Chef for the Absolute Beginners - DevOps

Name: Chef for the Absolute Beginners - DevOps
Rating: 4.7 (2682 reviews)

Learn to automate without scripting using Chef

Created byMumshad Mannambeth, Yogesh Raheja, KodeKloud Training

Last updated 3/2026

English

What you'll learn

Automate daily repetitive tasks in your environment with Chef
Get comfortable with Chef language
Setup Chef on Cloud environments like AWS
Use Chef Console to manage Automation

Course content

5 sections • 28 lectures • 2h 12m total length

Introduction3:13
Configuration Management and Automation9:18
Compare imperative scripting and declarative automation in configuration management for heterogeneous environments, using Chef, Ansible, and Puppet. Understand push and pull models, and how idempotency and convergence ensure consistent state.
Introducing Chef12:01
Explore Chef, a Ruby-based declarative automation tool that configures, manages, and deploys infrastructure as code across environments using server-client and Chef Zero models, with idempotent execution.
Quiz - Chef Introduction

Chef Architecture4:48
Chef Resources2:27
Chef Resource Documentation Walkthrough2:23
Navigate the Chef resources documentation, understand resource components and actions, and review built-in resources like user and file to confidently write Chef code.
Chef DSL4:02
Chef Recipe3:54
Demo - Chef Recipe12:15
Chef Cookbooks5:51
Demo - Chef Cookbooks3:32
Build your first chef cookbook to install, configure, and start the Apache web server, using chef generate, default.rb recipes, and local-mode runs to verify with chef zero.
Chef RunLists3:05
Explore how Chef RunLists order recipes across nodes using cookbooks and the chef-client, with syntax like recipe [cookbook::recipe], perform dry runs, and manage multiple recipes in a single runlist.
Demo - Chef RunLists8:16
Demonstrate four runlist scenarios in Chef, from single to multiple recipes, using an Apache web server example to install, configure, and verify with dry runs and chef-client execution.
Chef Include Recipe1:00
Learn how to use include_recipe to compose recipes from multiple files, organizing large Chef code in default.rb and RunList, with a practical demo.
Cookbook Dependencies0:43
Learn how to manage cookbook dependencies by linking recipes from other cookbooks, such as linking the ntp server to the web server cookbook, with a quick demo.
Demo - Cookbook Dependencies4:53

Server-Client Model4:10
Demo - Workstation Connectivity4:47
Configure and test the communication between the Chef workstation and the hosted Chef server using knife to fetch certificates, verify connectivity, and upload the starter cookbook.
Demo - Setup Chef Clients6:36
Demo - Server-Client Model8:14
Demonstrates production use of Chef automation with a hosted server: validate certificates, upload cookbooks, create run lists, and run chef-client from both client and workstation using Knife.

Requirements

Basic System Administration
AWS Account (Optional)
Home Lab with VirtualBox (Optional)

Description

What's in this course?

This course introduces a beginner in DevOps to basic fundamentals of Chef. The course introduces basic use cases of Chef followed by an introduction to Chef Resources, Recipes, Cookbooks, RunLists, Roles, and Ohai. Find demos that show how to set up a Chef environment on the AWS Cloud platform.

What is so special about THIS course?

Lectures backed by animated slides make it simple and easy to understand.

Analogy based Explanation

Complex concepts are made simple with explanations based on Analogies and Animation. This will ensure the concepts stick to your mind. Check out the first few lectures!

Course Structure:

- Lectures

- Demos

Course Contents:

Introduction to Automation
- Understand automation concepts such as Declarative and Imperative Programming Patterns, Idempotency, Convergence,
Introduction to Chef
Setting up Chef
- Set up Chef Workstation and Clients on AWS
Hosted Chef Server Setup
Chef Architecture
Chef Concepts
- Resources
- Recipes
- Cookbooks
- RunLists
- Roles
- Ohai
- Environments

What is Chef?

Chef Software is a Configuration management and automation tool used to make your applications and systems easier to deploy. Avoid writing scripts or custom code to deploy and update your applications— automate in a language that approaches plain English.

Legal Notice:

Chef® is a registered trademark of Chef Software Inc. in the United States and other countries. This course is not certified, accredited, affiliated with, nor endorsed by Chef Software Inc.

Who this course is for:

Absolute beginners in automation
Those who wish to automate without coding
Zero Scripting Knowledge

Chef for the Absolute Beginners - DevOps

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction3 lectures • 25min

Chef Setup6 lectures • 20min

Chef Concepts13 lectures • 57min

Server-Client Mode in Production Environment4 lectures • 24min

Other Topics2 lectures • 7min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: