Skills overview
A skill is an agent that allows you to perform actions on a node for a specific outcome. A skill can either be a canister-based skill or a non-canister-based skill. Skills can be Chef-owned (for example, Chef Infra, Chef Inspec, or Chef Courier) or user-created custom skills that Chef 360 Platform can register and manage.
Skill types
- canister skill
- The Habitat package of an agent, which is installed independently and in parallel with other canisters and is managed by a supervisor (Node Management Client). Canisters don’t run as services; they must be invoked by another skill or service. For example the Courier Skill will invoke an Infra Client Canister Skill. You can install multiple versions of a canister skill.
- canister service skill
- The Habitat package of an agent installed as a Habitat service managed by a supervisor (Node Management Client). For example, install the Courier Runner as a service skill that can invoke canister skills such as Chef Infra Client or Chef Inspec. A service skill can only support one version running on a node.
- non-canister skill
- A skill that’s not a Habitat package. For example, Chef Infra Client or Chef Inspec Omnibus skills, or remote management abilities.
- omnibus skills
- The Omnibus package of an agent. For example, Chef Infra Client 18 installed on your nodes before Chef 360 Platform adoption.
How Chef 360 Platform installs skills
When Chef 360 Platform enrolls a node into a cohort, it installs the Node Management agent on that node, which then installs skills defined in the skill assembly.
To add skills to a node, define your skills, create override settings for the skills, group them into a skill assembly, and then assign the skill assembly to a node cohort.
Default skills
Chef 360 Platform installs the following default skills on a node during node enrollment:
- Courier Runner skill
- Gohai skill
- Shell interpreter skill
- Restart interpreter skill
- Chef Infra Client interpreter skill
- Inspec interpreter skill