Community Corner — John Corcoran (Customer) asked a question.
how to set up a linux home test lab just enough to test cookbooks and recipes : I am learning to craft recipes and need assistance to run cookbooks on a home linux lab I currently have. Step by step would be nice.
Hi @John Corcoran (Customer)!
Can you let me know what product you're working with? This space is for Progress-wide / Community-wide announcements and questions, so you might not find the right peers and moderators here. If you let me know where you're trying to go, though, I can move this post. 😃
If you're not sure, here is a list of other forums.
Great question! Test Kitchen is exactly what you need for this. It's the standard tool for testing Chef cookbooks locally without needing a full Chef server.
What you'll need:
1. Chef Workstation — installs everything in one go (Test Kitchen, chef-client, knife, InSpec): https://docs.chef.io/workstation/install_workstation/
2. A driver — this is how Test Kitchen spins up an instance to test against. For a home lab the two easiest options are:
- Docker (kitchen-docker) — lightest option, no VMs, just containers. Good for most cookbook testing.
- Vagrant + VirtualBox — if you need a full VM (e.g. testing systemd services, kernel-level stuff).
That's genuinely all you need. No Chef server, no nodes, no Automate. Test Kitchen handles the whole cycle locally.
Please see our further info on this at our full docs: https://docs.chef.io/workstation/26/tools/kitchen/
Great question! Test Kitchen is exactly what you need for this. It's the standard tool for testing Chef cookbooks locally without needing a full Chef server.
What you'll need:
1. Chef Workstation — installs everything in one go (Test Kitchen, chef-client, knife, InSpec): https://docs.chef.io/workstation/install_workstation/
2. A driver — this is how Test Kitchen spins up an instance to test against. For a home lab the two easiest options are:
- Docker (kitchen-docker) — lightest option, no VMs, just containers. Good for most cookbook testing.
- Vagrant + VirtualBox — if you need a full VM (e.g. testing systemd services, kernel-level stuff).
That's genuinely all you need. No Chef server, no nodes, no Automate. Test Kitchen handles the whole cycle locally.
Please see our further info on this at our full docs: https://docs.chef.io/workstation/26/tools/kitchen/