Knife Solo Setup on Rackspace Cloud

Berksfile

site :opscode

cookbook 'redisio'
cookbook 'git'
cookbook 'apt'
cookbook "runit", ">= 1.1.2"  # HACK: force-use this version to use restart_on_update
cookbook 'rackbox'

Gemfile

source 'http://rubygems.org'

gem 'berkshelf'
gem 'knife-solo'
gem 'knife-rackspace'

knife.rb

# chef-repo/.chef/knife.rb

log_level                :info
log_location             STDOUT
node_name                'solo'
client_key               File.expand_path('../solo.pem', __FILE__)
cache_type               'BasicFile'
cache_options( :path => File.expand_path('../checksums', __FILE__))
cookbook_path [ File.expand_path('../cookbooks', __FILE__) ]

knife[:rackspace_api_username] = ""
knife[:rackspace_api_key] = ""
knife[:rackspace_auth_url] = "https://ord.servers.api.rackspacecloud.com/v2"

node_example.json

{
  "run_list":[
    "rackbox"
  ],
  "appbox": {
    "apps_dir":"/srv"
  },
  "databox": {
  },
  "rackbox": {
    "ruby": {
      "versions": ["1.9.3-p392"],
      "global_version": "1.9.3-p392"
    },
    "apps": {
      "unicorn": [
        { "appname": "my-app.com",
          "hostname": "u1.my-app.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Overview

http://teohm.github.io/blog/2013/04/17/chef-cookbooks-for-busy-ruby-developers/

mkdir -p /my/app/chef-repo/.chef
cd /my/app/chef-repo

ssh-keygen -f .chef/solo.pem

berks install -p cookbooks

knife solo prepare sshalias

If you get this -
  rbenv: cannot rehash: /opt/rbenv/shims isn't writable

Run this on the server -
  rbenv --debug rehash


knife cookbook create app -o cookbooks

solo.rb

# chef-repo/solo.rb

file_cache_path           "/tmp/chef-solo"
data_bag_path             "/tmp/chef-solo/data_bags"
encrypted_data_bag_secret "/tmp/chef-solo/data_bag_key"
cookbook_path             [ "/tmp/chef-solo/site-cookbooks",
                            "/tmp/chef-solo/cookbooks" ]
role_path                 "/tmp/chef-solo/roles"