Progress Chef: Infrastructure Automation & Configuration Management Platform

Imagine manually configuring 100 servers one by one. A configuration error halfway through? Back to square one… It’s a nightmare scenario. This is exactly the problem Progress Chef solves. As cloud environments grow more complex, infrastructure automation has shifted from optional to essential. Today, we’ll explore Progress Chef, the infrastructure automation platform trusted by over 1,000 organizations worldwide.

Progress Chef

Table of Contents

1. What Exactly Does Progress Chef Do?

Progress Chef is a DevOps platform that manages and automates IT infrastructure as code. Founded in 2008 by Adam Jacob as Chef Software, it was acquired by Progress Software in September 2020 for $220 million, becoming Progress Chef.

The core concept is IaC (Infrastructure as Code). Write your infrastructure tasks—server configuration, software installation, network setup—as code, and Chef automatically executes and manages them. Like following a cooking recipe!

In Chef terminology:

Configuration files are called Recipes
Collections of recipes are called Cookbooks
Managed servers are called Nodes

Global companies like Facebook, AWS OpsWorks, Prezi, and OpenStreetMap use Chef, with over 50 Fortune 500 companies trusting the platform.

2. Chef Product Suite – Understanding Each Component

Progress Chef is an integrated platform composed of multiple products. Here’s what each does:

Chef Infra (Chef Infrastructure)

The core tool for configuration management. It automatically maintains servers in your desired state, supporting Linux, Windows, macOS, and cloud environments like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

Key Features:

Server configuration automation
Package installation and update management
Service state monitoring and control
File and template deployment

Chef InSpec (Chef InSpec)

Security and compliance verification tool. It continuously checks if systems follow security policies and alerts you when issues are detected. Manages security policies using Policy-as-Code.

Key Features:

CIS benchmark automated verification
Custom compliance profile creation
Continuous compliance auditing
Detailed report generation

Chef Habitat (Chef Habitat)

Application deployment automation tool. Packages applications with their runtime environment so they run identically anywhere—Docker containers, VMs, or bare metal servers.

Key Features:

Application packaging and deployment
Runtime dependency management
Multi-platform support
Rolling update automation

Chef Automate (Chef Automate)

Unified dashboard for viewing your entire infrastructure. Monitor and analyze infrastructure status, compliance, and job history in real-time.

Key Features:

Integrated dashboard
Real-time monitoring and alerts
Audit logs and reporting
Workflow automation

Chef 360 Platform (Chef 360 Platform)

The latest next-generation platform as of 2025! Integrates all Chef capabilities with cloud-native architecture, dramatically improving scalability and flexibility.

2025 Latest Updates:

Airgapped environment support
Multi-language support (language localization)
Enhanced GUI interface
Improved node management automation

Chef Courier (Chef Courier)

Enterprise-grade job orchestration tool. Execute “Whatever, Wherever, Whenever” across your entire IT infrastructure.

Key Use Cases:

Emergency patch deployment
Large-scale configuration changes
Security incident response
Routine maintenance task automation

3. Core Components and How Chef Works

Chef operates on a client-server architecture with three main components:

Workstation

Where developers or system administrators write Cookbooks. Installing Chef Workstation provides these tools:

Chef Infra Client: Agent running on nodes
Chef InSpec: Compliance testing tool
Knife: CLI tool for communicating with Chef Server
Test Kitchen: Cookbook testing framework
Cookstyle: Code quality checker

Chef Server

Central repository storing all Cookbooks, node information, and policies:

Bookshelf: Cookbook file storage
PostgreSQL: Node and policy database
Elasticsearch: Search engine
REST API: Client communication

Node

Actual servers or systems being managed. With the Chef Client agent installed:

Periodically connects to Chef Server
Downloads latest Cookbooks
Executes recipes to configure the system
Reports execution results to Chef Server

Workflow:

Developer writes Cookbook on Workstation
Upload to Chef Server using knife command
Node’s Chef Client downloads Cookbook from Server
Chef Client executes recipes to configure system
Steps 2-4 repeat periodically (default every 30 minutes)
Chef Automate monitors all node states

4. Real Benefits of Chef

Consistency

Maintain hundreds or thousands of servers in identical states. Reduces human error by over 90%.

Speed & Efficiency

Configure 100 servers: Manual 3 days → Chef 30 minutes
Deploy emergency patch: Manual 5 hours → Chef 10 minutes
Time is money!

Flexibility

Works in any environment—on-premises, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud. Optimized for hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Reusability

Write a Cookbook once, reuse it across multiple projects. Chef Supermarket offers thousands of community-created open-source Cookbooks:

Docker Cookbook
MySQL Cookbook
Apache/Nginx Cookbook
Java Cookbook

Security & Compliance

Chef InSpec continuously verifies security policies and automatically ensures compliance with industry standards like CIS benchmarks. Critical for finance, healthcare, and government sectors.

Version Control

Manage infrastructure configuration with Git for easy change tracking, rollback, and collaboration.

5. Comparing Chef with Competitors

The IaC market has strong competitors like Ansible, Puppet, Terraform, and SaltStack.

Feature	Chef	Ansible	Puppet	Terraform
Language	Ruby DSL	YAML	Puppet DSL	HCL
Agent	Required (Chef Client)	Agentless	Required (Puppet Agent)	Agentless
Primary Use	Config Management	Config Mgmt & Orchestration	Config Management	Infrastructure Provisioning
Learning Curve	Medium-High	Low	Medium-High	Medium
Enterprise Support	Strong	Strong	Strong	Strong
Community	Active	Very Active	Active	Very Active
Compliance	Very Strong (InSpec)	Medium	Medium	Weak

Chef vs Ansible

Chef: Ruby-based, requires agent, strong in enterprise and security/compliance
Ansible: YAML-based, agentless, easier learning curve and faster adoption

Selection Guide: Choose Chef if security/compliance is critical; choose Ansible for quick adoption and simplicity

Chef vs Puppet

Both specialize in configuration management and excel in enterprise environments
Chef: Procedural approach, more flexible and programmatic
Puppet: Declarative approach, stricter structure

Chef vs Terraform

Chef: Configuration Management focused—”How do we configure the server?”
Terraform: Infrastructure Provisioning focused—”What should we create?”
Pro Tip: Often used together—Terraform creates infrastructure → Chef configures servers

According to a 2020 Forrester Research report, while Ansible leads the market, Chef maintains strong competitiveness in enterprise environments and security/compliance areas.

What is ‘Ansible’? Open-Source IT Automation Tool for DevOps

Puppet: Server Configuration and Deployment Automation Tool (Setup)

What is ‘Terraform’? IaC Tool for Managing Cloud Infrastructure”

6. Getting Started with Chef – Complete Installation Guide

Step-by-step instructions that even beginners can follow.

Step 1: Install Chef Workstation

Download Chef Workstation for your operating system from the Chef Downloads page.

System Requirements:

RAM: Minimum 4GB (8GB recommended)
CPU: 2+ cores
Disk Space: 1GB+

Windows Installation:

# Method 1: Download and install MSI file directly

# Method 2: Use Chocolatey package manager
choco install chef-workstation

macOS Installation:

# Method 1: Download and install DMG file directly

# Method 2: Use Homebrew (recommended)
brew install --cask chef-workstation

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian) Installation:

# Download and install latest stable version
wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chef-workstation/24.4.1064/ubuntu/22.04/chef-workstation_24.4.1064-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i chef-workstation_24.4.1064-1_amd64.deb

# Or auto-install via script
curl -L https://omnitruck.chef.io/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- -P chef-workstation

Linux (CentOS/RHEL) Installation:

# Download and install latest stable version
wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chef-workstation/24.4.1064/el/8/chef-workstation-24.4.1064-1.el8.x86_64.rpm
sudo rpm -Uvh chef-workstation-24.4.1064-1.el8.x86_64.rpm

Verify Installation:

# Check Chef version
chef --version

# Sample output:
# Chef Workstation version: 24.4.1064
# Chef Infra Client version: 18.4.12
# Chef InSpec version: 5.22.36
# Test Kitchen version: 3.6.0

Step 2: Install Chef Server (Optional)

For personal learning, you can practice without Chef Server, but production environments require it.

Chef Infra Server System Requirements:

RAM: 8GB+ (16GB recommended)
CPU: 4+ cores
Disk: 50GB+
FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) required

Chef Server Installation (Ubuntu/Debian):

# Set hostname (as FQDN)
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname chef-server.example.com

# Download Chef Server package
wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chef-server/15.9.27/ubuntu/22.04/chef-server-core_15.9.27-1_amd64.deb

# Install
sudo dpkg -i chef-server-core_15.9.27-1_amd64.deb

# Initial configuration (takes 5-10 minutes)
sudo chef-server-ctl reconfigure

Create Initial User and Organization:

# Create admin user
sudo chef-server-ctl user-create admin John Doe admin@example.com 'SecurePassword123!' --filename ~/admin.pem

# Create organization
sudo chef-server-ctl org-create myorg "My Organization" --association_user admin --filename ~/myorg-validator.pem

# Verify user and organization
sudo chef-server-ctl user-list
sudo chef-server-ctl org-list

Configure Workstation to Connect to Chef Server:

# Create .chef directory
mkdir -p ~/.chef

# Copy PEM files (from Chef Server)
scp username@chef-server.example.com:~/admin.pem ~/.chef/
scp username@chef-server.example.com:~/myorg-validator.pem ~/.chef/

# Create Knife configuration file
knife configure

# Or manually create config.rb
cat > ~/.chef/config.rb <<EOF
current_dir = File.dirname(__FILE__)
log_level                :info
log_location             STDOUT
node_name                'admin'
client_key               "#{current_dir}/admin.pem"
chef_server_url          'https://chef-server.example.com/organizations/myorg'
cookbook_path            ["#{current_dir}/../cookbooks"]
EOF

Test Connection:

# Verify SSL
knife ssl check

# List clients
knife client list

# Should show 'myorg-validator' if successful

Step 3: Create Your First Cookbook

Let’s create a simple cookbook that installs a web server.

# Generate new cookbook
chef generate cookbook my-webserver
cd my-webserver

# View generated file structure
tree

Generated Directory Structure:

my-webserver/
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── LICENSE
├── Policyfile.rb
├── README.md
├── chefignore
├── compliance/
├── kitchen.yml
├── metadata.rb
├── recipes/
│   └── default.rb
└── test/

Write Recipe (recipes/default.rb):

# Install Apache web server package
package 'apache2' do
  case node['platform']
  when 'centos', 'redhat', 'fedora'
    package_name 'httpd'
  when 'debian', 'ubuntu'
    package_name 'apache2'
  end
  action :install
end

# Set Apache service name
service_name = value_for_platform(
  ['centos', 'redhat', 'fedora'] => { 'default' => 'httpd' },
  ['debian', 'ubuntu'] => { 'default' => 'apache2' }
)

# Start Apache service and enable on boot
service service_name do
  action [:enable, :start]
end

# Create custom HTML page
file '/var/www/html/index.html' do
  content '<html>
  <head><title>Chef Automation Success!</title></head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello from Chef!</h1>
    <p>This page was automatically deployed by Chef Infra.</p>
    <p>Server hostname: <%= node["hostname"] %></p>
  </body>
</html>'
  mode '0644'
  owner 'root'
  group 'root'
end

# Open firewall port (Ubuntu/Debian)
execute 'allow_http' do
  command 'ufw allow 80/tcp'
  only_if { node['platform'] == 'ubuntu' && File.exist?('/usr/sbin/ufw') }
end

Recipe Explanation for Beginners:

Though written in Ruby, here’s what each part does:

package – Installs software packages
service – Starts and manages services
file – Creates or modifies files
execute – Runs shell commands

Each block is called a “Resource”—a component of the system that Chef manages.

Step 4: Test Locally

Safe Testing with Test Kitchen:

# Check .kitchen.yml file (auto-generated)
cat .kitchen.yml

# Create virtual machine (requires VirtualBox or Docker)
kitchen create

# Apply cookbook
kitchen converge

# Test web server access
# Access via browser or:
kitchen login
curl localhost

# Clean up after testing
kitchen destroy

Step 5: Upload to Chef Server and Apply to Real Servers

Upload Cookbook to Chef Server:

# Upload cookbook
knife cookbook upload my-webserver

# Verify upload
knife cookbook list

Bootstrap New Node to Chef Management:

# Install Chef Client on node via SSH and register
knife bootstrap 192.168.1.100 \
  --ssh-user ubuntu \
  --sudo \
  --identity-file ~/.ssh/id_rsa \
  --node-name web-server-01 \
  --run-list 'recipe[my-webserver]'

# For Windows nodes
knife bootstrap windows winrm 192.168.1.100 \
  --winrm-user Administrator \
  --winrm-password 'Password123!' \
  --node-name web-server-win-01 \
  --run-list 'recipe[my-webserver]'

Check Node Status:

# List registered nodes
knife node list

# Show node details
knife node show web-server-01

# Manually run Chef Client on node (requires SSH)
knife ssh 'name:web-server-01' 'sudo chef-client' -x ubuntu -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Step 6: Managing Run Lists

What’s a Run List? The ordered list of recipes or roles to execute on a node.

# Add recipe to run list
knife node run_list add web-server-01 'recipe[my-webserver]'

# Add multiple recipes
knife node run_list add web-server-01 'recipe[ntp],recipe[my-webserver],recipe[monitoring]'

# View run list
knife node show web-server-01 -a run_list

# Remove recipe from run list
knife node run_list remove web-server-01 'recipe[monitoring]'

7. Real-World Chef Applications

Multi-Cloud Environment Management

Manage AWS, Azure, and GCP infrastructure consistently with Chef.

Real Example:

# Manage AWS EC2 and Azure VMs with the same Cookbook
case node['cloud']['provider']
when 'ec2'
  # AWS-specific configuration
  include_recipe 'aws-specific::setup'
when 'azure'
  # Azure-specific configuration
  include_recipe 'azure-specific::setup'
end

# Common configuration applies identically
include_recipe 'base::security'
include_recipe 'base::monitoring'

Financial Services Compliance Automation

Industries like finance and healthcare use Chef InSpec to continuously verify security policies.

InSpec Profile Example:

# File: compliance/profiles/banking-security/controls/baseline.rb

control 'ssh-hardening' do
  impact 1.0
  title 'SSH Security Hardening'
  desc 'SSH must be securely configured'

  describe sshd_config do
    its('PermitRootLogin') { should eq 'no' }
    its('PasswordAuthentication') { should eq 'no' }
    its('Protocol') { should eq '2' }
  end
end

control 'file-permissions' do
  impact 0.8
  title 'Critical File Permission Check'
  
  describe file('/etc/passwd') do
    its('mode') { should cmp '0644' }
  end
  
  describe file('/etc/shadow') do
    its('mode') { should cmp '0000' }
  end
end

CI/CD Pipeline Integration

Integrate with Jenkins or GitLab CI/CD to automate from code push to production deployment.

Jenkins Pipeline Example:

pipeline {
    agent any
    
    stages {
        stage('Cookbook Test') {
            steps {
                sh 'cookstyle .'
                sh 'kitchen test'
            }
        }
        
        stage('Upload to Chef Server') {
            steps {
                sh 'knife cookbook upload my-app --force'
            }
        }
        
        stage('Deploy to Dev') {
            steps {
                sh 'knife ssh "role:dev-servers" "sudo chef-client" -x deploy'
            }
        }
        
        stage('InSpec Compliance Check') {
            steps {
                sh 'inspec exec compliance-profile -t ssh://dev-server'
            }
        }
    }
}

Large-Scale Emergency Patch Deployment

Deploy emergency security patches to hundreds of servers simultaneously with Chef Courier.

Example Scenario:

{
  "name": "emergency-security-patch",
  "description": "Emergency Log4j security patch deployment",
  "jobs": [
    {
      "target": "role:java-servers",
      "action": "update-packages",
      "packages": ["log4j"],
      "timeout": 300,
      "rollback_on_failure": true
    }
  ],
  "notifications": {
    "email": ["devops-team@company.com"],
    "slack": "#ops-alerts"
  }
}

8. Chef 360 SaaS – Simpler in the Cloud

In January 2025, Progress officially launched Chef 360 SaaS. Now you can use Chef directly from the cloud without complex server installations!

Key Features

No Installation Required Start immediately with just a web browser. Progress automatically handles server management, upgrades, and backups.

Auto-Scaling Resources automatically scale with usage—no performance worries.

High Availability Guaranteed 99.9% uptime SLA.

Simple Job Definition Define jobs easily in JSON format, making it accessible to entire DevOps teams.

Integrated Node Management Manage thousands of nodes centrally and automatically deploy skills.

Pricing Plans

Essentials Plan

10 job runs per node per month
10 concurrent jobs
Unlimited users
30-day data retention
Standard support

Professional Plan

Chef Infra and InSpec support
50 concurrent jobs
Enhanced security features

Enterprise Plan

Cloud Security Posture Management
Premium support
Dedicated instance option

Try It Free

Experience it now at Chef 360 SaaS Free Trial! No credit card required—try all features.

9. Chef Learning Resources

Official Documentation

Chef Official Documentation – Most accurate and current information
Chef Blog – Practical tips and case studies
Chef Release Notes – Latest updates

Community Resources

Chef Supermarket – Thousands of open-source Cookbook repository
GitHub – Chef – Source code and issue tracker
Chef Community Forum – Questions and discussions

10. Why Choose Chef

Proven Stability

Over 15 years of history with 1,000+ global enterprises. More than 50 Fortune 500 companies trust Chef.

Strong Security & Compliance

Chef InSpec’s Policy-as-Code approach is a major advantage for highly regulated industries like finance, healthcare, and government.

Enterprise-Grade Scalability

Scales freely from dozens to tens of thousands of servers. Major companies like Facebook use Chef to manage massive infrastructures.

Active Community

Chef Supermarket has thousands of community Cookbooks—most common tasks already have ready-made Cookbooks.

Strong Progress Support

Progress Software’s expert support team provides 24/7 technical assistance.

Conclusion

Progress Chef is a powerful automation platform for managing complex IT infrastructure as code. While there’s an initial learning curve, once mastered, you’ll experience remarkable efficiency in enterprise environments.

As of 2025, cloud environments are growing more complex—multi-cloud, hybrid cloud, edge computing. In these environments, infrastructure automation isn’t optional—it’s essential. Progress Chef is a proven solution for managing all these environments consistently.

Chef’s true value shines in finance, healthcare, and government sectors where security and compliance are critical. Chef InSpec’s continuous compliance verification is a key differentiator from other tools.

Thanks to Chef 360 SaaS, you can now start immediately without complex server installations. Try the free trial risk-free. It may seem difficult at first, but follow along step-by-step, and you’ll soon become an infrastructure automation expert.

Post Views: 42

1. What Exactly Does Progress Chef Do?

2. Chef Product Suite – Understanding Each Component

Chef Infra (Chef Infrastructure)

Chef InSpec (Chef InSpec)

Chef Habitat (Chef Habitat)

Chef Automate (Chef Automate)

Chef 360 Platform (Chef 360 Platform)

Chef Courier (Chef Courier)

3. Core Components and How Chef Works

Workstation

Chef Server

Node

4. Real Benefits of Chef

Consistency

Speed & Efficiency

Flexibility

Reusability

Security & Compliance

Version Control

5. Comparing Chef with Competitors

Chef vs Ansible

Chef vs Puppet

Chef vs Terraform

6. Getting Started with Chef – Complete Installation Guide

Step 1: Install Chef Workstation

Step 2: Install Chef Server (Optional)

Step 3: Create Your First Cookbook

Step 4: Test Locally

Step 5: Upload to Chef Server and Apply to Real Servers

Step 6: Managing Run Lists

7. Real-World Chef Applications

Multi-Cloud Environment Management

Financial Services Compliance Automation

CI/CD Pipeline Integration

Large-Scale Emergency Patch Deployment

8. Chef 360 SaaS – Simpler in the Cloud

Key Features

Pricing Plans

Try It Free

9. Chef Learning Resources

Official Documentation

Community Resources

10. Why Choose Chef

Proven Stability

Strong Security & Compliance

Enterprise-Grade Scalability

Active Community

Strong Progress Support

Conclusion

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