Opscode Delivers Cloud Infrastructure Automation to Windows Environments
New software enables automation of Windows infrastructure, including PowerShell, IIS, SQL Server, and Windows Services.
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Opscode, Inc., a cloud infrastructure automation solutions provider, has announced that its Chef software and commercially supported Hosted Chef and Private Chef solutions will now provide infrastructure automation in Windows environments. Opscode’s release of Chef cookbooks enables broad deployment and automation of key components of Windows infrastructure, including PowerShell, Internet Information Services (IIS), SQL server, and Windows services.
Opscode Chef is an open source systems integration framework built for automating the cloud. It allows IT teams to easily deploy thousands of servers and scale applications throughout an entire infrastructure. Through a combination of configuration management and service-oriented architectures, Chef, Hosted Chef, and Private Chef make it easy to create an elegant, fully automated infrastructure.
Customers can use Opscode Chef to configure raw machines as Web servers, then manage the Web application deployment, automating all the core components of big Web shops on Windows.
With support for Windows infrastructure, Chef software -- known as cookbooks -- can now provide the setup, automation, and maintenance of Windows-based servers and applications while still allowing companies that have deployed PowerShell to leverage their current investment. Opscode Chef allows administrators to include PowerShell into cookbook recipes, which Chef then propagates automatically, enabling consistent and repeated use and distribution in large-scale environments.
Opscode Chef also fully supports SQL Server, and IIS installation, deployment, and application configuration. Specific support for Windows infrastructure includes:
- PowerShell: Users working in Chef on Windows with a Ruby recipe can seamlessly integrate a block of PowerShell script into the middle of the recipe. The recipe language has few constructs, so users don’t realize they’re in Ruby until they do something outside the domain-specific language (DSL). Users get the benefit of Chef’s management and automation, plus the execution of the PowerShell script.
- IIS: The Chef client can install IIS and configure Web applications.
- SQL Server: Chef manages installation, configuration, and updates to the SQL Server.
- Windows Services: Chef provides the automation tools for service management across all machines. It also provides analysis across the entire fleet to determine which services are running.
- Installer: The solution bundles Ruby into the Chef Client Installer for Windows for seamless installations.
More information is available at www.opscode.com.