Test-Driven Infrastructure with Chef

Getting Set Up on the Opscode Platform

Interacting with the Opscode Platform is primarily done from your workstation, using the Chef command-line tool (Knife) and your version control system (Opscode uses Git by default). Now that we have Ruby, Chef, and Git installed, we can sign up for the Opscode Platform and prepare to use the API:

1. Go to the Opscode website (http://www.opscode.com) and look for the form that says “Instant Hosted Chef.”

2. Fill out the form with your email address and your name, then click “Create my platform account.”

3. You’ll be taken to a contact details page. Fill out the form, check the box to indicate that you accept the terms and conditions, and click Submit.^[7]

4. Space robots will provision your account; wait a short while.

5. Check your email for a message from Opscode, containing a link.

6. Clicking on the link will take you straight to the Opscode Platform management console, as a logged-in user.

7. As a user, interacting with the platform is done via two public/private key pairs—a user key and an organization or validation key. Your user key can always be obtained from your user profile. You can get to your user profile by clicking on your user name at the top of the page, or by going directly to http://community.opscode.com/users/YOURNAME.

1. Look for the “Get private key” link, and click it. The Opscode platform won’t store your private key, so be careful not to lose it! Don’t worry though, you can always regenerate your key by finding this link again or going directly to ...