knife-bootstrap(1) -- Install Chef Client on a remote host
========================================

## SYNOPSIS

__knife__ __bootstrap__ _(options)_

  * `-i`, `--identity-file IDENTITY_FILE`:
    The SSH identity file used for authentication
  * `-N`, `--node-name NAME`:
    The Chef node name for your new node
  * `-P`, `--ssh-password PASSWORD`:
    The ssh password
  * `-x`, `--ssh-user USERNAME`:
    The ssh username
  * `-p`, `--ssh-port PORT`:
    The ssh port
  * `--bootstrap-version VERSION`:
    The version of Chef to install
  * `--bootstrap-proxy PROXY_URL`:
    `The proxy server for the node being bootstrapped`
  * `--prerelease`:
    Install pre-release Chef gems
  * `-r`, `--run-list RUN_LIST`:
    Comma separated list of roles/recipes to apply
  * `--template-file TEMPLATE`:
    Full path to location of template to use
  * `--sudo`:
    Execute the bootstrap via sudo
  * `-d`, `--distro DISTRO`:
    Bootstrap a distro using a template
  * `--[no-]host-key-verify`:
    Enable host key verification, which is the default behavior.
  * `--hint HINT_NAME[=HINT_FILE]`:
    Provide the name of a hint (with option JSON file) to set for use by
    Ohai plugins.

## DESCRIPTION

Performs a Chef Bootstrap on the target node. The goal of the bootstrap
is to get Chef installed on the target system so it can run Chef Client
with a Chef Server. The main assumption is a baseline OS installation
exists. This sub-command is used internally by some cloud computing
plugins.

The bootstrap sub-command supports supplying a template to perform the
bootstrap steps. If the distro is not specified (via `-d` or `--distro`
option), an Ubuntu 10.04 host bootstrapped with RubyGems is assumed. The
__DISTRO__ value corresponds to the base filename of the template, in
other words `DISTRO`.erb. A template file can be specified with the
`--template-file` option in which case the __DISTRO__ is not used. The
sub-command looks in the following locations for the template to use:

* `bootstrap` directory in the installed Chef Knife library.
* `bootstrap` directory in the `$PWD/.chef`.
* `bootstrap` directory in the users `$HOME/.chef`.

The default bootstrap templates are scripts that get copied to the
target node (FQDN). The following distros are supported:

* centos5-gems
* fedora13-gems
* ubuntu10.04-gems
* ubuntu10.04-apt

The gems installations will use RubyGems 1.3.6 and Chef installed as a
gem. The apt installation will use the Opscode APT repository.

In addition to handling the software installation, these bootstrap
templates do the following:

  - Write the validation.pem per the local knife configuration.
  - Write a default config file for Chef (`/etc/chef/client.rb`) using values from the `knife.rb`.
  - Create a JSON attributes file containing the specified run list and run Chef.

In the case of the RubyGems, the `client.rb` will be written from
scratch with a minimal set of values; see __EXAMPLES__. In the case of
APT Package installation, `client.rb` will have the
`validation_client_name` appended if it is not set to `chef-validator`
(default config value), and the `node_name` will be added if
`chef_node_name` option is specified.

When this is complete, the bootstrapped node will have:

  - Latest Chef version installed from RubyGems or APT Packages from Opscode. This may be a later version than the local system.
  - Be validated with the configured Chef Server.
  - Have run Chef with its default run list if one is specified.

Additional custom bootstrap templates can be created and stored in
`.chef/bootstrap/DISTRO.erb`, replacing __DISTRO__ with the value passed
with the `-d` or `--distro` option. See __EXAMPLES__ for more
information.

## EXAMPLES
Setting up a custom bootstrap is fairly straightforward. Create a
`.chef/bootstrap` directory in your Chef Repository or in
`$HOME/.chef/bootstrap`. Then create the ERB template file.

    mkdir ~/.chef/bootstrap
    vi ~/.chef/bootstrap/debian5.0-apt.erb

For example, to create a new bootstrap template that should be used when
setting up a new Debian node. Edit the template to run the commands, set
up the validation certificate and the client configuration file, and
finally to run chef-client on completion. The bootstrap template can be
called with:

    knife bootstrap mynode.example.com --template-file ~/.chef/bootstrap/debian5.0-apt.erb

Or,

    knife bootstrap mynode.example.com --distro debian5.0-apt

The `--distro` parameter will automatically look in the
`~/.chef/bootstrap` directory for a file named `debian5.0-apt.erb`.

Templates provided by the Chef installation are located in
`BASEDIR/lib/chef/knife/bootstrap/*.erb`, where _BASEDIR_ is the
location where the package or Gem installed the Chef client libraries.

## BUGS
`knife bootstrap` is not capable of bootstrapping multiple hosts in
parallel.

The bootstrap script is passed as an argument to sh(1) on the remote
system, so sensitive information contained in the script will be visible
to other users via the process list using tools such as ps(1).

## SEE ALSO
   __knife-ssh__(1)

## AUTHOR
   Chef was written by Adam Jacob <adam@opscode.com> with many contributions from the community.

## DOCUMENTATION
   This manual page was written by Joshua Timberman <joshua@opscode.com>.
   Permission is granted to copy, distribute and / or modify this document under the terms of the Apache 2.0 License.


## CHEF
   Knife is distributed with Chef. <http://docs.chef.io>
