knife

name	knife
description	Manage Chef/Cinc infrastructure using the knife CLI. Use for: nodes, roles, cookbooks, data bags, run lists, environments, bootstrapping, knife ssh, or vault items. Triggers on 'knife', 'Chef server', 'bootstrap node', or 'knife vault'.

knife Skill

knife is configured via /home/tcase/.cinc/config.rb (aliased as knife). Chef server: https://spinoza.ekamai.net/organizations/ekamai.

Known nodes: airweave, coltrane, desktop, ella, fathead, jaco, nina, ruby, socrates, spinoza, tcase, voltaire Known roles: debian_derivative, devmachine, desktop, ekamai, local_essentials, nodejs, pihole, remote_access, ruby, taskwarrior Known cookbooks: base, common, desktop, devmachine, nodejs, pihole, remote, repos, ruby, taskwarrior

Node Management

knife node list
knife node show <node>
knife node edit <node>                           # opens $EDITOR

# Run list management
knife node run_list add <node> 'role[devmachine]'
knife node run_list remove <node> 'role[nodejs]'
knife node run_list set <node> 'role[debian_derivative],role[devmachine]'

# Set/change environment
knife node environment set <node> production

Search

Knife search uses Solr syntax against node attributes, roles, recipes, platform, etc.

# Find nodes by role
knife search node 'role:devmachine'

# Find by platform
knife search node 'platform:ubuntu'

# Find by recipe in run list
knife search node 'recipes:devmachine\:\:docker'

# Find by attribute
knife search node 'hostname:jaco'

# All nodes
knife search node 'name:*'

# Output as JSON
knife search node 'role:devmachine' -F json

Cookbook Management

knife cookbook list
knife cookbook show <name>
knife cookbook show <name> <version>

# Upload from local repo (run from /home/tcase/Sites/cinc)
knife cookbook upload <name>
knife cookbook upload --all          # upload all cookbooks

Data Bags

knife data bag list
knife data bag show <bag>
knife data bag show <bag> <item>
knife data bag edit <bag> <item>
knife data bag from file <bag> <file.json>

# Encrypted data bags
knife data bag show vault secrets --secret-file /etc/cinc/encrypted_data_bag_secret

Vault (knife-vault)

knife vault list
knife vault show <vault> [item]
knife vault edit <vault> <item>
knife vault create <vault> <item> '{"key": "value"}' -S 'role:devmachine'
knife vault update <vault> <item> '{"key": "value"}'
knife vault rotate keys <vault> <item>

Roles

knife role list
knife role show <role>
knife role edit <role>
knife role from file roles/<role>.json    # upload from local file

SSH (run commands on nodes)

# Run command on nodes matching a search query
knife ssh 'role:devmachine' 'sudo cinc-client'
knife ssh 'name:jaco' 'uptime'

# With specific user
knife ssh 'role:devmachine' -x tcase 'sudo apt update'

Bootstrap a New Node

knife bootstrap <host> -N <nodename> \
  --run-list 'role[debian_derivative],role[local_essentials]' \
  -x <user> --sudo

Output Formats

knife node show jaco -F json    # JSON output
knife node show jaco -F yaml    # YAML output
knife node show jaco -a run_list  # show specific attribute only

Detailed References

• Data bag patterns & vault: See references/data-bags.md
• Search query syntax: See references/search.md