Skill settings

You can manage a skill’s settings using global default settings or override settings.

A skill’s definition has a base64-encoded string in the value of the content key. This base64-encoded string is encoded from a TOML string that defines settings for the skill and uses handlebars syntax to insert values for each setting.

The Node Management agent inserts values for each setting from the skill’s global default settings or override settings.

global default settings: Global default settings define a skill’s settings on all nodes and can be overridden by the override settings.
override settings: Override settings are applied to all nodes in a node cohort and override global default settings.

Role requirements

To create or modify skill override settings, you must use a profile with the node-manager role.

Default override settings

If you create an organization with default node management settings, that includes the following override settings for the Courier Runner and Gohai skills:

Default override settings

{
  "name":"sample-node-setting",
  "skills":[
    {
      "skillName":"chef-gohai",
      "settings":[
        {
          "name":"log_level",
          "value":"debug"
        },
        {
          "name":"log_file_path",
          "value":"/hab/svc/chef-gohai/logs/logs.log"
        },
        {
          "name":"log_to_file",
          "value": true
        },
        {
          "name":"log_to_stdout",
          "value": false
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "skillName":"courier-runner",
      "settings":[
        {
          "name":"credentials_api_key",
          "value":""
        },
        {
          "name":"credentials_api_secret",
          "value":""
        },
        {
          "name":"shell_interpreter",
          "value":"chef-platform/shell-interpreter"
        },
        {
          "name":"restart_interpreter",
          "value":"chef-platform/restart-interpreter"
        },
        {
          "name":"inspec_interpreter",
          "value":"chef-platform/inspec-interpreter"
        },
        {
          "name":"chef_client_interpreter",
          "value":"chef-platform/chef-client-interpreter"
        },
        {
          "name":"log_dir",
          "value":"/hab/svc/courier-runner/logs"
        },
        {
          "name":"log_format",
          "value":"json"
        },
        {
          "name":"log_level",
          "value":"debug"
        },
        {
          "name":"log_output",
          "value":"file"
        },
        {
          "name":"queue_provider",
          "value":"0"
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_authentication_type",
          "value":"basic"
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_dir",
          "value":"/hab/svc/courier-runner/data"
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_host_url",
          "value":""
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_interval_in_sec",
          "value":"3"
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_name",
          "value":"server"
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_retry_interval_in_sec",
          "value":"4"
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_total_retry_duration_in_min",
          "value":"2"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Create override settings

To create a set of override settings, follow these steps:

Create a JSON file that defines the skill settings:

{
  "name":"sample-node-setting",
  "skills":[
    {
      "skillName":"chef-gohai",
      "settings":[
        {
          "name":"log_level",
          "value":"debug"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "skillName":"courier-runner",
      "settings":[
        {
          "name":"credentials_api_key",
          "value":""
        },
        {
          "name":"credentials_api_secret",
          "value":""
        },
        {
          "name":"shell_interpreter",
          "value":"chef-platform/shell-interpreter"
        },
        {
          "name":"restart_interpreter",
          "value":"chef-platform/restart-interpreter"
        },
        {
          "name":"chef_client_interpreter",
          "value":"chef-platform/chef-client-interpreter"
        },
        {
          "name":"inspec_interpreter",
          "value":"chef-platform/inspec-interpreter"
        },
        {
          "name":"log_dir",
          "value":"/hab/svc/courier-runner/logs"
        },
        {
          "name":"log_format",
          "value":"json"
        },
        {
          "name":"log_level",
          "value":"debug"
        },
        {
          "name":"log_output",
          "value":"file"
        },
        {
          "name":"queue_provider",
          "value":"0"
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_authentication_type",
          "value":"basic"
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_dir",
          "value":"/hab/svc/courier-runner/data"
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_host_url",
          "value":""
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_interval_in_sec",
          "value":"3"
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_name",
          "value":"server"
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_retry_interval_in_sec",
          "value":"4"
        },
        {
          "name":"reporter_total_retry_duration_in_min",
          "value":"2"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

This file defines settings for the Gohai and Courier Runner skills with Shell and Restart interpreters. If you installed other interpreters, define them in the Courier Runner settings.

Create the override setting:

chef-node-management-cli management setting create-setting --body-file <PATH_TO_JSON_FILE> --profile <NODE_MANAGER_PROFILE_NAME>

The response is similar to the following:

{
    "item": {
        "settingId": "31e1b6f2-3044-49f9-96b9-335672c140b7"
    }
}

Update override settings

If you need to update your override settings, you should do so skill-by-skill. The steps in the example below could be used if you want to update the skill settings for the Courier Runner:

Create a JSON file that contains the Courier Runner override settings and make the necessary changes.

{
  "skillName":"courier-runner",
  "settings":[
    {
      "name":"credentials_api_key",
      "value":""
    },
    {
      "name":"credentials_api_secret",
      "value":""
    },
    {
      "name":"shell_interpreter",
      "value":"chef-platform/shell-interpreter"
    },
    {
      "name":"restart_interpreter",
      "value":"chef-platform/restart-interpreter"
    },
    {
      "name":"inspec_interpreter",
      "value":"chef-platform/inspec-interpreter"
    },
    {
      "name":"chef_client_interpreter",
      "value":"chef-platform/chef-client-interpreter"
    },
    {
      "name":"log_dir",
      "value":"/hab/svc/courier-runner/logs"
    },
    {
      "name":"log_format",
      "value":"json"
    },
    {
      "name":"log_level",
      "value":"debug"
    },
    {
      "name":"log_output",
      "value":"file"
    },
    {
      "name":"queue_provider",
      "value":"0"
    },
    {
      "name":"reporter_authentication_type",
      "value":"basic"
    },
    {
      "name":"reporter_dir",
      "value":"/hab/svc/courier-runner/data"
    },
    {
      "name":"reporter_host_url",
      "value":""
    },
    {
      "name":"reporter_interval_in_sec",
      "value":"5"
    },
    {
      "name":"reporter_name",
      "value":"server"
    },
    {
      "name":"reporter_retry_interval_in_sec",
      "value":"4"
    },
    {
      "name":"reporter_total_retry_duration_in_min",
      "value":"2"
    }
  ]
}

Update the node override setting for Courier Runner:

chef-node-management-cli management setting update-skillSettings \
  --skillName courier-runner \
  --settingId <SETTING_ID> \
  --body-file <JSON_FILE_PATH> \
  --profile <NODE_MANAGER_PROFILE_NAME>

Troubleshooting

To verify that the setting was created, use the find-one-setting command:

chef-node-management-cli management setting find-one-setting --settingId <SETTING_ID> --profile <NODE_MANAGER_PROFILE_NAME>

Update Node Management agent settings

The Node Management agent is a special skill that’s installed first at the time of enrollment and is responsible for installing and managing other skills.

If you want to update the Node Management agent settings to be able to download skills from your on-prem deployment of Chef Habitat Builder, download Node Management agent from a specific channel, or update the check in interval, you can do that by updating your existing Node Management agent override settings.

Create a JSON file that contains updated settings:

{
  "settings":[
    {
      "name":"bldrUrl",
      "value":"https://bldr.habitat.sh"
    },
    {
      "name":"bldrAuthToken",
      "value":""
    },
    {
      "name":"bldrChannel",
      "value":"stable"
    },
    {
      "name":"nodeCheckinInterval",
      "value":"3600"
    },
    {
      "name":"updateSkillMetadataInterval",
      "value":"3600"
    },
    {
      "name":"logLevel",
      "value":"debug"
    }
  ],
  "skillName":"node-management-agent"
}

Update the node override setting for the Node Management agent:

chef-node-management-cli management setting update-skillSettings \
  --skillName node-management-agent \
  --settingId <SETTING_ID> \
  --body-file <PATH_TO_JSON_FILE> \
  --profile <NODE_MANAGER_PROFILE_NAME>