Chef Open Training Materials: What’s Included, How to Use Them, and What to Verify

Chef Open Training is a free set of Chef learning materials shared for self-study. This revised guide explains what the original package includes, where it helps most, and how to combine it with official documentation and instructor-led learning.

Originally published on 2014-08-13; fully revised and updated.

Training registration form (original link)

What the original Chef Open Training package includes

The original announcement states that these materials are helpful but are not meant to replace official documentation or instructor-led courses. It also says the slide content matches what was used in public and private training sessions at that time.

• Chef-Fundamentals.pdf — slides used in a three-day Chef Fundamentals class
• Chef-Introductory-Workshop.pdf — slides used in a one-day Introductory Chef Workshop
• Quickstart reference via learnchef.com

Licensing in the original post: CC BY-SA 3.0 US and Apache License 2.0. Original materials link: http://bit.ly/opschef-opentraining.

A practical learning workflow from slides to first converge

Use the open slide decks for conceptual understanding, then validate every command and configuration pattern against current official docs before production use.

flowchart TD
    A[Download open training slides] --> B[Study fundamentals concepts]
    B --> C[Set up Chef workstation]
    C --> D[Create local cookbook repository]
    D --> E[Run first local converge]
    E --> F[Check current official documentation]
    F --> G{Need deeper guidance}
    G -- yes --> H[Join instructor-led course]
    G -- no --> I[Continue self-study labs]

Self-study vs instructor-led vs documentation-first

The original post also references a public class and events schedule via the Events Page. Choose your path based on your need for speed, support, and version accuracy.

Example commands for a local first-converge lab

These are example commands for a local lab flow only. Command names and flags can vary by Chef version, so verify against current official docs before use.

chef --version
chef generate cookbook first_converge
cd first_converge
chef-client --local-mode --runlist 'recipe[first_converge::default]'Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Best practices when using archived training content

• Treat slide decks as conceptual training, not as version-locked implementation guidance.
• Cross-check every command, file path, and syntax detail in official documentation.
• Validate licensing terms from the source links before redistributing training derivatives.
• Use instructor-led training when your team needs accelerated troubleshooting and architecture review.

Rajesh Kumar

I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.

I publish technical articles at DevOps School, travel stories at Holiday Landmark, stock market insights at Stocks Mantra, health and fitness guidance at My Medic Plus, product reviews at TrueReviewNow, and SEO and digital marketing strategies at Wizbrand.