Chef Interview Questions and Answers for Experienced Professionals in 2024

Introduction

Chef in DevOps is a configuration management tool that is recently competing with Puppet. The tool is mainly utilized by the organization having a large infrastructure. So, this is possible that interviewer may ask many questions related to Chef from you.

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Curious to know about Chef Interview questions answers for Fresher and experienced? Let us start with the discussion right away!

Chef Interview Questions Answers for Freshers

Q1). Define Chef and its architecture in DevOps?

The Chef is powerful automation tool to transform the Company infrastructure into a well-structured code. With the help of Chef, you may write scripts that are further used to automate the business processes. Of course, the processes are somewhat related to IT.

CHEF INFRASTRUCTURE  

The three major components of any Chef architecture include – Chef server, Chef workstation, and Chef server. They need to arrange in the same format as shown below in the diagram.

• Chef Server – This is a central storage house that stores necessary data necessary to configure the nodes.
• Chef Node – A node is based on the chef-client architecture where nodes are referred as client responsible to share data across the network
• Chef Workstation – This is a host that helps you to modify the configuration data and cookbooks then it is forwarded to the Chef Server.

Q2). Define Chef Resource and its functions in brief?

A Resource is used to represent a part of the infrastructure and its state, a package that you are interested in installing, a running service, or a file you are planning to create. Now, let us see the functions of resources in brief –

• It helps you to describe the desired state of a configuration item.
• You will know the process or steps that will be followed to bring a particular item in the desirable state.
• You can specify the type of resources like template, package, or service etc.
• It helps to list the resource properties and the additional details that are necessary.
• Further, resources can be grouped into recipes to describe the working configurations.

Q3). Define Chef Recipe and its functions too?

When resources are grouped together, it becomes a Recipe that describes the working configurations and policy. With a Recipe, you will get to know everything necessary to configure a particular system. Let us have a quick look at functions of Recipe –

• Software components can be installed or configured with Chef Recipe.
• It is used to manage files and apps deployments too.
• With one recipe, the other related recipes can also be executed.

Q4). Define a Chef Node and why is it important?

A node is a virtual machine or a physical server that is an important part of the Chef architecture. It is basically used to execute any resource in Chef.

Q5). What is a Cookbook and how is it different from the Recipe in Chef?

When resources are grouped together, it becomes a Recipe that describes the working configurations and policy. At the same time, when recipes are combined together, it becomes a cookbook and easy to manage as compared to a single recipe.

Q6). If the action for a Chef Resource is not defined then what will happen?

In case, an action for a Chef Resource is not defined then it will choose for the Default action. For example, both resources are the same as shown below in the screenshot. For Resource 1, an action is not defined still it will take the default action. At the same time, when you define the action with the ‘create’ command, it is also used to create the default action.

Resource 1

Resource 2

Q7). Is the code for both the Chef Recipes the same?

No, they are not the same. Remember that code is executed in the same way as it is written. For the Recipe 1, first the package is installed then the service will be created. At the same time, for Recipe 2, first the service is configured then the package is installed.

Q8). When system boosts, do you know some command that can be used to stop or disable the ‘httpd’ service?

Yes, I know. You can use the code given below to stop or disable the httpd service. 
 

Q9). What is DK in Chef?

DK is the workstation that allows users to interact with Chef. There are special tools available installed in the DK workstation space that can be used to make the interaction even better.

Q10). What is a Chef Repository and how it works?

A repository is a storehouse in Chef that can be used to accommodate cookbooks, environments, roles, or data bags etc. The Chef repository further is synchronized with GIT, a version control system to make its performance even better.

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Chef Interview Questions Answers For Experienced

Q11). Why are SSL certificates used in Chef?

How can you be sure that right data is accessed among Chef server and the Chef client? To make sure, you need to establish a secure SSL connection and continue your work.

Q12). Have you heard of the Signed header? Explain the concept in brief?

To validate the interaction between the node and the Chef server, signed header authentication is necessary.

Q13). How will you define the run-list in Chef?

With the help of run-list in chef, you can specify which Recipes needs to run and what should be the order of execution for Recipes.

• Run-list makes sure that recipes are executed in the same order as defined by you. In case, there is some recipe that is added twice by mistake then it will not be made run two times by the run-list.
• You also need to specify the node on which run-list should be executed. Rub-list is also defined as the object of the node that is stored on Chef server.
• It is maintained on Knife then from the workstation it is transferred to Chef server and management Console in Chef.

Q14). Why are starter kits needed in the Chef?

To create the required configuration files in Chef, starter kids are necessary. It helps to define the clear information for each configuration file and easy interaction with the server. This is easy to download the starter kits and take it to the desired place on the workstation where you want to use them.

Q15). How to update a cookbook in Chef? Give answer based on your experience.

This is easy to update a cookbook in Chef and you can use any of the three methods given below based on your convenience –

• Knife SSH can be run from the workstation.
• Run the chef-client and then SSH in your server directly.
• The chef-client can be used as a service or daemon and make it restarted after every selected time intervals say 15 or 20 mins.

Q16). How can you bootstrap in Chef and tell me the required information needed for the same purpose?

To bootstrap in Chef, you need the following information as given below –

• The public IP address or the hostname of your node.
• To log in to a particular node, you need the credentials details like username and password for the same.
• Further, you may choose authentication based on keys instead of using any login credentials.

Q17). Explain your understanding of Test Kitchen in Chef?

With this answer, the interviewer can get a clear idea of your understanding of Test Kitchen in Chef.

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It enables the cookbooks on the server and increases the development lifecycle too. Also, it helps you to create a variety of virtual machines in the cloud or locally.