NAME¶

knife-node - The man page for the knife node subcommand. A node is any physical, virtual, or cloud machine that is configured to be maintained by a chef-client. The knife node subcommand is used to manage the nodes that exist on a server.

COMMON OPTIONS¶

The following options may be used with any of the arguments available to the knife node subcommand:

BULK DELETE¶

The bulk delete argument is used to delete one or more nodes that match a pattern defined by a regular expression. The regular expression must be within quotes and not be surrounded by forward slashes (/). Syntax This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife node bulk delete REGEX

Options This command does not have any specific options. Examples Use a regular expression to define the pattern used to bulk delete nodes:

$ knife node bulk delete "^[0-9]{3}$"

Type Y to confirm a deletion.

CREATE¶

The create argument is used to add a node to the server. Node data is stored as JSON on the server. Syntax This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife node create NODE_NAME

Options This command does not have any specific options. Examples To add a node, enter:

$ knife node create node1

In the $EDITOR enter the node data in JSON:

## sample:
{
   "normal": {
   },
   "name": "foobar",
   "override": {
   },
   "default": {
   },
   "json_class": "Chef::Node",
   "automatic": {
   },
   "run_list": [
      "recipe[zsh]",
      "role[webserver]"
   ],
   "chef_type": "node"
}

When finished, save it.

DELETE¶

The delete argument is used to delete a node from the server.

Note

Deleting a node will not delete any corresponding API clients.

Syntax This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife node delete NODE_NAME

Options This command does not have any specific options. Examples

$ knife node delete node_name

EDIT¶

The edit argument is used to edit the details of a node on a server. Node data is stored as JSON on the server. Syntax This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife node edit NODE_NAME (options)

Options This argument has the following options:
Examples To edit the data for a node named "node1", enter:

$ knife node edit node1 -a

Update the role data in JSON:

## sample:
{
   "normal": {
   },
   "name": "node1",
   "override": {
   },
   "default": {
   },
   "json_class": "Chef::Node",
   "automatic": {
   },
   "run_list": [
      "recipe[devops]",
      "role[webserver]"
   ],
   "chef_type": "node"
}

When finished, save it.

FROM FILE¶

The from file argument is used to create a node using existing node data as a template. Syntax This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife node from file FILE

Options This command does not have any specific options. Examples To add a node using data contained in a JSON file:

$ knife node from file "path to JSON file"

LIST¶

The list argument is used to view all of the nodes that exist on a server. Syntax This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife node list (options)

Options This argument has the following options:
Examples To verify the list of nodes that are registered with the server, enter:

$ knife node list

to return something similar to:

i-12345678
rs-123456

RUN_LIST ADD¶

The run_list add argument is used to add run list items (roles or recipes) to a node. Syntax This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife node run_list add NODE_NAME RUN_LIST_ITEM (options)

Options This argument has the following options:
Examples To add a role to a run list, enter:

$ knife node run_list add node 'role[ROLE_NAME]'

To add roles and recipes to a run list, enter:

$ knife node run_list add node 'recipe[COOKBOOK::RECIPE_NAME],recipe[COOKBOOK::RECIPE_NAME],role[ROLE_NAME]'

To add a recipe to a run list using the fully qualified format, enter:

$ knife node run_list add node 'recipe[COOKBOOK::RECIPE_NAME]'

To add a recipe to a run list using the cookbook format, enter:

$ knife node run_list add node 'COOKBOOK::RECIPE_NAME'

To add the default recipe of a cookbook to a run list, enter:

$ knife node run_list add node 'COOKBOOK'

RUN_LIST REMOVE¶

The run_list remove argument is used to remove run list items (roles or recipes) from a node. A recipe must be in one of the following formats: fully qualified, cookbook, or default. Both roles and recipes must be in quotes, for example: 'role[ROLE_NAME]' or 'recipe[COOKBOOK::RECIPE_NAME]'. Use a comma to separate roles and recipes when removing more than one, like this: 'recipe[COOKBOOK::RECIPE_NAME],COOKBOOK::RECIPE_NAME,role[ROLE_NAME]'. Syntax This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife node run_list remove NODE_NAME RUN_LIST_ITEM

Options This command does not have any specific options. Examples To remove a role from a run list, enter:

$ knife node run_list remove node 'role[ROLE_NAME]'

To remove a recipe from a run list using the fully qualified format, enter:

$ knife node run_list remove node 'recipe[COOKBOOK::RECIPE_NAME]'

SHOW¶

The show argument is used to display information about a node. Syntax This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife node show NODE_NAME (options)

Options This argument has the following options:
Examples To view all data for a node named "build", enter:

$ knife node show build

to return:

Node Name:   build
Environment: _default
FQDN:
IP:
Run List:
Roles:
Recipes:
Platform:

To show basic information about a node, truncated and nicely formatted:

knife node show <node_name>

To show all information about a node, nicely formatted:

knife node show -l <node_name>

To list a single node attribute:

knife node show <node_name> -a <attribute_name>

where <attribute_name> is something like kernel or platform. (This doesn't work for nested attributes like node[kernel][machine] because knife node show doesn't understand nested attributes.) To view the FQDN for a node named "i-12345678", enter:

$ knife node show i-12345678 -a fqdn

to return:

fqdn: ip-10-251-75-20.ec2.internal

To view the run list for a node named "dev", enter:

$ knife node show dev -r

To view information in JSON format, use the -F common option as part of the command like this:

$ knife role show devops -F json

Other formats available include text, yaml, and pp. To view node information in raw JSON, use the -l or --long option:

knife node show -l -F json <node_name>

and/or:

knife node show -l --format=json <node_name>

AUTHOR¶

Chef