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Install Chef Workstation

Chef Workstation is modularized to improve user experience and simplify interactions with its components. This divides Chef Workstation into independent parts, enabling users to install, upgrade, and manage specific components individually using Chef Habitat. This approach reduces the complexity of maintaining the entire package.

The Chef Workstation native installers provide an efficient way to install Chef Workstation on Windows, Debian, or RPM-based Linux distributions. You can download and install the pre-built .msi, .deb, or .rpm packages using your existing package management tools, simplifying the deployment process for managing system configurations.

Supported platforms

Chef Workstation is supported on:

  • Currently supported Linux distributions and versions running Linux kernel 2.6.32 and later on x86-64 (amd64)
  • Currently supported Windows versions greater than or equal to Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016

Chef Workstation requirements

  • RAM: Chef Workstation requires a minimum of 1 GB of RAM.
  • Disk space for binaries:
    • Linux: The Chef Workstation binaries are stored in /hab and require a minimum of 2.8 GB of disk space.
    • Windows: The Chef Workstation binaries are stored in C:\hab and require a minimum of 3.3 GB of disk space.

Prerequisites

This installation process has the following prerequisites:

  • Chef Client isn’t installed on the target system.
  • On Debian-based systems, the dpkg package manager is installed on the target system.
  • On RPM-based systems, the RPM and either the DNF or Yum package managers are installed on the target system.
  • For Amazon Linux 2, use the RPM and Yum package managers.
  • You have a valid Progress Chef license key.
  • The target system is connected to the internet.

Install Chef Workstation

Install Chef Workstation on Debian-based systems

To install Chef Workstation on a Debian-based system, follow these steps:

  1. Download the Debian-based installer using one of the following methods:

    • Download using wget:

      wget -O "chef-workstation-enterprise-<VERSION>-linux.deb" "https://chefdownload-commercial.chef.io/stable/chef-workstation-enterprise/download?eol=false&license_id=<LICENSE_ID>&m=x86_64&p=linux&pm=deb&v=<VERSION>"

    • Download using curl:

      curl -o "chef-workstation-enterprise-<VERSION>-linux.deb" "https://chefdownload-commercial.chef.io/stable/chef-workstation-enterprise/download?eol=false&license_id=<LICENSE_ID>&m=x86_64&p=linux&pm=deb&v=<VERSION>"

    Replace:

    • <VERSION> with the version number to install.
    • <LICENSE_ID> with your Chef license ID.

  2. Install Chef Workstation:

    sudo dpkg -i chef-workstation-enterprise-<VERSION>_amd64.deb

    Replace <VERSION> with the version number of the downloaded package, for example chef-workstation-enterprise-26.1.0-1_amd64.deb.

Install Chef Workstation on RPM-based systems

To install Chef Workstation on an RPM-based system, follow these steps:

  1. Download the RPM-based installer using one of the following methods:

    • Download using wget:

      wget -O "chef-workstation-enterprise-<VERSION>-linux.rpm" "https://chefdownload-commercial.chef.io/stable/chef-workstation-enterprise/download?eol=false&license_id=<LICENSE_ID>&m=x86_64&p=linux&pm=rpm&v=<VERSION>"

    • Download using curl:

      curl -o "chef-workstation-enterprise-<VERSION>-linux.rpm" "https://chefdownload-commercial.chef.io/stable/chef-workstation-enterprise/download?eol=false&license_id=<LICENSE_ID>&m=x86_64&p=linux&pm=rpm&v=<VERSION>"

    Replace:

    • <VERSION> with the version number to install.
    • <LICENSE_ID> with your Chef license ID.

  2. Install Chef Workstation:

    sudo dnf install chef-workstation-enterprise-<VERSION>.x86_64.rpm

    or:

    sudo rpm -Uvh chef-workstation-enterprise-<VERSION>.x86_64.rpm

    Replace <VERSION> with the version number of the downloaded package, for example chef-workstation-enterprise-26.1.0-1.x86_64.rpm.

Install Chef Workstation on Windows

To install Chef Workstation on Windows, follow these steps:

  1. Download the installer in an elevated PowerShell session:

    Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://chefdownload-commercial.chef.io/stable/chef-workstation-enterprise/download?eol=false&license_id=<LICENSE_ID>&m=x86_64&p=windows&pm=msi&v=<VERSION>" -OutFile "chef-workstation-enterprise-<VERSION>_x86_64.msi"

    Replace:

    • <VERSION> with the version number to install.
    • <LICENSE_ID> with your Chef license ID.

  2. Install Chef Workstation using one of the following methods:

    • Run the following command in an elevated PowerShell or Command Prompt session:

      msiexec /i chef-workstation-enterprise-<VERSION>_x86_64.msi

    • Double-click the .msi file and follow the on-screen installation wizard.

    Replace <VERSION> with the version number of the downloaded package, for example chef-workstation-enterprise-26.1.0-1_x86_64.msi.

Verify the installation

After installation, verify that Chef Workstation is installed correctly by running one of the following commands:

chef-workstation -v

or

chef -v

The output displays the installed Chef Workstation version.

Install individual components

The following tools are included with Chef Workstation but can also be installed individually using Chef Habitat. If you only need specific tools rather than the full Workstation package, install them as standalone applications:

  1. Install a package using hab pkg install:

    hab pkg install <PACKAGE_IDENT> --binlink --force

    Replace <PACKAGE_IDENT> with the package identifier:

    • chef/berkshelf
    • chef/chef-cli
    • chef/chef-infra-client
    • chef/chef-test-kitchen-enterprise
    • chef/chef-vault
    • chef/cookstyle
    • chef/fauxhai
    • chef/inspec
    • chef/knife
    • chef/ohai

Next steps

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