Test-Driven Infrastructure with Chef

Book excerpt: Since Test-Driven Infrastructure with Chef first appeared in mid-2011, infrastructure testing has begun to flourish in the web ops world. In this revised and expanded edition, author Stephen Nelson-Smith brings you up to date on this rapidly evolving discipline, including the philosophy driving it and a growing array of tools. You’ll get a hands-on introduction to the Chef framework, and a recommended toolchain and workflow for developing your own test-driven production infrastructure. Several exercises and examples throughout the book help you gain experience with Chef and the entire infrastructure-testing ecosystem. Learn how this test-first approach provides increased security, code quality, and peace of mind. Explore the underpinning philosophy that infrastructure can and should be treated as code Become familiar with the MASCOT approach to test-driven infrastructure Understand the basics of test-driven and behavior-driven development for managing change Dive into Chef fundamentals by building an infrastructure with real examples Discover how Chef works with tools such as Virtualbox and Vagrant Get a deeper understanding of Chef by learning Ruby language basics Learn the tools and workflow necessary to conduct unit, integration, and acceptance tests