Vagrant Configurations – in Detail

In the previous article we have seen how we can configure vagrant boxes. In this article we will see how we can configure vagrant box in details along with understating the vagrant file.

1) The first thing in creating a Vagrant virtual is to run the init command. Run the “vagrant init” command which will place a Vagrantfile in the current directory. This is the configuration file that will be used in configuring the vagrant virtual box. This file contains the name , URL for the box that needs to be downloaded from, Poft forwarding , sync folder details , networking etc.

[root@vx111a CentOsVagrant]# vagrant init

A `Vagrantfile` has been placed in this directory. You are now

ready to `vagrant up` your first virtual environment! Please read

the comments in the Vagrantfile as well as documentation on

`vagrantup.com` for more information on using Vagrant.

[root@vx111a CentOsVagrant]# ll

total 4

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 3016 Dec  2 14:35 Vagrantfile

2) Once the file is created, open the file and change the basic properties to create the vagrant box. Clear the contents of the file and use the basic configuration steps defined below as,

Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|
  config.vm.box = "CentOS"
  config.vm.box_url = "https://saleseng.s3.amazonaws.com/boxfiles/CentOS-6.3-x86_64-minimal.box"
  config.vm.host_name = "dev.puppetlabs.vm"
end

The configuration steps are,

1) Vagrant uses API versions while defining the configuration Steps. This was set for the backward compatibility. So we will start the configuration file by defining the vagrant version. This current version is 2 so we define,

Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|

*****

end

2) The next line tells us about the type of the box we will use . We named the box as “CentOs”. You can define your own if you need

config.vm.box = "CentOS"

3) The next line to define the Box URL from where we will download the Image file for the virtual we are trying to build.
 config.vm.box_url = "https://saleseng.s3.amazonaws.com/boxfiles/CentOS-6.3-x86_64-minimal.box"

The above one says that it is a CentOs box with minimal configuration.

4) The next step is define the host name of the Virtual configured. This is some thing called as provisioning since we are defining a box for the virtual that has yet to be created.

  config.vm.host_name = "dev.puppetlabs.vm"

5) Once the Configuration is done, save it and run the “vagrant up” command “vagrant up”.

[root@vx111a CentOsVagrant]# vagrant up
Bringing machine 'default' up with 'virtualbox' provider...
==> default: Importing base box 'CentOS'...
==> default: Matching MAC address for NAT networking...
==> default: Setting the name of the VM: barhost
==> default: Fixed port collision for 22 => 2222. Now on port 2200.
==> default: Clearing any previously set network interfaces...
==> default: Available bridged network interfaces:
1) em1
2) vmnet8
3) virbr0
4) vmnet1
==> default: When choosing an interface, it is usually the one that is
==> default: being used to connect to the internet.
    default: Which interface should the network bridge to? 1
==> default: Preparing network interfaces based on configuration...
    default: Adapter 1: nat
    default: Adapter 2: bridged
==> default: Forwarding ports...
    default: 80 => 8084 (adapter 1)
    default: 22 => 2200 (adapter 1)
==> default: Booting VM...
==> default: Waiting for machine to boot. This may take a few minutes...
    default: SSH address: 127.0.0.1:2200
    default: SSH username: vagrant
    default: SSH auth method: private key
    default: Warning: Connection timeout. Retrying...
    default:
    default: Vagrant insecure key detected. Vagrant will automatically replace
    default: this with a newly generated keypair for better security.
    default:
    default: Inserting generated public key within guest...
    default: Removing insecure key from the guest if it's present...
    default: Key inserted! Disconnecting and reconnecting using new SSH key...
==> default: Machine booted and ready!
==> default: Checking for guest additions in VM...
    default: The guest additions on this VM do not match the installed version of
    default: VirtualBox! In most cases this is fine, but in rare cases it can
    default: prevent things such as shared folders from working properly. If you see
    default: shared folder errors, please make sure the guest additions within the
    default: virtual machine match the version of VirtualBox you have installed on
    default: your host and reload your VM.
    default:
    default: Guest Additions Version: 4.1.18
    default: VirtualBox Version: 5.0
==> default: Setting hostname...
==> default: Configuring and enabling network interfaces...
==> default: Mounting shared folders...
    default: /vagrant => /work/CentOsVagrant

6) Once the Virtaul is up and running , check the “vagrant box list” command to make sure the box is added and also check the Virtual box to see whether the newly created virtuals is shown in Oracle Virtual box.

More to Come, happy learning