install.rb

script "install" do
  interpreter "bash"
  user "root"
  code <<-EOH
    curl #{node['eventstore']['download_url']} | tar xz -C /opt
  EOH
end

package "daemonize" do
  action :install
end

directory "/var/data" do
  owner 'root'
  group 'root'
  action :create
end


directory "/var/data/db" do
  owner 'root'
  group 'root'
  action :create
end

directory "/var/data/logs" do
  owner 'root'
  group 'root'
  action :create
end

I'm curious if you have to do all of this as root. Do you know if it would be possible (advisable) to run ES as a less-privileged user?

I'm sure you saw this other chef cookbook for ES but I've tried porting many things from "real" chef to OpsWorks - https://github.com/seif/eventstore-cookbook/blob/master/recipes/install.rb

This looks like it is actually mis-implemented as the created user name is hard-coded to "eventstore", but the other things are paramaterized.