200-901 Infrastructure and Automation Practice Question
A team uses Chef to manage network device configurations. Which component of Chef is responsible for storing configuration policy and distributing it to nodes?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between the Chef Server (policy storage/distribution) and the Chef Client (policy execution), tempting candidates to confuse the agent with the central repository.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Chef Server
The Chef Server is the central hub that stores configuration policies (cookbooks, roles, environments, data bags) and distributes them to nodes via a REST API. When a Chef Client runs on a node, it authenticates with the Chef Server and downloads the relevant policy to converge the node to the desired state. This makes the Chef Server the authoritative source of configuration policy in a Chef architecture.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Knife
Why it's wrong here
Knife is a CLI tool to interact with Chef Server.
- ✓
Chef Server
Why this is correct
The central server stores and distributes policy.
- ✗
Chef Client
Why it's wrong here
Chef Client runs on nodes to apply configuration.
- ✗
Supermarket
Why it's wrong here
Supermarket is for sharing cookbooks.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 200-901 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 200-901 exam.