Problem scenario
You are trying to create an organization using the chef-server-ctl org-create command.  But you get an error that the “name” entered was invalid.  For example, you run this:

sudo chef-server-ctl org-create ContInt “ContinualIntegration” –association_user contintuser –filename /bin/good.pem

But you get this:

ERROR: The data in your request was invalid
Response: Field ‘name’ invalid

What should you do?

Solution
For the “shortname” that is immediately after the “org-create” command,

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Continue reading “How Do You Troubleshoot the Chef Error “Field ‘name” invalid” after Running a chef-server-ctl Command?”

Problem scenario
You try to run a knife command but you get 404 not found.  What should you do?

Solution
Run this command: knife client list

If you get a 404 error with this command, then look at your client.rb file.  Is the chef_server_url correct?  Is the hostname actually the Chef server or is it something else?  Is the “organizations/companynickname” present and correctly typed?

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Continue reading “How Do You Fix “404 not found” Errors When You Run Knife Commands?”

Problem scenario
You are running a Linux server, and you installed Chef.  How do you find out what version is installed?

Solution
Run this command:
sudo cat /opt/opscode/version-manifest.txt

Problem scenario
You are running Ubuntu 16.04 Linux.  You tried to follow the directions for installing the Chef development kit on these two sites: GitHub and Chef.io.  But they do not work.  What should you do?

Solution
Follow these steps:

1.  Change directories to the home directory (e.g., /home/ubuntu or /root/) of the user are logged in as. 
2. 

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Continue reading “How Do You Configure Ruby to Work Properly with the Chef Development Kit on Ubuntu 16.04?”

Problem scenario
You have installed Chef on Ubuntu.  You run this command:

sudo knife client list

You expect to see a list of Chef client nodes.  But you see an error like this:

“ERROR: You authenticated successfully to https://<FQDN of Chef Server>/organizations/companynickname as <FQDN of Chef client node> but you are not authorized for this action
Response:  missing read permission”

What do you do?

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Continue reading “How Do You Troubleshoot the Knife (Chef) Error “You authenticated successfully but you are not authorized … missing read permission”?”