Install Chef Workstation

Start your infrastructure automation with Chef Workstation. Chef Workstation gives you everything you need to get started with Chef - ad hoc remote execution, remote scanning, configuration tasks, cookbook creation tools as well as robust dependency and testing software - all in one easy-to-install package.

Chef Workstation includes:

• Chef Infra Client
• Chef InSpec
• Chef Habitat
• chef and knife command line tools
• Testing tools such as Test Kitchen and Cookstyle
• Everything else needed to author cookbooks and upload them to the Chef Infra Server

For general information about downloading Chef products, see the Chef download documentation.

Supported Platforms

The following table lists the commercially supported platforms and versions for Chef Workstation:

Derived Platforms

The following table lists supported derived platforms and versions for Chef Workstation.

See our policy on support for derived platforms for more information.

System Requirements

Minimum system requirements:

• RAM: 4GB
• Disk: 8GB
• Additional memory and storage space may be necessary to take advantage of Chef Workstation tools such as Test Kitchen which creates and manages virtualized test environments.

Additional Chef Workstation App Requirements:

• On Linux, you must have a graphical window manager running with support for system tray icons. For some distributions you may also need to install additional libraries. After you install the Chef Workstation package from the terminal, the post-install message will tell you which, if any, additional libraries are required to run the Chef Workstation App.

Installation

The Chef Workstation installer must run as a privileged user.

Chef Workstation installs to /opt/chef-workstation/ on macOS / Linux and C:\opscode\chef-workstation\ on Windows. These file locations help avoid interference between these components and other applications that may be running on the target machine.

macOS Install

1. Visit Chef Downloads to download a Chef Workstation package.
2. Follow the steps to accept the license and install Chef Workstation.

Alternatively, install Chef Workstation using the Homebrew package manager:

brew install --cask chef-workstation

Windows Install

1. Visit Chef Downloads to download a Chef Workstation package.
2. Follow the steps to accept the license and install Chef Workstation. You will have the option to change your install location; by default the installer uses the C:\opscode\chef-workstation\ directory.
3. Optional: Set the default shell. On Windows it is strongly recommended to use Windows PowerShell instead of cmd.exe.

Alternatively, install Chef Workstation using the Chocolatey package manager:

choco install chef-workstation

Headless Unattended Install

“Headless” systems are configured to operate without a monitor (the “head”) keyboard, and mouse. They are usually administered remotely using protocols such as SSH or WinRM.

Chef Workstation can be installed on a headless system using the msiexec command and flags to skip the installation of the Chef Workstation Application, which requires a GUI. Run the following command in Windows PowerShell or cmd.exe, replacing MsiPath with the path of the downloaded Chef Workstation installer.

msiexec /q /i MsiPath ADDLOCAL=ALL REMOVE=ChefWSApp

Spaces and Directories

Top-level Directory Names

Linux

1. Visit the Chef Downloads page or download the appropriate package for your distribution:

   • Red Hat Enterprise Linux

     wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chef-workstation/<WORKSTATION_VERSION>/el/<RHEL_VERSION>/chef-workstation-<WORKSTATION_VERSION>-1.el<RHEL_VERSION>.x86_64.rpm
     

     For example:

     wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chef-workstation/24.4.1064/el/8/chef-workstation-24.4.1064-1.el8.x86_64.rpm
     

   • Debian/Ubuntu

     wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chef-workstation/<WORKSTATION_VERSION>/ubuntu/<UBUNTU_VERSION>/chef-workstation_<WORKSTATION_VERSION>-1_amd64.deb
     

     For example:

     wget https://packages.chef.io/files/stable/chef-workstation/24.4.1064/ubuntu/20.04/chef-workstation_24.4.1064-1_amd64.deb
     

2. Use your distribution’s package manager to install Chef Workstation:

   • Red Hat Enterprise Linux:

     yum localinstall chef-workstation-<WORKSTATION_VERSION>-1.el<RHEL_VERSION>.x86_64.rpm
     

     For example:

     yum localinstall chef-workstation-24.4.1064-1.el8.x86_64.rpm
     

   • Debian/Ubuntu:

     dpkg -i chef-workstation_<WORKSTATION_VERSION>-1_amd64.deb
     

     For example:

     dpkg -i chef-workstation_24.4.1064-1_amd64.deb
     

See the Chef Workstation release notes or the Omnitruck API for supported version numbers.

Verify the Installation

To verify the installation, run:

chef -v

Which returns the versions of all installed Chef tools:

Chef Workstation version: 24.6.1066
Chef Infra Client version: 18.5.0
Chef InSpec version: 5.22.55
Chef CLI version: 5.6.14
Chef Habitat version: 1.6.1041
Test Kitchen version: 3.6.0
Cookstyle version: 7.32.8

Upgrading

To upgrade from ChefDK or an earlier release of Chef Workstation, follow the instructions provided under Installing.

Uninstalling

Mac Uninstall

Run uninstall_chef_workstation in your terminal.

Windows Uninstall

Use Add / Remove Programs to remove Chef Workstation.

Linux Uninstall

Ubuntu, Debian, and related:

sudo dpkg -P chef-workstation

Red Hat, CentOS, and related:

sudo yum remove chef-workstation

Next Steps

Now that you’ve installed Chef Workstation, proceed to the Setup guide to configure your Chef Workstation installation.