In order to install the Chef client on Windows, there are three basic options to be performed, as follows:
Use the
knife-windows
plugin to bootstrap the host as described previously.Download and manually install the client using the MSI installer.
Deploy the software via an in-place update tool such as WSUS (this mechanism will not be discussed because it is outside the scope of this book).
As discussed in the previous chapter, bootstrapping a host is the process of installing any components required to initially incorporate a host into your infrastructure. Typically, this will involve installing Ruby along with the Chef client and any certificates required for authentication, as well as registering the host with your Chef server or hosted Chef account. In order to do this, you will need to have a workstation configured with the knife-windows
gem installed. You can install the gem easily with the following command:
gem...