Create roles here, in either .rb or .json files. To install roles on the
server, use knife. For example, create roles/base_example.rb:

    name "base_example"
    description "Example base role applied to all nodes."
    # List of recipes and roles to apply. Requires Chef 0.8, earlier versions use 'recipes()'.
    #run_list()
    
    # Attributes applied if the node doesn't have it set already.
    #default_attributes()
    
    # Attributes applied no matter what the node has set already.
    #override_attributes()

Then upload it to the Chef Server:
    
    knife role from file roles/base_example.rb