I started feeling the need of automating my developement environments when i started contributing to several django projects run by the community, each project uses a different django version and several dependencies, thoses dependencies can be found or not on the Ubuntu version i use for my daily work. Vagrant is a great tool for those situations, it allow you to create and manage custom virtual environments to your needs using automated configuration technologies such as Chef, Puppet and Shell scripts.

Installing Vagrant

Vagrant works with VirtualBox, and support Vmware Fusion and AWS via plugins

Install Virtualbox

$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox

Install Vagrant

$ sudo apt-get install vagrant

Make sure Vagrant is installed correctly

$ vagrant --version Vagrant version 1.2.0

Get your first VM up and running

start a vagrant config file in an empty project folder. this will create Vagrantfile $ mkdir project $ cd project $ vagrant init edit Vagrantfile to add the boxname Vagrant::Config.run do |config| config.vm.box = "devserver" end add a base image or box to quickly clone a virtual machine. this will create a folder .vagrant with an ubuntu box $ vagrant box add devserver http://files.vagrantup.com/precise32.box then you are ready to go $ vagrant up [default] Importing base box 'precise32'... [default] Matching MAC address for NAT networking... [default] Clearing any previously set forwarded ports... [default] Forwarding ports... [default] -- 22 => 2222 (adapter 1) [default] Creating shared folders metadata... [default] Clearing any previously set network interfaces... [default] Booting VM... [default] Waiting for VM to boot. This can take a few minutes. [default] VM booted and ready for use! [default] Mounting shared folders... [default] -- v-root: /vagrant [...]

Wait for the command to finish, then you will have a VM ready for you to connect. the VM can be accessed via SSH:

$ vagrant ssh

Provisioning

Vagrant allow you to use different Provisioners to easily setup your VM with everything it needs to run your project :

Chef Solo

Chef Server

Puppet Standalone

Puppet Server

Shell

I do prefer Puppet for provisioning, because it's easy and it allow you to easily create a manifest to control the package, file or service with a few lines of code.

Here is the Vagrantfile i use, i needed to forward the port 8000 because i want to access the webapp using my browser, i also increased the memory of the VM to 1GB, and made the project folder accessible to the VM :

# -*- mode: ruby -*- # vi: set ft=ruby : Vagrant::Config.run do |ltp| ltp.vm.box = "ltp-devserver" ltp.vm.box_url = "http://files.vagrantup.com/precise32.box" ltp.vm.forward_port 8000, 8000 ltp.vm.network :hostonly, "33.33.33.10" ltp.vm.customize ["modifyvm", :id, "--memory", 1024] ltp.ssh.max_tries = 50 ltp.ssh.timeout = 300 ltp.vm.share_folder("v-root", "/home/vagrant/ltp", ".") ltp.vm.provision :puppet do |puppet| puppet.manifests_path = "puppet/manifests" puppet.manifest_file = "vagrant.pp" end end

here one of the classes i use on my dev environement :

class init { group { "puppet": ensure => "present", } # Let's update the system exec { "update-apt": command => "sudo apt-get update", } # Let's install the dependecies package { ["python", "python-dev", "libjs-jquery", "libjs-jquery-ui", "iso-codes", "gettext", "python-pip", "bzr"]: ensure => installed, require => Exec['update-apt'] # The system update needs to run first } # Let's install the project dependecies from pip exec { "pip-install-requirements": command => "sudo /usr/bin/pip install -r $PROJ_DIR/requirements.txt", tries => 2, timeout => 600, # Too long, but this can take awhile require => Package['python-pip', 'python-dev'], # The package dependecies needs to run first logoutput => on_failure, } }

You need to specify one manifest file in your Vagranfile, if you need to split it, you can use something like this :

$ tree . └── manifests ├── classes │ ├── init.pp │ └── ltp.pp └── vagrant.pp

I use vagrant.pp to define my project variables, and to make sure all the classes are executed in the order i want :

import "classes/*.pp" $PROJ_DIR = "/home/vagrant/ltp" Exec { path => "/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/bin", } class dev { class { init: before => Class[ltp]; ltp:; } } include dev

The ltp class is only used to run some django commands :

class ltp { file { "$PROJ_DIR/loco_directory/local_settings.py": ensure => file, source => "$PROJ_DIR/loco_directory/local_settings.py.sample", replace => false; } exec { "db_download": cwd => "$PROJ_DIR/loco_directory", command => "/usr/bin/wget http://people.ubuntu.com/~daker/ltp/ltp.db", creates => "$PROJ_DIR/loco_directory/ltp.db"; } exec { "managepy_syncdb": cwd => "$PROJ_DIR/loco_directory", command => "/usr/bin/python manage.py syncdb --noinput", } exec { "managepy_migratedb": cwd => "$PROJ_DIR/loco_directory", command => "/usr/bin/python manage.py migrate", } }

Now all i have to do is vagrant up and let Vagrant do all his magic tricks :

$ vagrant up [default] Importing base box 'ltp-devserver'... [default] Matching MAC address for NAT networking... [default] Clearing any previously set forwarded ports... [default] Forwarding ports... [default] -- 22 => 2222 (adapter 1) [default] -- 8000 => 8000 (adapter 1) [default] Creating shared folders metadata... [default] Clearing any previously set network interfaces... [default] Preparing network interfaces based on configuration... [default] Running any VM customizations... [default] Booting VM... [default] Waiting for VM to boot. This can take a few minutes. [default] VM booted and ready for use! [default] Configuring and enabling network interfaces... [default] Mounting shared folders... [default] -- v-root: /home/vagrant/ltp [default] -- manifests: /tmp/vagrant-puppet/manifests [default] Running provisioner: Vagrant::Provisioners::Puppet... [default] Running Puppet with /tmp/vagrant-puppet/manifests/vagrant.pp... stdin: is not a tty warning: Could not retrieve fact fqdn notice: /Stage[main]/Init/Exec[update-apt]/returns: executed successfully notice: /Stage[main]/Init/Package[python-pip]/ensure: ensure changed 'purged' to 'present' notice: /Stage[main]/Init/Package[bzr]/ensure: ensure changed 'purged' to 'present' notice: /Stage[main]/Init/Package[libjs-jquery-ui]/ensure: ensure changed 'purged' to 'present' notice: /Stage[main]/Init/Package[python-dev]/ensure: ensure changed 'purged' to 'present' notice: /Stage[main]/Init/Exec[pip-install-requirements]/returns: executed successfully notice: /Stage[main]/Init/Package[gettext]/ensure: ensure changed 'purged' to 'present' notice: /Stage[main]/Ltp/File[/home/vagrant/ltp/loco_directory/local_settings.py]/ensure: defined content as '{md5}25234f94c80418dcb7cc59f3db2dd7f8' notice: /Stage[main]/Ltp/Exec[db_download]/returns: executed successfully notice: /Stage[main]/Ltp/Exec[managepy_syncdb]/returns: executed successfully notice: /Stage[main]/Ltp/Exec[managepy_migratedb]/returns: executed successfully notice: Finished catalog run in 811.47 seconds

After i started using Vagrant, my workflow imporved a lot i start focusing on writing code rather than resolving packages conflicts, i do use a VM for each bug fix/feature i need to work on, and once the fix is merged i simply delete the VM without thinking about breaking anything.

[NB]: Ubuntu now officially supports Vagrant, and provides official Ubuntu boxes for 12.04, 12.10, 13.04 and 13.10.