methods to get/set attributes and define additional characteristics
      #
      def path(arg=nil)
        set_or_return(:path, arg, :kind_of => String, :required => true)
      end

      def namenode(arg=nil)
        set_or_return(:namenode, arg, :kind_of => String, :required => true)
      end

      ...

    end
  end
end

The HWRP is a Ruby class in this case HdfsDir which is a subclass of Chef::Resource class. The provides method specifies the resource provider for this resource and in this case it is hdfsdir.

As in any Ruby class, the initialize method is used perform initializations like setting initial values of variables. In this case the pre-defined instance variable resource_name is set to a name which can be used to create a resource block in recipes using this HWRP. An array of symbols specifying the supported actions supported by this HWRP is assigned to the instance variable allowed_actions. A default action which will be taken if an action is not set for while creating a resource using this HWRP (in this case create) is set to the instance variable action.

The remaining section in the skeleton is to define the characteristics of all the attributes of this resource which is similar to the attribute definition in LWRP. The key difference is that they are all defined as Ruby methods and the set_or_return is similar to Ruby attr_accessor method which creates the getters and setters for the attributes.

Unlike LWRP, the HWRP resource and provider code is stored in files under the libraries directory of the cookbook. Also there is no strict rules about the file naming conventions since these are Ruby classes and they get loaded first during the Chef client run.

Now lets turn to the corresponding provider definition and the following is the skeleton. It is more or less similar to the LWRP provider code we had seen earlier with some differences.

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require 'chef/log'

class Chef
  class Provider
    class HdfsDir < Chef::Provider

      #
      # To enable -W/--why-run option of chef-client
      #
      def whyrun_supported?
         true
      end

      #
      # Method automatically called by Chef during the client execution phase
      # Can be used to initialize variables and also verify the current state
      #
      def load_current_resource
        require 'webhdfs'

        new_resource.user == nil ? @user = ENV['USER'] : @user = new_resource.user
        nnaddress = new_resource.namenode
        nnport = new_resource.nnport
        @client = WebHDFS::Client.new(nnaddress,nnport,@user)
        if (!validnn?())
          raise RuntimeError, "Invalid namenode provided or HDFS not available"
        end
        @omode = new_resource.mode
        new_resource.mode == nil ? @mode = "0750" : @mode = new_resource.mode
        @path = new_resource.path
        @tpath = new_resource.tpath
        @tgroup = new_resource.tgroup
        @tuser = new_resource.tuser
      end

      ...
      #
      # Action to create a directory in HDFS
      #
      def action_create
        if (dir_exists?(@path))
          Chef::Log::info("Directory #{ @path } exits; create action not taken")
        else
          converge_by("Create #{ @new_resource }") do
            @client.mkdir(@path,'permission' => @mode)
          end
          new_resource.updated_by_last_action(true)
        end
      end
    …
      #
      # Method to check whether the namenode provided is valid
      #
      def validnn?()
        return dir_exists?("/") ? true : false
      end
      ...
    end
  end
end

As with the resource definition, the provider is also a Ruby class which is a subclass of Chef::Provider class. The method whyrun_supported is to specify whether the resource supports the chef client run with why-run option. If this method is set to return true, then the strings provided in the converge_by statement of the action requested in the recipe will be logged instead of performing the actual convergence of the resource.

load_current_resource method need to be overwritten in an HWRP which is optional in as LWRP. As discussed in the LWRP note, this method can be used to check the current state of the resource.

The methods for the actions supported are defined using the naming convention action_name. For e.g. for the create action the method name is action_create. Supporting methods can be defined as in any Ruby class for e.g. in this case `validnn??`` method.

The method new_resource.updated_by_last_action is called with a value of true so that Chef is notified that the resource got updated by that particular action.

More notes in this category can be found here.