Chef Node Search API

chef_search_nodes.rb

require 'chef'

def config_chef
  chef_config_env_var = 'CHEF_CONFIG'
  if ENV[chef_config_env_var]
     chef_config = ENV[chef_config_env_var]
  else
    default_chef_configs = ['~/.chef/knife.rb', '/etc/chef/client.rb']
    default_chef_configs.each do |c|
      if File.exists?(File.expand_path(c))
        chef_config = c
        break
      end
    end
  end
  raise "Could not find Chef config at #{default_chef_configs.join(' or ')}. \
Create one of these or specify another location with env var #{chef_config_env_var}" unless chef_config
  # it's easiest to use .from_file to read in chef config from a knife.rb or client.rb
  Chef::Config.from_file File.expand_path(chef_config)
end

config_chef

# Chef node search query
search_str = 'chef_environment:dev AND run_list:*base_os*'

nodes = Chef::Search::Query.new.search(
  :node,
  search_str,
  filter_result: { # specify what chef attributes to return, and what the keys should be named
    name:        ['name'],
    hostname:    ['hostname'],
    fqdn:        ['fqdn'],
    ip:          ['ipaddress'],
    environment: ['chef_environment'],
    run_list:    ['run_list'],
    #my_attr:    ['path']['to']['deep']['attr']
  },
)[0] # the first value in the returned array is the actual search results, rest is pagination data

raise "No nodes returned from search '#{search_str}'" if nodes.empty?

pp nodes
# [{"name"=>"db",
#   "hostname"=>"nodeb",
#   "fqdn"=>"nodeb.mydomain.net",
#   "ip"=>"10.190.124.5",
#   "environment"=>"dev",
#   "run_list"=>
#    ["recipe[base_os]",
#     "role[mysql]"]},
#  {"name"=>"webserver",
#   "hostname"=>"nodea",
#   "fqdn"=>"nodea.mydomain.net",
#   "ip"=>"10.190.121.82",
#   "environment"=>"dev",
#   "run_list"=>
#    ["recipe[base_os]",
#     "role[webserver]"]}]