Chef Experiments - Create SSH config

The objective here is to create  a simple sshd cookbook for Red Hat/CentOS configuration.

Create the cookbook

knife cookbook create sshd


Create the default recipe.
Options like sshd port , banner etc will be pulled from a data bag called base_config.   The template file for SSHD configuration would be sshd.erb.

File : cookbooks/sshd/recipes/default.rb

sshd_config = data_bag_item('base_config', 'sshd')
template "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" do
    source "sshd.erb"
    mode "0644"
    variables(
    :sshd_port => sshd_config['port'],
    :x11_forwarding => sshd_config['x11_forwarding'],
    :banner => sshd_config['banner'],
    :permit_root => sshd_config['permit_root']
)
end

template "/etc/issue.net" do
    source "issue.net.erb"
end

service "sshd" do
    action [ :restart ]
end

Templates sshd.erb looks like this

File : cookbooks/sshd/template/sshd.erb

Port <%= @sshd_port %>

Protocol 2

#other SSHD config has been omitted for the sake of the blog post

PermitRootLogin <%= @permit_root %>

X11Forwarding <%= @x11_forwarding %>

Banner <%= @banner %>

#other SSHD config has been omitted for the sake of the blog post

In issue.net.erb we are are reading from motd and adding a little blurb after that

File : cookbooks/sshd/template/issue.net.erb

<%= File.read("/etc/motd") %>

*****************************
Use of the Site by unauthorized users is prohibited and 
unauthorized users will be prosecuted to the fullest 
extent of the law.
*****************************

Data bag

Create the data bag

File :data_bags/base)config/config.json 

{  
  "id": "sshd",  
  "port": "2222",  
  "x11_forwarding": "no",  
  "banner":"/etc/issue.net",  
  "permit_root": "no"  
}  

Finishing up

knife data bag create base_config

knife data bag from file base_config data_bags/base_config/config.json 

knife cookbook upload sshd

Then add the recipe to a role or node run list and run the chef-client