In 2016, we published more than 200 blog posts, highlighting major releases and announcements, partnerships and integrations, skill-building and how to articles, and more. Here are the top ten most viewed posts of 2016.
#10 Deploy a Java Web App on Tomcat 8 with Habitat
In September, we released a new Habitat Package for deploying a JavaEE Web application on Tomcat 8. This example application renders a map of all the National Parks in the United States. Users can browse the map, zoom in, and click on any park to get information about the park. Check out the tutorial and companion video for this post to learn more about how Habitat works.
#9 Chef Launches Certification and Training Program Amid Increasing Demand for DevOps Skills
In July, we launched the Chef Certification Program at ChefConf 2016. This new program offers credentials to developers, system administrators, and IT practitioners who demonstrate the skills needed for DevOps success using Chef products. Since launch, we’ve added a third badge, “Extending Chef Skills“. Earning this badge along with the “Basic Chef Fluency” and “Local Cookbook Development” badges completes the first level of certification: Certified Chef Developer. From there, you’re ready to tackle three additional badges to become a Certified Chef Architect.
#8 Announcing InSpec 1.0 – Compliance as Code
This Fall, InSpec matured to version 1.0. InSpec turns compliance and security requirements into code. When compliance is code, you can identify issues during development and not after the fact. We’re extremely excited about the growth of this open-source project and its integration with Chef Automate.
#7 Inside the new AWS OpsWorks for Chef Automate service
Earlier this month at AWS re:Invent, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels announced AWS OpsWorks for Chef Automate during his keynote. The launch highlights the tight partnership between Chef and AWS. This post focuses on what you get with the new service and how to get started.
#6 Building a Factorio Multiplayer Server on Digital Ocean
Sometimes, you just want to use Chef for fun and not work! Early last year, we released a cookbook to build a multiplayer server for Factorio. Factorio is a resource gathering game with real-time strategy and survival elements, developed by Wube Software. Follow the steps in this post to create a multiplayer server on Digital Ocean or the like, and try to get off the planet with your friends!
#5 Chef Unveils New Flagship Product Chef Automate
Another major announcement at ChefConf 2016 was the launch of Chef Automate. Chef Automate is our new commercial product for teams that builds on our open-source projects: Chef for infrastructure and cloud automation, InSpec for encoding compliance policy, and the newly released Habitat for application automation. It encourages successful collaboration and makes it easier to deploy projects with many dependencies that span multiple teams.
#4 No, I won’t tell you what DevOps is. Tell me what you want to achieve instead.
In September, our friends at Data Economy launched their new site dedicated to covering the world’s most critical IT infrastructure issues, from cloud to data centers, and how they impact our global economy. In that vein, Data Economy published an editorial by Justin Arbuckle, entitled, “No, I won’t tell you what DevOps is. Tell me what you want to achieve instead.”
Justin urges us all to move past buzzwords, definitions and the arguments they can create. Instead, he recommends, focus on the outcomes you want to achieve, then align your practices and tools to those goals.
#3 Creating a Docker container Host on Windows Nano Server with Chef
When Microsoft launched the release of Windows Server 2016 along with Nano Server, Matt Wrock shared a sample cookbook to highlight some of the new Windows container features in Nano Server. It installs Docker and allow you to use your Nano Server as a container host where you can run, manipulate and inspect Windows containers from any Windows client.
#2 Habitat — a new open source project for automating applications
Just before summer, Adam Jacob unveiled Habitat, our new open source project for application automation, via live webcast from Chef HQ in Seattle. It was an exciting day for Chef employees who were eager to talk about this first of its kind open source project after nine months in stealth development. Got ten minutes? See what Habitat can do. Our ten minute demo provides an introductory overview of Habitat from the comfort of your browser. We’ll show you how to quickly download and run existing packages to create services.
#1 Chef Vault – what is it and what can it do for you?
The number one most viewed blog post of 2016 was published by Nell Shamrell-Harrington in mid-January. We love the focus on security this year! Chef Vault is a tool for managing secrets with Chef. If you haven’t yet discovered what it can do for you, jump right in to find out how it works and how to start using it.