→ This structured lab covers Chef basics, cookbooks, recipes, and Apache deployment while keeping the commands simple and executable

Hands-on Lab ⇒

1. Setup AWS Linux Machine

1. Launch an EC2 Instance on AWS with a Linux OS.

2. Access the Instance using PuTTY:

   login as: ec2-user
   sudo su
   yum update -y
   

3. Download and Install Chef Workstation:

   • Go to www.chef.io → Downloads → Chef Workstation.

   • Enter name, email, and company → Download starts automatically.

   • Copy the URL of the downloaded file.

   • Install on Linux:

     wget <url>
     ls   # Verify downloaded package
     yum install <chef-workstation-package> -y
     which chef   # Check installation path
     chef --version   # Verify installation
     

2. Understanding Cookbooks

A Cookbook is a collection of recipes and additional files used to automate infrastructure configuration.

Inside a Cookbook:

• chefignore → Like .gitignore, excludes files from uploads.
• kitchen.yml → Used for testing cookbooks.
• metadata.rb → Stores metadata like name, version, and author.
• README.md → Documentation of cookbook usage.
• recipes/ → Contains actual code for automation.
• spec/ → Unit tests.
• test/ → Integration tests.

3. Creating and Using a Cookbook