Chef Infra Server/Chef Backend to Automate HA

This page explains the procedure to migrate the existing Standalone Chef Infra Server or Chef Backend data to the newly deployed Chef Automate HA. This migration involves two steps:

• Backup the data from an existing Chef Infra Server or Chef Backend via knife-ec-backup.
• Restore the backed-up data to the newly deployed Chef Automate HA environment via knife-ec-restore.

Take a backup using the knife-ec-backup utility and move the backup folder to the newly deployed Chef Server. Later, restore using the same utility. The backup migrates all the cookbooks, users, data bags, policies, and organizations. knife-ec-backup utility backups and restores the data in an Enterprise Chef Server installation, preserving the data in an intermediate, in editable text format.

Prerequisites

Check the AWS Deployment Prerequisites and On-premises deployment Prerequisitespage before migrating.

Backup the Existing Chef Infra Server or Chef Backend Data

1. Execute the below command to install Habitat:

       curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/habitat-sh/habitat/master/components/hab/install.sh \ | sudo bash
   

2. Execute the below command to install the habitat package for knife-ec-backup

       hab pkg install chef/knife-ec-backup
   

3. Execute the below command to generate a knife tidy server report to examine the stale node, data, etc.

       hab pkg exec chef/knife-ec-backup knife tidy server report --node-threshold 60 -s <chef server URL> -u <pivotal> -k <path of pivotal>
   

   Where

   • pivotal is the name of the user
   • path of pivotal is where the user’s pem file is stored.
   • node-threshold NUM_DAYS is the maximum number of days since the last checking before a node is considered stale. For Example:

       hab pkg exec chef/knife-ec-backup knife tidy server report --node-threshold 60 -s https://chef.io -u pivotal -k /etc/opscode/pivotal.pem
   

4. Execute the below command to initiate a backup of your Chef Server data.

       hab pkg exec chef/knife-ec-backup knife ec backup backup_$(date '+%Y%m%d%H%M%s') --webui-key /etc/opscode/webui_priv.pem -s <chef server url>
   

   In this command:

   • --with-user-sql is required to handle user passwords and ensure user-specific association groups are not duplicated.
   • --with-key-sql is to handle cases where customers have users with multiple pem keys associated with their user or clients. The current chef-server API only dumps the default key. Sometimes, users will generate and assign additional keys to give additional users access to an account but still be able to lock them out later without removing everyone’s access.

   For example:

       hab pkg exec chef/knife-ec-backup knife ec backup backup_$(date '+%Y%m%d%H%M%s') --webui-key /etc/opscode/webui_priv.pem -s https://chef.io`.
   

   • Execute the below command to clean unused data from reports. This is an optional step

       hab pkg exec chef/knife-ec-backup knife tidy server clean --backup-path /path/to/an-ec-backup
   

5. Execute the below command to copy the backup directory to the Automate HA Chef Server.

       scp -i /path/to/key /path/to/backup-file user@host:/home/user
   

   If your HA Chef Server is in a private subnet, scp backup file to bastion and then to Chef Server.

Add S3 Configurations for Cookbook Storage

Before restoring the backup on the Automate HA Chef Server, configure S3 storage for cookbooks. The cookbooks stored in S3 in the Chef server can be stored in S3 or Postgres in Automate HA.

Restore Data to Chef Automate HA

• Execute the below command to install the habitat package for knife-ec-backup

  hab pkg install chef/knife-ec-backup
  

• Execute the below command to restore the backup.

  export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
  export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
  hab pkg exec chef/knife-ec-backup knife ec restore <path/to/directory/backup_file> -yes --concurrency 1 --webui-key /hab/svc/automate-cs-oc-erchef/data/webui\_priv.pem --purge -c /hab/pkgs/chef/chef-server-ctl/*/*/omnibus-ctl/spec/fixtures/pivotal.rb
  

Steps to Validate if Migration is Successful

• Download the validation script using below

      curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chef/automate/main/dev/infra_server_objects_count_collector.sh -o infra_server_objects_count_collector.sh
  

  Where:

  • -S is the Chef Server URL
  • -K is the path of pivotal.pem file
  • -F is the path to store the output file

• Execute the below command to get the counts of objects

      bash infra_server_objects_count_collector.sh -S <chef-serve-url> -K /path/to/key -F Filename
  

• Repeat the above commands for the new server to get the counts

• Now run the below command to check the differences between the old and new data. Ideally, there should be no differences if the migration was done successfully.

      diff old_server_file new_server_file
  

In-place Migration (Chef Backend to Automate HA)

As part of this scenario, the customer will migrate from the chef-backend (5 machines) to Automate HA in place, i.e., Automate HA will be deployed in those five machines only where Chef-backend is running. One extra bastion node will be required to manage the deployment of Automate HA on the chef backend infrastructure.

• To validate the In-place migration, run the validation script before starting the backup and restore.

    curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chef/automate/main/dev/infra_server_objects_count_collector.sh -o infra_server_objects_count_collector.sh

Where:

• -S is the Chef Server URL
• -K is the path of pivotal.pem file
• -F is the path to store the output file

    bash infra_server_objects_count_collector.sh -S <chef-serve-url> -K /path/to/key -F Filename

Steps for In-place Migration

1. Backup the existing chef server data

2. ssh to all the backend nodes of chef-backend and run

       chef-backend-ctl stop
   

3. ssh to all frontend nodes of chef-backend and run

       chef-server-ctl stop
   

4. Create one bastion machine under the same network space.

5. ssh to bastion machine and download chef-automate cli and extract the downloaded zip file

       https://packages.chef.io/files/current/latest/chef-automate-cli/chef-automate_linux_amd64.zip | gunzip - > chef-automate && chmod +x chef-automate | cp -f chef-automate /usr/bin/chef-automate
   

6. Create an airgap bundle using the command

       ./chef-automate airgap bundle create
   

7. Generate the config.toml file using the following command:

       ./chef-automate init-config-ha existing_infra
   

8. Edit config.toml and add the following:

   • Update the instance_count
   • fqdn : load balance URL, which points to the frontend node.
   • keys : ssh username and private keys
   • Ensure to provide Chef backend’s frontend server IPs for Automate HA Chef Automate and Chef Server.
   • Ensure to provide Chef backend’s backend server IPs for Automate HA Postgres and OpenSearch machines.
   • Sample configuration; please modify according to your needs.

   [architecture.existing_infra]
   secrets_key_file = "/hab/a2_deploy_workspace/secrets.key"
   secrets_store_file = "/hab/a2_deploy_workspace/secrets.json"
   architecture = "existing_nodes"
   workspace_path = "/hab/a2_deploy_workspace"
   ssh_user = "myusername"
   ssh_port = "22"
   ssh_key_file = "~/.ssh/mykey.pem"
   sudo_password = ""
   # DON'T MODIFY THE BELOW LINE (backup_mount)
   backup_mount = "/mnt/automate_backups"
   # Eg.: backup_config = "object_storage" or "file_system"
   backup_config = "file_system"
   # If backup_config = "object_storage" fill out [object_storage.config] as well
   ## Object storage similar to AWS S3 Bucket
   [object_storage.config]
   bucket_name = ""
   access_key = ""
   secret_key = ""
   # For the S3 bucket, the default endpoint value is "https://s3.amazonaws.com"
   # Include protocol to the endpoint value. Eg: https://customdns1.com or http://customdns2.com
   endpoint = ""
   # [Optional] Mention object_storage region if applicable
   # Eg: region = "us-west-1"
   region = ""
   ## === ===
   [automate.config]
   # admin_password = ""
   # automate load balancer fqdn IP or path
   fqdn = "chef.example.com"
   instance_count = "2"
   # teams_port = ""
   config_file = "configs/automate.toml"
   [chef_server.config]
   instance_count = "2"
   [opensearch.config]
   instance_count = "3"
   [postgresql.config]
   instance_count = "3"
   [existing_infra.config]
   automate_private_ips = ["10.0.1.0","10.0.2.0"]
   chef_server_private_ips = ["10.0.1.0","10.0.2.0"]
   opensearch_private_ips = ["10.0.3.0","10.0.4.0","10.0.5.0"]
   postgresql_private_ips = ["10.0.3.0","10.0.4.0","10.0.5.0"]
   

9. Deploy using the following command:

   ./chef-automate deploy config.toml --airgap-bundle <airgapped bundle name>
   

10. Clean up the old packages from the chef-backend (like Elasticsearch and Postgres)

11. Once done, restore data to Chef Automate HA

12. Validate the data

Connect Workstation/Nodes to Automate HA

1. Open the ~/.chef/config.rb file in your workstation and update the chef_server_url with the Chef-server Lb fqdn.

   Example: chef_server_url "https://<chef-server-lb-fqdn>/organizations/new_org"

2. Now run knife user list, knife node list, or knife cookbook list. It will give you valid output.

Updating on Nodes

1. ssh into every node and open the /etc/chef/client.rb file. On Windows machines, the default location for this file is C:\chef\client.rb. On all other systems, the default location for this file is /etc/chef/client.rb.
2. Update the chef-server URL with chef-server-lb fqdn.
3. Run the chef-client command. It will connect with the new setup, perform the scan and generate the report in chef-automate.

Updating Nodes via Workstation

Bootstrap the nodes to update the chef_server_url using the following steps:

1. Open the ~/.chef/config.rb file in your workstation and update the chef_server_url with the chef-server-lb fqdn.
2. Go to your workstation and open the ~/.chef/config.rb file.
3. Update the chef_server_url with the chef server LB fqdn.
4. Now do node bootstrapping. It will update the chef_server_url on that node. Refer: Node Bootstrapping

Use Automate HA for Chef-Backend User

Download and Install the Chef Workstation from the Bastion machine or local machine install chef-workstation. You can refer to the Workstation page to set up your Workstation.