In chef, attributes are key-value pairs that represents specific details about a node.

Attributes are used by Chef Infra Client to understand:

• The Current state of the node.

• What the state should be the node was at the end of the previous Chef Infra Client run.

• What the state of the node should be at the end of the current Chef Infra Client run.

Attributes are defined by:

• The node as saved on the Chef Infra Server

• Attributes passed using JSON on the command line

• Cookbooks (in attribute files and/or recipes)

• Policyfiles

Types of Attributes

Example :

1. Generating the recipe,

   chef generate recipe attributes

2. Open the recipe using vi command.

   vi test-cookbook/recipes/attributes.rb

3. Now create a file using the Chef recipe, by editing the recipe.

   

4. Check Ruby scripting, with output syntax Ok or Not.

   chef exec ruby -c test-cookbook/recipes/attributes.rb

5. Execute the recipe

   chef-client -zr "recipe[test-cookbook::attributes]"

Output- basicinfo file is created with the content.

Attributes Array

A recipe can store attribute values using a multi-level hash or array.

For example, a group of attributes for web servers might be:

override_attributes(
  :apache => {
    :listen_ports => [ 80 ],
    :prefork => {
      :startservers => 20,
      :minspareservers => 20,
      :maxspareservers => 40
    }
  }
)

Attribute Precedence

Chef Infra Client applies attributes in the following order: