Trouobleshooting chef-server and chef

Trouobleshooting chef-server and chef

1. had an error: Net::HTTPServerException: 403 "Forbidden"
1. Solutions
1. long running recipes cause Forbidden errors. So, increase timeout value
1. create a file /etc/chef-server/chef-server.rb that contains "erchef['s3_url_ttl'] = 3600"
    chef-server-ctl reconfigure
2. On "Private Chef" the variable to change turns out to be slightly different:
         opscode_erchef['s3_url_ttl'] = 3600
2. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11870336/chef-client-connection-errors-after-executing-knife-bootstrap
2. lost private keys
1. Lost of admin.pem file
1. Visit webui 
1. Edit account >> Edit >> Regnerate private key
2. Lost chef-validator private key
2. cleanse chef-server and start from scratch
1. sudo chef-server-ctl cleanse
3. ERROR: TypeError: can't convert nil into String
1. Most probably argument error. I get this while executing following cookbook command:
     $ knife cookbook create apache
• Reason it give me this error was my knife.rb file was incomplete. I didn't specify cookbook_path variable. This mean i've to explicitly specify cookbook path while executing knife commands.
• I solved this by adding "cookbook_path" variable in my knife.rb file
  OR
• giving -o argument to specify cookbook directory
  $ knife cookbook create MYCOOKBOOK -o /path/to/my/cookbook_dir
4. Not able to communicate with chef-server
   1. /opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:763:in `initialize': Connection re
    
   2. used - connect(2) (Errno::ECONNREFUSED)
   • Most probably chef-server is not configured with right parameters like server name
   • Visit chef-server and cd /etc/chef-server  or wherever your chef-server is installed
   • make chef-server.rb file and enter following parameters
     
     
     server_name = "192.168.56.11"
     api_fqdn server_name
     nginx['url'] = "https://#{server_name}"
     nginx['server_name'] = server_name
     lb['fqdn'] = server_name
     bookshelf['vip'] = server_name
   • verify chef-server configuration :
     

     $ sudo chef-server-ctl show-config
   • More info here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19586040/install-chef-server-11-on-ec2-instance
5. Old recipes are getting run on node 
1. Most probably you forget to commit your changes and upload on chef-server
1. $ knife cookbook upload cookbook_02



1. Path to chef_repo is incorrect in knife.rb file. Please update it to point to current chef_repo
6. Unable to set environment on a node during bootstrap
1. Somehow knife is not setting environment if environment command line parameter is in the middle or the last option.
   using "knife bootstrap <hostname|IP> -E environment ... " work fine - environment option is first in the list.
   eg .
   knife bootstrap IP -E 'Development

Reference:

1. https://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Common+Errors
2. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11870336/chef-client-connection-errors-after-executing-knife-bootstrap
3. https://tickets.opscode.com/browse/CHEF-2614