Get started with Chef Automate

This quickstart guides you through the initial installation and trial activation.

The easiest way to start exploring Chef Automate is to install it on a local virtual machine (VM). Use this Vagrant file to create your own test environment.

Prerequisites

For this demonstration, you need:

Root access to your system
A virtualization product such as VirtualBox installed on your system
Vagrant installed on your system
8 GB RAM, or more, available for the VM

Quickstart

Use the command-line script below to create a demonstration instance of Chef Automate. The script is mostly automated, but it requires a few manual steps. Installing Chef Automate with the Vagrantfile below means you’re consenting to Chef Software, Inc.’s Terms of Service and Master License and Services Agreement.

Create a Vagrantfile by pasting this script into your command line:

cat > Vagrantfile <<'EOH'
CFG_BOX      = 'bento/ubuntu-18.04'
CFG_IP       = '192.168.33.199'
CFG_HOSTNAME = 'chef-automate.test'

$deployscript = <<-SCRIPT
export DEBIAN_FRONTEND='noninteractive'
apt-get -qq update
apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends curl unzip
apt-get clean
sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144
sysctl -w vm.dirty_expire_centisecs=20000
echo "${CFG_IP} ${CFG_HOSTNAME}" | tee -a /etc/hosts
curl -fsSL "https://chefdownload-commercial.chef.io/stable/automate/download?p=linux&m=x86_64&license_id=<LICENSE_ID>" -o /usr/local/bin/chef-automate
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/chef-automate
chef-automate deploy --accept-terms-and-mlsa
echo "Server is up and running. Please log in at https://${CFG_HOSTNAME}/"
echo 'You may log in using credentials provided below:'
cat /home/vagrant/automate-credentials.toml
SCRIPT

Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|
  class AcceptLicense
    def to_s
      return 'true' if ENV['ACCEPT_CHEF_TERMS_AND_MLSA'] == 'true'
      puts <<TERMS
To continue, you'll need to accept our terms of service:
Terms of Service
https://www.chef.io/terms-of-service

Master License and Services Agreement
https://www.chef.io/online-master-agreement

I agree to the Terms of Service and the Master License and Services Agreement (y/n)
TERMS
      if STDIN.gets.chomp == 'y'
        'true'
      else
        puts 'Chef Software Terms of Service and Master License and Services Agreement were not accepted'
        exit 1
      end
    end
  end
  config.vm.box      = CFG_BOX
  config.vm.hostname = CFG_HOSTNAME

  config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
    v.name       = 'chef-automate'
    v.memory     = 8192
    v.cpus       = 4
    v.customize ['modifyvm', :id, '--audio', 'none']
  end

  config.vm.synced_folder '.', '/opt/a2-testing', create: true
  config.vm.network       'private_network', ip: CFG_IP
  config.vm.provision     'shell', env: {'CFG_IP' => CFG_IP,
                                        'CFG_HOSTNAME' => CFG_HOSTNAME,
                                        'ACCEPT_CHEF_TERMS_AND_MLSA' => AcceptLicense.new}, inline: $deployscript
end
EOH

Replace <LICENSE_ID> in the Vagrantfile with your commercial license ID before you run it.

Add an entry to /etc/hosts.
The example Vagrantfile sets the VM hostname to chef-automate.test. The installer uses this hostname as the FQDN that Chef Automate listens on. For security reasons, you must access Chef Automate with the configured FQDN. To avoid configuring DNS for your test instance, add an entry to your workstation’s /etc/hosts file. Use the following command to append the required entry:
```
echo 192.168.33.199 chef-automate.test | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts
```
Start the virtual machine by running:
```
vagrant up
```
Downloading the base OS image for the VM takes 1 to 3 minutes the first time you set up Chef Automate.
When the command completes, you can access Chef Automate by going to https://chef-automate.test/.
You can find login credentials by opening automate-credentials.toml, which the installer writes in your current working directory, or in the output log.

Start a free 60-day trial

Getting a trial license through Chef Automate requires the Vagrant instance to have internet connectivity when you create the trial license.

Sign in to Chef Automate at https://chef-automate.test/ with the credentials in the automate-credentials.toml file.
Follow the instructions on the welcome screen to get a 60-day trial license by entering your name and email address.

Install without Vagrant

You can install Chef Automate on any x86_64 Linux instance running CentOS 7.5, RHEL 7.5, or Ubuntu 16.04 with the following minimum system resources:

4 CPU
16 GB RAM
5 GB free disk space

Follow the installation guide to install Chef Automate on your own resources.