Chef isn't running the apt (apt-get update) recipe. Apt returns 100

Question

Running Ubuntu 11.04 on vagrant, mac os x 10.7.2. Running chef server.

Trying to install the postgresql community chef recipe, I get the following error, even though my base role looks something like this (I added the apt recipe to try to update apt-get):

name "base"
description "The base role for systems"
run_list(
        "recipe[apt]",
        "recipe[vim]"
)

Trying to do a chef run:

$ vagrant reload db1dev
[db1dev] Attempting graceful shutdown of linux...
[db1dev] Preparing host only network...
[db1dev] Clearing any previously set forwarded ports...
[db1dev] Forwarding ports...
[db1dev] -- ssh: 22 => 2222 (adapter 1)
[db1dev] Cleaning previously set shared folders...
[db1dev] Creating shared folders metadata...
[db1dev] Running any VM customizations...
[db1dev] Booting VM...
[db1dev] Waiting for VM to boot. This can take a few minutes.
[db1dev] VM booted and ready for use!
[db1dev] Enabling host only network...
[db1dev] Mounting shared folders...
[db1dev] -- v-root: /vagrant
[db1dev] Running provisioner: Vagrant::Provisioners::ChefClient...
[db1dev] Creating folder to hold client key...
[db1dev] Uploading chef client validation key...
[db1dev] Generating chef JSON and uploading...
[db1dev] Running chef-client...
[db1dev] stdin: is not a tty
: stderr
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:45 -0800] INFO: *** Chef 0.10.2 ***
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:46 -0800] INFO: Client key /etc/chef/client.pem is not present - registering
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:46 -0800] INFO: HTTP Request Returned 404 Not Found: Cannot load node dev-vagrant-db1-andres
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Setting the run_list to ["role[base]", "role[db_master]"] from JSON
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Run List is [role[base], role[db_master]]
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Run List expands to [base_server, vim, postgresql::server]
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Starting Chef Run for dev-vagrant-db1-andres
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Loading cookbooks [base_server, openssl, postgresql, vim]
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Removing cookbooks/apt/resources/repository.rb from the cache; its cookbook is no longer needed on this client.
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Removing cookbooks/apt/metadata.rb from the cache; its cookbook is no longer needed on this client.
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Removing cookbooks/apt/providers/repository.rb from the cache; its cookbook is no longer needed on this client.
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Removing cookbooks/apt/recipes/cacher.rb from the cache; its cookbook is no longer needed on this client.
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Removing cookbooks/apt/recipes/cacher-client.rb from the cache; its cookbook is no longer needed on this client.
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Removing cookbooks/apt/recipes/default.rb from the cache; its cookbook is no longer needed on this client.
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Removing cookbooks/apt/metadata.json from the cache; its cookbook is no longer needed on this client.
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Removing cookbooks/apt/README.md from the cache; its cookbook is no longer needed on this client.
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Storing updated cookbooks/base_server/recipes/default.rb in the cache.
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Storing updated cookbooks/base_server/README.rdoc in the cache.
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Storing updated cookbooks/base_server/metadata.rb in the cache.
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0800] INFO: Processing package[postgresql-client] action install (postgresql::client line 37)
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:48 -0800] ERROR: package[postgresql-client] (postgresql::client line 37) has had an error
[Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:48 -0800] ERROR: Running exception handlers
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:48 -0800] FATAL: Saving node information to /srv/chef/file_store/failed-run-data.json
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:48 -0800] ERROR: Exception handlers complete
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:48 -0800] FATAL: Stacktrace dumped to /srv/chef/file_store/chef-stacktrace.out
: stdout
[db1dev] [Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:44:48 -0800] FATAL: Chef::Exceptions::Exec: package[postgresql-client] (postgresql::client line 37) had an error: apt-get -q -y install postgresql-client=8.4.8-0ubuntu0.10.04 returned 100, expected 0
: stdout
The following SSH command responded with a non-zero exit status.
Vagrant assumes that this means the command failed!

chef-client -c /etc/chef/client.rb -j /etc/chef/dna.json

The output of the command prior to failing is outputted below:

[no output]

If I manually do a $sudo apt-get update from inside the server, doing another run of chef-client install postgres without a problem. Any ideas on why the apt recipe is not running? (I also know it's not running because the timestamp file for apt-get is not created in ubuntu). Any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

So, from the error you printed, it seems that running the command

apt-get -q -y install postgresql-client=8.4.8-0ubuntu0.10.04

is failing.

But you said that if you run

apt-get update

First, and then re-provision, it works fine?

My hunch is that when you first run chef, the version of postgresql client you are requesting is not in your downloaded list of apt packages, but running the apt-get update finds that version.

I see you are running a base_server recipe first, is that adding apt repositories to the list?

Regardless, I would recommend running an apt-get update prior to running the postgres recipe, this is something that would probably be appropriate to put into the base_server recipe I would think.