Chef
by Progress Software • • Configuration Management Tools
Chef is a configuration management and compliance automation platform from Progress for server, desktop and network fleets, built on an open-source engine.
Chef keeps every server, desktop and network device in the state its code declares, and checks that state against security baselines. Each node is described in cookbooks and policies, so one fix applies the same way everywhere. Drift is corrected rather than rediscovered by hand. Chef is part of the Progress product portfolio, and its current platform is named the Progress Chef 360 Platform. Its engine, Chef Infra Client, is open source under the Apache 2.0 license. Chef Infra Client runs on a schedule, pulls cookbooks and policy from Chef Infra Server, and converges each node to its desired state. Why-run mode shows what a run would change without modifying the system. Chef InSpec and Chef Compliance scan nodes against CIS benchmarks, DISA STIGs and Chef-curated profiles, on a schedule or from an event. Job Orchestration sends Courier jobs across nodes, and Node Management lists node details with hourly health updates. Desktop Management, Application Delivery and Cloud Security Posture Management complete the platform. Chef suits infrastructure and operations teams that manage Linux and Windows servers as code and want one tool for network appliances too. Agentless Mode reaches routers, switches and firewalls over SSH with no agent to install. Security-focused organizations use the same platform to audit hardening baselines and follow remediation across the fleet. Teams choose between a SaaS service and a self-managed installation, and engineers who prefer open source can start from the Apache-licensed client. The recurring work of server operations is where Chef earns its place: building nodes from cookbooks, correcting drift and scanning before an audit. Community cookbooks come from Chef Supermarket, and secrets stay in encrypted data bags or Chef Vault. Chef integrates with Jenkins, GitHub and Azure DevOps for delivery pipelines, and with ServiceNow CMDB and Slack for the service desk. Its cloud connections cover AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud and Kubernetes. It fits teams that want one record of how every node should look and one report showing whether it still does.
Pricing
View plans-
Free license
Free
- Non-production use only, personal and non-commercial
- Unlimited duration
- Community support
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Business
$59 per year
Per node, per year; same price for SaaS and Self-Managed
- Node Management and Job Orchestration
- Shell, Restart, Gohai and Courier Runner skills
- Unlimited user seats and org units
- 10 concurrent jobs
- 10 job runs per node per month, pooled
- 30 days of data and log retention
- 99.9% uptime SLA on SaaS
- Standard support
- 30-day non-production trial on request
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Enterprise
$189 per year
Per node, per year; same price for SaaS and Self-Managed
- Everything in Business
- Configuration Management and Desktop Management
- Compliance Audit
- InSpec and Infra skills
- 10 concurrent jobs; 10 job runs per node per month, pooled
- 30 days of data and log retention
- Standard support
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Enterprise Plus
Custom pricing
- Price on request, per node per year
- Everything in Enterprise
- Continuous Compliance and Cloud Security Posture Management
- Application Delivery
- Premium support
- 50 concurrent jobs; 10 job runs per node per month, pooled
- 30 days of data retention, up to 60 days on a dedicated instance
- Dedicated Instance SaaS add-on, price on request
Features
- Included: Declarative desired-state enforcement
- Included: Idempotent configuration runs
- Included: Agentless execution over SSH and WinRM
- Included: Agent-based scheduled convergence
- Included: Node drift detection and remediation
- Included: No-op dry run of pending changes
- Included: Community module registry
- Not included: Dynamic inventory from cloud providers
- Included: Linux, Windows and network device management
- Included: Encrypted secrets in configuration data
- Included: Rolling orchestration across node batches
- Included: Web console with node inventory
- Included: Role-based access on the control server
- Included: CIS and STIG compliance profiles
- Included: Event-driven automation triggers
- Not included: Change audit trail per node
- Included: Open source configuration engine
Additional Features
- Chef Infra Client scheduled convergence
- Chef Infra Server cookbook and policy store
- Why-run mode dry runs
- Chef InSpec compliance scanning
- CIS benchmark and DISA STIG profiles
- Compliance dashboard tracking drift and remediation
- Scheduled and event-driven compliance scans
- Agentless Mode over SSH
Best for
- Infrastructure teams managing Linux and Windows servers as code
- Operations teams that also automate routers, switches and firewalls
- Security-focused organizations auditing hardening baselines
- Organizations maturing DevOps automation, orchestration and auditing
- IT teams managing desktops alongside servers
- Teams that need a self-managed option beside SaaS
- Engineers who want an open-source client under a commercial platform
Use cases
- Enforcing a declared configuration across a server fleet
- Correcting configuration drift once it is detected
- Previewing pending changes with a why-run before rollout
- Scanning nodes against CIS benchmarks and DISA STIGs
- Running scheduled or event-triggered compliance scans
- Sending shell and restart jobs to many nodes at once
- Automating network devices without installing an agent
- Keeping configuration secrets in encrypted data bags
- Reusing community cookbooks from Chef Supermarket
- Checking cloud accounts for security posture issues
- Managing employee desktops with the same platform
Screenshots & Videos
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