chef_client_cron Resource
This page is generated from the Chef Infra Client source code.To suggest a change, edit the chef_client_cron.rb file and submit a pull request to the Chef Infra Client repository.
Use the chef_client_cron resource to setup the Chef Infra Client to run as a cron job. This resource will also create the specified log directory if it doesn’t already exist.
New in Chef Infra Client 16.0.
Syntax
The full syntax for all of the properties that are available to the chef_client_cron resource is:
chef_client_cron 'name' do
accept_chef_license true, false # default value: false
append_log_file true, false # default value: true
chef_binary_path String # default value: "/opt/chef/bin/chef-client"
comment String
config_directory String # default value: "/etc/chef"
daemon_options Array # default value: []
day Integer, String # default value: "*"
environment Hash # default value: {}
hour Integer, String # default value: "*"
job_name String # default value: "chef-client"
log_directory String
log_file_name String # default value: "client.log"
mailto String
minute Integer, String # default value: "0,30"
month Integer, String # default value: "*"
nice Integer, String
splay Integer, String # default value: 300
user String # default value: "root"
weekday Integer, String # default value: "*"
action Symbol # defaults to :add if not specified
end
where:
chef_client_cron
is the resource.name
is the name given to the resource block.action
identifies which steps Chef Infra Client will take to bring the node into the desired state.accept_chef_license
,append_log_file
,chef_binary_path
,comment
,config_directory
,daemon_options
,day
,environment
,hour
,job_name
,log_directory
,log_file_name
,mailto
,minute
,month
,nice
,splay
,user
, andweekday
are the properties available to this resource.
Actions
The chef_client_cron resource has the following actions:
:add
- Add a cron job to run Chef Infra Client. (default)
:nothing
- This resource block does not act unless notified by another resource to take action. Once notified, this resource block either runs immediately or is queued up to run at the end of a Chef Infra Client run.
:remove
- Remove a cron job for Chef Infra Client.
Properties
The chef_client_cron resource has the following properties:
accept_chef_license
- Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value:
false
Accept the Chef Online Master License and Services Agreement. See https://www.chef.io/online-master-agreement
append_log_file
- Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value:
true
Append to the log file instead of overwriting the log file on each run.
chef_binary_path
- Ruby Type: String | Default Value:
/opt/chef/bin/chef-client
The path to the chef-client binary.
comment
- Ruby Type: String
A comment to place in the cron.d file.
config_directory
- Ruby Type: String | Default Value:
/etc/chef
The path of the config directory.
daemon_options
- Ruby Type: Array | Default Value:
[]
An array of options to pass to the chef-client command.
day
- Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value:
*
The day of month at which Chef Infra Client is to run (1 - 31) or a cron pattern such as ‘1,7,14,21,28’.
environment
- Ruby Type: Hash | Default Value:
{}
A Hash containing additional arbitrary environment variables under which the cron job will be run in the form of
({'ENV_VARIABLE' => 'VALUE'})
.
hour
- Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value:
*
The hour at which Chef Infra Client is to run (0 - 23) or a cron pattern such as ‘0,12’.
job_name
- Ruby Type: String | Default Value:
chef-client
The name of the cron job to create.
log_directory
- Ruby Type: String | Default Value:
/Library/Logs/Chef on macOS and /var/log/chef otherwise
The path of the directory to create the log file in.
log_file_name
- Ruby Type: String | Default Value:
client.log
The name of the log file to use.
mailto
- Ruby Type: String
The e-mail address to e-mail any cron task failures to.
minute
- Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value:
0,30
The minute at which Chef Infra Client is to run (0 - 59) or a cron pattern such as ‘0,30’.
month
- Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value:
*
The month in the year on which Chef Infra Client is to run (1 - 12, jan-dec, or *).
nice
- Ruby Type: Integer, String
The process priority to run the chef-client process at. A value of -20 is the highest priority and 19 is the lowest priority.
New in Chef Infra Client 16.5
splay
- Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value:
300
A random number of seconds between 0 and X to add to interval so that all chef-client commands don’t execute at the same time.
user
- Ruby Type: String | Default Value:
root
The name of the user that Chef Infra Client runs as.
weekday
- Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value:
*
The day of the week on which Chef Infra Client is to run (0-7, mon-sun, or *), where Sunday is both 0 and 7.
Common Resource Functionality
Chef resources include common properties, notifications, and resource guards.
Common Properties
The following properties are common to every resource:
compile_time
Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value:
false
Control the phase during which the resource is run on the node. Set to true to run while the resource collection is being built (the
compile phase
). Set to false to run while Chef Infra Client is configuring the node (theconverge phase
).ignore_failure
Ruby Type: true, false, :quiet | Default Value:
false
Continue running a recipe if a resource fails for any reason.
:quiet
will not display the full stack trace and the recipe will continue to run if a resource fails.retries
Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value:
0
The number of attempts to catch exceptions and retry the resource.
retry_delay
Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value:
2
The delay in seconds between retry attempts.
sensitive
Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value:
false
Ensure that sensitive resource data is not logged by Chef Infra Client.
Notifications
notifies
Ruby Type: Symbol, 'Chef::Resource[String]'
A resource may notify another resource to take action when its state changes. Specify a
'resource[name]'
, the:action
that resource should take, and then the:timer
for that action. A resource may notify more than one resource; use anotifies
statement for each resource to be notified.If the referenced resource does not exist, an error is raised. In contrast,
subscribes
will not fail if the source resource is not found.
A timer specifies the point during a Chef Infra Client run at which a notification is run. The following timers are available:
:before
Specifies that the action on a notified resource should be run before processing the resource block in which the notification is located.
:delayed
Default. Specifies that a notification should be queued up, and then executed at the end of a Chef Infra Client run.
:immediate
,:immediately
Specifies that a notification should be run immediately, for each resource notified.
The syntax for notifies
is:
notifies :action, 'resource[name]', :timer
subscribes
Ruby Type: Symbol, 'Chef::Resource[String]'
A resource may listen to another resource, and then take action if the
state of the resource being listened to changes. Specify a
'resource[name]'
, the :action
to be taken, and then the :timer
for
that action.
Note that subscribes
does not apply the specified action to the
resource that it listens to - for example:
file '/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt' do
mode '0600'
owner 'root'
end
service 'nginx' do
subscribes :reload, 'file[/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt]', :immediately
end
In this case the subscribes
property reloads the nginx
service
whenever its certificate file, located under
/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt
, is updated. subscribes
does not make any
changes to the certificate file itself, it merely listens for a change
to the file, and executes the :reload
action for its resource (in this
example nginx
) when a change is detected.
If the other resource does not exist, the subscription will not raise an
error. Contrast this with the stricter semantics of notifies
, which
will raise an error if the other resource does not exist.
A timer specifies the point during a Chef Infra Client run at which a notification is run. The following timers are available:
:before
Specifies that the action on a notified resource should be run before processing the resource block in which the notification is located.
:delayed
Default. Specifies that a notification should be queued up, and then executed at the end of a Chef Infra Client run.
:immediate
,:immediately
Specifies that a notification should be run immediately, for each resource notified.
The syntax for subscribes
is:
subscribes :action, 'resource[name]', :timer
Guards
A guard property can be used to evaluate the state of a node during the execution phase of a Chef Infra Client run. Based on the results of this evaluation, a guard property is then used to tell Chef Infra Client if it should continue executing a resource. A guard property accepts either a string value or a Ruby block value:
- A string is executed as a shell command. If the command returns
0
, the guard is applied. If the command returns any other value, then the guard property is not applied. String guards in a powershell_script run Windows PowerShell commands and may returntrue
in addition to0
. - A block is executed as Ruby code that must return either
true
orfalse
. If the block returnstrue
, the guard property is applied. If the block returnsfalse
, the guard property is not applied.
A guard property is useful for ensuring that a resource is idempotent by allowing that resource to test for the desired state as it is being executed, and then if the desired state is present, for Chef Infra Client to do nothing.
PropertiesThe following properties can be used to define a guard that is evaluated during the execution phase of a Chef Infra Client run:
not_if
Prevent a resource from executing when the condition returns
true
.only_if
Allow a resource to execute only if the condition returns
true
.
Examples
The following examples demonstrate various approaches for using the chef_client_cron resource in recipes:
Setup Chef Infra Client to run using the default 30 minute cadence:
chef_client_cron 'Run Chef Infra Client as a cron job'
Run Chef Infra Client twice a day:
chef_client_cron 'Run Chef Infra Client every 12 hours' do
minute 0
hour '0,12'
end
Run Chef Infra Client with extra options passed to the client:
chef_client_cron 'Run an override recipe' do
daemon_options ['--override-runlist mycorp_base::default']
end