[SOLVED] How do I get Test Kitchen to cache the chef-client RPM?

How do I get Test Kitchen to cache the chef-client RPM?

Every time I run kitchen verify for the first time after creating a box, it needs to download the chef-client. E.g:

 downloaded metadata file looks valid...
       downloading https://opscode-omnibus-packages.s3.amazonaws.com/el/6/x86_64/chef-12.4.1-1.el6.x86_64.rpm
         to file /tmp/install.sh.2340/chef-12.4.1-1.el6.x86_64.rpm

I have a poor Internet connection so this takes a long time. Is there a simple way to cache the RPM so I don't have to download it each time?

Solution

I haven't been able to cache the RPM through Kitchen, but I have solved the problem by downloading the file myself and providing it to Kitchen.

Download RPM file
Put it in a local folder alongside your .kitchen.yml. e.g. chef-pkgs
Kitchen downloads chef packages to a /tmp directory, so set up a synced folder in your .kitchen.yml with the chef-pkgs folder. Example:

Example .kitchen.yml:

driver:
  name: vagrant
  vagrantfiles:
    - Vagrantfile
  synced_folders:
    - ["./chef-pkgs", "/tmp/chef-pkgs"]

provisioner:
  name: chef_zero
  require_chef_omnibus: 12.4.1
  chef_omnibus_url: file:///tmp/chef-pkgs/install.sh

Create an install.sh file in your chef-pkgs folder that installs the RPM from the cached location.

Example install.sh:

#! /bin/bash
sudo rpm -ivh /tmp/chef-pkgs/chef-12.4.1-1.el6.x86_64.rpm

I got the idea and code from this helpful blog post: http://erichelgeson.github.io/blog/2014/09/23/simple-chef-package-cache/

I added the chef-pkgs folder to my .gitignore file.