Stef Horner: Vagrant

The Problem

Projects have different dependancies:

PHP, ruby, node, etc.
apache config, ssh, etc.
config
OS versions

OSX, Ubuntu and CentOS all use different versions of apache

The Solution

Server Provisioning

Makes sure that a server meets certain requirements

Allows you to use an identical server for development

Basics

You take a base OS, or "box"
You install required software
You setup some configuration

Word of the day: idempotence

An action that can be applied multiple times without changing the result beyond the initial application

Modulus - |x|
Loading a gun

Don't install things

Ensure that things are installed

vagrant up

Takes the specified box
Provisions it
Boots it up

vagrant ssh

SSHes into the vagrant box as the default user: vagrant

Handles authentication

Single command mode:

vagrant ssh -c "ls /" ssh vagrant@127.0.0.1 "ls /"

Will run a command as the default user, then exit

Folder Sync

The project folder will be synced to the

/vagrant

folder on the box

It will be pseudo-chowned to

vagrant:vagrant

Have a Break

vagrant halt

Gracefully shuts down the box

vagrant destroy

Shuts down the box, and destroys the image

vagrant suspend

Stores the current state of the box

The Vagrantfile

The config file for vagrant

Uses ruby syntax

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu_10_04"
  config.vm.box_url = "http://files.vagrantup.com/lucid32.box"
  # more config goes here

end

Provisioning

Manual
Shell
Chef
Puppet
Ansible
Docker
Salt

Manual Provisioning

The most basic way of provisioning is to do it by hand

Slow
Boring
Error Prone
Not all of it gets done
Has to be done every time

Shell Provisioning

Add the following to the Vagrantfile

config.vm.provision :shell, :inline => "echo woop woop woop"
config.vm.provision :shell, :path => "setup.sh"

This script gets run whenever the box gets provisioned

An example PHP script

Puppet / Chef

Puppet: more expressive markup, made specifically for provisioning. Simpler.
Chef: uses ruby, and can therefore use programming constructs

Chef sticks to the chef analogy for everything

Beyond that, the main difference is their communities