HashiCorp/Vagrant

Introduction

Vagrant is configured on a per project basis. Each of these projects has its own Vagran file. The Vagrant file is a text file in which vagrant reads that sets up our environment. There is a description of what OS, how much RAM, and what software to be installed etc. You can version control this file.

Ruby gotchas

Vagrant configuration file is written in Ruby specification, therefore you need to remember

• don't use dashes in object names, don't: jenkins-minion_config.vm.box = "ubuntu/xenial64"
• don't use symbols (here underscore) in variable names, don't: (1..2).each do |minion_number|

Install

Check your distro most likely Ubuntu version candidate

apt-cache vagrant

Download from https://releases.hashicorp.com/vagrant/1.9.5/vagrant_1.9.5_x86_64.deb

wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/vagrant/1.9.5/vagrant_1.9.5_x86_64.debb
sudo dpkg -i vagrant_1.9.5_x86_64.deb
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -f   #to resolve missing dependencies if any

Install ruby is recommended as configuration within Vagrant file is written in Ruby language.

sudo apt-get install ruby
sudo gem install bundler
sudo gem update bundler    #if update needed

Version upgrade

In this example I was successful to update version 1.9.5 to 2.1.1 on top of old package.

1. Download new version wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/vagrant/2.2.7/vagrant_2.2.7_x86_64.deb
2. Install using dpkg -i vagrant_2.2.7_x86_64.deb
3. If you see errors you can attempt to try

vagrant plugin repair    # I used
vagrant plugin expunge --reinstall
vagrant plugin update    # then updated plugin 'vagrant-proxyconf'

Images aka box management

So, you know Vagrant comes with a preconfigured image repositories.

Add a box (image) into local repository

These are standard VMs from providers in Virtualbox, VMware or Hyper-V format taken from a given repository

vagrant box add hashicorp/precise64      #user: hashicorp boximage: precise64, this is preconfigured repository
vagrant box add ubuntu/xenial64
vagrant box add ubuntu/xenial64    --box-version 20170618.0.0 --provider virtualbox
vagrant box add bento/ubuntu-18.04 --box-version 201812.27.0  --provider hyperv

Box can be specified via URLs or local file paths, Virtualbox can only nest 32bit machines

vagrant box add --force ubuntu/14.04 <nowiki>https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/vagrant/trusty/current/trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-vagrant-disk1.box</nowiki>
vagrant box add --force <span style="color: green">ubuntu/14.04-i386</span> <nowiki>https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/vagrant/precise/current/precise-server-cloudimg-i386-vagrant-disk1.box</nowiki>

Manage boxes using

vagrant box [list | add | remove] [--help]

Update a box to the latest version

$> vagrant box list
ubuntu/bionic64                                          (virtualbox, 20190411.0.0)
ubuntu/bionic64                                          (virtualbox, 20190718.0.0)

$> vagrant box update --box ubuntu/bionic64
Checking for updates to 'ubuntu/bionic64'
Latest installed version: 20190718.0.0
Version constraints: > 20190718.0.0
Provider: virtualbox
Updating 'ubuntu/bionic64' with provider 'virtualbox' from version
'20190718.0.0' to '20200124.0.0'...
Loading metadata for box 'https://vagrantcloud.com/ubuntu/bionic64'
Adding box 'ubuntu/bionic64' (v20200124.0.0) for provider: virtualbox
Downloading: https://vagrantcloud.com/ubuntu/boxes/bionic64/versions/20200124.0.0/providers/virtualbox.box
Download redirected to host: cloud-images.ubuntu.com

$> vagrant box list
ubuntu/bionic64                                          (virtualbox, 20190411.0.0)
ubuntu/bionic64                                          (virtualbox, 20190718.0.0)
ubuntu/bionic64                                          (virtualbox, 20200124.0.0) # <- new downloaded

vagrant init - your first project

Configure Vagrantfile to use the box as your base system

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
 config.vm.box      = "ubuntu/bionic64"
 config.vm.hostname = "ubuntu" #hostname, requires reload
end

Create Vagrant project, by creating Vagrantfile in your current directory

vagrant init                    #initialises an project 
vagrant init ubuntu/xenial64    # initialises official Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) Daily Build
vagrant init ubuntu/bionic64    #supports only VirtualBox provider
vagrant init bento/ubuntu-18.04 #supports variety of providers

#Windows
vagrant init devopsgroup-io/windows_server-2012r2-standard-amd64-nocm #Windows 2012r2, VirtualBox only; cannot ssh
vagrant init peru/windows-server-2016-standard-x64-eval               #Windows 2016, halt works
vagrant init gusztavvargadr/windows-server                            #Windows 2019, full integration

Power up your Vagrant box

vagrant up

Error:
 Timed out while waiting for the machine to boot. This means that
 Vagrant was unable to communicate with the guest machine within
 the configured ("config.vm.boot_timeout" value) time period.
 ...

The error above is due to Virtualbox cannot run nested 64bit virtualbox VM. Spinning up a 64bit VM stops with an error that no 64bit CPU could be found. Update VirtualBox 6.x Nested virtualization, VT-x/AMD-V in the guest.

Ssh to the box

piotr@vm-ubuntu64:~/git/vagrant$ vagrant ssh    #default password is "vagrant"
vagrant@vagrant-ubuntu-precise-32:~$ w
 13:08:35 up 15 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.06, 0.31, 0.54
USER     TTY      FROM              LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU WHAT
vagrant  pts/0    10.0.2.2         13:02    1.00s  4.63s  0.09s w

Shared directory between Vagrant VM and an hypervisor provider

Vagrant VM shares a directory mounted at /vagrant with the directory on the host containing your Vagrantfile. This can be manually mounted from within VM as long the shared directory is setup in GUI.

Eg. vm_name > Settings > Shared Folders > Name: vagrant | Path: /home/piotr/vm_name

sudo mount -t vboxsf -o uid=1000 vagrant /vagrant #firts arg 'vagrant' refers to GUI setiing

Troubleshooting

vagrant --debug up

Manage power states

• vagrant suspend - saves the current running state of the machine and stop it
• vagrant halt - gracefully shuts down the guest operating system and power down the guest machine
• vagrant destroy - removes all traces of the guest machine from your system. It'll stop the guest machine, power it down, and remove all of the guest hard disks

Snapshots

You can easily save snapshots.

# Get status
$ vagrant status
Current machine states:
default                   poweroff (virtualbox) # <- 'default' it's machine name
                                                # in multi-vm Vagrant config file
The VM is powered off. To restart the VM, simply run `vagrant up`

# List
vagrant snapshot list
==> default: 
11_b4-upgradeVbox-stopped
12_Dec01_stopped

# Save
                        <nameOfvm> <snapshot-name> 
vagrant snapshot save    default    13_Dec30_external-eks_stopped

# Restore
vagrant snapshot restore default    13_Dec30_external-eks_stopped

Lookup path precedence for Vagrant project file

When you run any vagrant command, Vagrant climbs your directory tree starting first in the current directory you are in. Example:

/home/peter/projects/la/Vagrant
/home/peter/projects/Vagrant
/home/peter/Vagrant
/home/Vagrant
/Vagrant

Configuration

Networking

Private network is network that is not accessible from Internet. Networking stanza is a part of the main |config| loop.

DHCP IP address assigned

config.vm.network "private_network", type: "dhcp"

Static IP assigment

config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.80.5"
auto_config: false     #optional to disable auto-configure

Public network These networks can be accessible from outside of the host machine including Internet, are usually Bridged Networks.

Examples of dhcp and static IP assignment

config.vm.network "public_network", type: "dhcp"
config.vm.network "public_network", ip: "192.168.80.5"

Default interface. The name need to match your system name otherwise Vagrant will prompt you to choose from available interfaces during vagrant up process.

config.vm.network "public_network", bridge: 'eth1'

Port forwarding

Vagrant can forward any host(hypervisor) TCP port to guest vm specyfing in ~/git/vargant/Vagrant file

config.vm.network :forwarded_port, guest: 80, host: 4567

Reload virtual machine vagrant reload and run from hypervisor web browser http://127.0.0.1:4567 to test it.

Sync folders

Vagrant v2 renamed Shared folders into Sync folders. This feature mounts HostOS directory into GuestOS. allowing workflow of editing files with IDE installed on a host machine but access them within GuestOS. The files sync both directions (as mount on GuestOS), Remember, taking vagrant snapshot save ubuntu-snap1 will NOT save the Sync folder content as it's just mounted directory.

When configuring, 1st argument is a path existing on a host machine. If relative then it's relative to the root-project folder (where Vagrantfile exists) and 2nd arg is a full path to the mounted dir on guest-os.

Enabling Sync folders and Symlinks

This can be done at any time, it's applied during vagrant up | reload. In general symlinks are disabled by VirtualBox as insecure.

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
#                    path on the host       mount on the guestOS
                              \             /         
     config.vm.sync_folder "git-host/", "/git", disabled: false
 end
  config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
    vb.name   = File.basename(Dir.pwd) + "_vagrant"
    ...
    vb.customize ["setextradata", :id, "VBoxInternal2/SharedFoldersEnableSymlinksCreate//git",     "1"]
#   vb.customize ["setextradata", :id, "VBoxInternal2/SharedFoldersEnableSymlinksCreate//vagrant", "1"]

    # symlinks should be active in root of vm by default
#   vb.customize ["setextradata", :id, "VBoxInternal2/SharedFoldersEnableSymlinksCreate/v-root",   "1"]
  end

Disabling

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
     config.vm.sync_folder "../data/", "/vagrant-data", disabled: true
 end

Modifying the Owner/Group

config.vm.sync_folder "../data/", "/vagrant-data", disabled: true,
    owner: "root", group: "root"

References

• synced-folders Hashicorp docs

Vagrant providers

Vagrant can work with a wide variety of backend providers, such as VMware, AWS, and more without changing Vagrantfile. It's enough to specify the provider and Vagrant will do the rest:

vagrant up --provider=vmware_fusion
vagrant up --provider=aws

Hyper-V

• Enable Hyper-V
• if you running Docker for Windows make sure is disabled as only one application can bound to Internal NAT vswitch, if you are using it
• WSL and Windows Vagrant versions must match
• the terminal you run WSL or PowerShell runs with elevated privileges

When running in WSL, make sure you have export VAGRANT_WSL_ENABLE_WINDOWS_ACCESS="1",

• you are in native Bash.exe not eg. ConEmu terminal with as it was proven not working at the time. You can change default provider by export VAGRANT_DEFAULT_PROVIDER=hyperv

Optional: Set the user-level environment variable in PowerShell:

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("VAGRANT_DEFAULT_PROVIDER", "hyperv", "User")

Workarounds

Copy insecure private key from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hashicorp/vagrant/master/keys/vagrant to WSL ~/.vagr ant_key/private_key because Microsoft filesystem does not support Unix style file permissions, until WSL2 is released.

$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hashicorp/vagrant/master/keys/vagrant -O ~/.vagrant_key/private_key
# then set in Vagrantfile
config.ssh.private_key_path = "~/.vagrant_key/private_key"

When running on HyperV you need to choose a vswitch you will use. Vagrant will prompt you, select "Default Switch", w hich is eqvivalent of NAT Network. You need to creat your own vswitch if you want access to Internet.

Go to Hyper-V Manager, open Virtual Switch Manager..., create External switch, name: vagrant-external, press OK. Then

run.

vagrant up --provider hyperv

    default: Please choose a switch to attach to your Hyper-V instance.
    default: If none of these are appropriate, please open the Hyper-V manager
    default: to create a new virtual switch.
    default:
    default: 1) DockerNAT
    default: 2) Default Switch
    default: 3) vagrant-external
    default:
    default: What switch would you like to use?3    #<-- select 3

Read more https://www.vagrantup.com/docs/hyperv/limitations.html

Run Vagrant file

vagrant up --provider=hyperv

References

• Create vSwitch in Hyper-V to run Vagrant
• Copying Files into a Hyper-V VM with Vagrant
• Vagrant and Hyper-V -- Tips and Tricks techcommunity.microsoft.com

Provisioners

Shell provisioner

Vagrant can run from shared location script or from inline: Vagrant file shell provisioning commands.

Create provisioning script

vi ~/git/vagrant/bootstrap.sh     
#!/usr/bin/env bash
export http_proxy=<nowiki>http://username:password@proxyserver.local:8080</nowiki>
export https_proxy=$http_proxy 
apt-get update
apt-get install -y apache2
if ! [ -L /var/www ]; then 
  rm -rf /var/www
  ln -sf /vagrant /var/www  # sets Vagrant shared dir to Apache DocumentRoot
fi

Configure Vagrant to run this shell script above when setting up our machine

vi ~/git/vagrant/Vagrantfile   
Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
   config.vm.box = ubuntu/14.04-i386
   config.vm.provision: shell, path: "bootstrap.sh"
end

Another example of using shell provisioner, separating a script out

$script = <<SCRIPT
echo    " touch /home/vagrant/test_\\`date +%s\\`.txt " > /home/vagrant/newfile
chmod +x        /home/vagrant/newfile
echo "* * * * * /home/vagrant/newfile" > mycron
crontab mycron
SCRIPT

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu/xenial64"
  config.vm.provision "shell", inline: $script , privileged: false
end

Bring the environment up

vagrant up                   #runs provisioning only once
vagrant reload --provision   #reloads VM skipping import and runs provisioning
vagrant ssh                  #ssh to VM
wget -qO- 127.0.0.1          #test Apache is running on VM

Provisioners - shell, ansible, ansible_local and more

This section is about using Ansible with Vagrant,

*ansible, where Ansible is executed on the Vagrant host
*ansible_local, where Ansible is executed on the Vagrant guest

Ansible provisioner

Specify Ansible as a provisioner in Vagrant file

# Run Ansible from the Vagrant Host
 config.vm.provision "ansible" do |ansible|
    ansible.playbook = "playbook.yml"
 end

Chef_solo provisioner

Create recipe, the following dirctory structure is required, eg. recipe name is: vagrant_la

├── cookbooks
│   └── vagrant_la
│       └── recipes
│           └── default.rb
Vagrant

Recipe

vi cookbooks/vagrant_la/recipes/default.rb
execute "apt-get update"
package "apache2"
execute "rm -rf /var/www"
link "var/www" do
        to "/vagrant"
end

In Vagrant file add following

config.vm.provision "chef_solo" do |chef|
        chef.add_recipe "vagrant_la"
end

Run vagrant up

Puppet manifest

Create Vagrant provisioning stanza

config.vm.define "web" do |web|
         web.vm.hostname = "web"
         web.vm.box = "apache"
         web.vm.network "private_network", type: "dhcp"
         web.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 80, host: 8080
         web.vm.provision "puppet" do |puppet|
                 puppet.manifests_path = "manifests"
                 puppet.manifest_file = "default.pp"
         end
 end

Create a required folder structure for puppet manifests

├── manifests
│   └── default.pp
└── Vagrantfile

Puppet manifest file

vi manifests/default.pp
exec { "apt-get update":
       command => "/usr/bin/apt-get update",
}
package { "apache2":
       require => Exec["apt-get update"],
}
file { "/var/www":
       ensure => link,
       target => "/vagrant",
       force => true,
}

Box images advanced

vagrant box list   #list all downloaded boxes

Default path of boxes image, it can be specified by environment variable VAGRANT_HOME

C:\Users\%username%\.vagrant.d\boxes  #Windows
~/.vagrant.d/boxes                    #Linux

Change default path via environment variable

export VAGRANT_HOME=my/new/path/goes/here/

Box format

When you un-tar the .box file it contains 4 files:

|--Vagrantfile
|--box-disk1.vmdk  #compressed virtual disk
|--box.ovf         #description of virtual hardware
|--metadata.json

Create box from current project (package box)

This allows to create a reusable box that contains all changes to the software we made

$ vagrant package web
==> web: Attempting graceful shutdown of VM...
==> web: Clearing any previously set forwarded ports...
==> web: Exporting VM...
==> web: Compressing package to: /home/piotr/vagrant/package.box
$ vagrant box add web package.box
==> box: Box file was not detected as metadata. Adding it directly...
==> box: Adding box 'web' (v0) for provider: 
   box: Unpacking necessary files from: file:///home/piotr/vagrant/package.box

After this process you will find the box in ~/.vagrant.d/boxes location and you can also list them using vagrant box list.

Enable Vagrant to use proxy server for VMs

Install proxyconf plugin or use vagrant plugin list to verify if installed

vagrant plugin install vagrant-proxyconf

Configure your Vagrantfile, here particularly host 10.0.0.1:3128 runs CNTLM proxy

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config| 
    config.proxy.http = "http://10.0.0.1:3128"
    config.proxy.https = "http://10.0.0.1:3128"
    config.proxy.no_proxy = "localhost,127.0.0.1"

Virtualbox Guest Additions

Sync using vagrant-vbguest plugin

Install plugin

vagrant gem install vagrant-vbguest    #for vagrant < 1.1.5
vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest #for vagrant 1.1.5+

#Verify current version, running on a host(hypervisor)
vagrant vbguest --status

#Add to your Vagrant file (Vagrant 1.1.5+)
if Vagrant.has_plugin?("vagrant-vbguest")
  host.vbguest.auto_update = true
  host.vbguest.no_remote   = true
end

Then install the correct version matching your host installation

vagrant vbguest --do install 

#Full command options
vagrant vbguest [vm-name] [--do start|rebuild|install] [--status] [-f|--force] \
                 [-b|--auto-reboot] [-R|--no-remote] [--iso VBoxGuestAdditions.iso] [--no-cleanup]

More you will find at vagrant-vbguest plugin project.

Manual upgrade

Find out what version you are running, execute on a guest VM

vagrant@ubuntu:~$ modinfo vboxguest | grep ^version
version:        6.0.10 r132072

vagrant@ubuntu:~$ lsmod | grep -io vboxguest | xargs modinfo | grep -iw version
version:        6.0.10 r132072

vagrant@u18cli-3:~$ sudo /usr/sbin/VBoxService --version
6.0.10r132072

Download the extension, you can explore here

wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.0.32/VBoxGuestAdditions_5.0.32.iso
#you need to get it mounted or extracted the content and run inside the VM.

References

• Upgrade Vbox extension additions within Vagrant box

List all Virtualbox SSH redirections

vboxmanage list vms | cut -d ' ' -f 2  > /tmp/vms.out && for vm in $(cat /tmp/vms.out); do vboxmanage showvminfo "$vm" | grep ssh; done
vboxmanage list vms | cut -d ' ' -f 1 | sed 's/"//g' > /tmp/vms.out && for vm in $(cat /tmp/vms.out); do echo $vm; vboxmanage showvminfo "$vm" | grep ssh; done
vboxmanage list vms \
  | cut -d ' ' -f 1 \
  | sed 's/"//g' > /tmp/vms.out \
  && for vm in $(cat /tmp/vms.out); do vboxmanage showvminfo "$vm" \
                                      | grep ssh \
                                      | tr --delete '\n'; echo " $vm"; done

sed 's/"//g'      #removes double quotes from whole string
tr --delete '\n'  #deletes EOL, so the next command output is appended to the previous line

HAProxy cluster, multi-node Vagrant config

git clone https://github.com/jweissig/episode-45

This creates Ansible mgmt server, Load Balancer and Web nodes [1..2]. HAProxy will be configured via Ansible code.

# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
 # create mgmt node
 config.vm.define :mgmt do |mgmt_config|
     mgmt_config.vm.box = "ubuntu/trusty64"
     mgmt_config.vm.hostname = "mgmt"
     mgmt_config.vm.network :private_network, ip: "10.0.15.10"
     mgmt_config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
       vb.memory = "256"
     end
     mgmt_config.vm.provision :shell, path: "bootstrap-mgmt.sh"
 end

 # create load balancer
 config.vm.define :lb do |lb_config|
     lb_config.vm.box = "ubuntu/trusty64"
     lb_config.vm.hostname = "lb"
     lb_config.vm.network :private_network, ip: "10.0.15.11"
     lb_config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 80, host: 8080
     lb_config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
       vb.memory = "256"
     end
 end

 # create some web servers
 # https://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/vagrantfile/tips.html
  (1..2).each do |i|
    config.vm.define "web#{i}" do |node|
        node.vm.box = "ubuntu/trusty64"
        node.vm.hostname = "web#{i}"
        node.vm.network :private_network, ip: "10.0.15.2#{i}"
        node.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 80, host: "808#{i}"
        node.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
          vb.memory = "256"
        end
    end
  end
end

Boot strap script bootstrap-mgmt.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash 
# install ansible (http://docs.ansible.com/intro_installation.html)
apt-get -y install software-properties-common
apt-add-repository -y ppa:ansible/ansible
apt-get update
apt-get -y install ansible

# copy examples into /home/vagrant (from inside the mgmt node)
cp -a /vagrant/examples/* /home/vagrant
chown -R vagrant:vagrant /home/vagrant

# configure hosts file for our internal network defined by Vagrantfile
cat >> /etc/hosts <<EOL
# vagrant environment nodes
10.0.15.10  mgmt
10.0.15.11  lb
10.0.15.21  web1
10.0.15.22  web2
10.0.15.23  web3
10.0.15.24  web4
10.0.15.25  web5
10.0.15.26  web6
10.0.15.27  web7
10.0.15.28  web8
10.0.15.29  web9
EOL

Gitbash path - /c/Program\ Files/Oracle/VirtualBox/VBoxManage.exe

Set bootstrap script for Proxy or No-proxy specific system

Vagrant status
Vagrant up
Vagrant ssh mgmt
ansible all --list-hosts
ssh-keyscan web1 web2 lb > ~/.ssh/known_hosts
ansible-playbook ssh-addkey.yml -u vagrant --ask-pass
ansible-playbook site.yml

Once set it up you can navigate on your laptop to:

http://localhost:8080/              #Website test
http://localhost:8080/haproxy?stats #HAProxy stats

Use to verify end server

curl -I http://localhost:8080

Generate web traffic

vagrant ssh lb
sudo apt-get install apache2-utils
ansible localhost -m apt -a "pkg=apache2-utils state=present" --become
ab -n 1000 -c 1 http://10.0.2.15:80/

Enable mDNS discovery

By default, mDNS only and exclusively resolves host names ending with the .local top-level domain (TLD). This can cause problems if that domain includes hosts which do not implement mDNS but which can be found via a conventional unicast DNS server. Resolving such conflicts requires network-configuration changes that violate the zero-configuration goal. Install avahi system on all machines to facilitate service discovery on a local network via the mDNS/DNS-SD protocol suite.

config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL
  apt-get install -y avahi-daemon libnss-mdns
SHELL

References

• nss-mdns system which allows hostname lookup of *.local hostnames via mDNS in all system programs using nsswitch
• avahi.org

Use host system DNS server resolver

config.vm.provider :virtualbox do |vb|
    vb.customize ["modifyvm", :id, "--natdnshostresolver1", "on"]
end

Ubuntu with GUI

This article is going to describe to setup Vagrant Virtualbox VM with GUI, setting up xserver with xfce4 as desktop environment.

Locales

This is not working

locale-gen en_GB.utf8 #en_GB.UTF-8
     update-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
     locale-gen --purge "en_GB.UTF-8"
     dpkg-reconfigure --frontend=noninteractive locales
     dpkg-reconfigure --frontend=noninteractive keyboard-configuration
     localedef -i en_GB -c -f UTF-8 en_GB.utf8
     sudo update-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
     locale-gen --purge "en_GB.UTF-8"

Troubleshooting

locale -a #shows which locales are available on your system
sudo less /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED
cat /etc/default/locale

#Set system wide locales (does not work for users)
localectl set-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
localectl set-keymap gb
localectl set-x11-keymap gb

#Quick kb change
apt-get install -yq x11-xkb-utils; setxkbmap gb

Gnome3

This setup installs Ubuntu desktop and may require a restart to apply changes to like a taskbar with shortcuts.

# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box      = "ubuntu/bionic64" #bento/ubuntu-18.04, ubuntu/xenial64

  machineName = File.basename(Dir.pwd) #name as a current working dir
# machineName = 'u18gui-1'
  config.vm.hostname = machineName

  # Manually check for updates `vagrant box outdated`
  config.vm.box_check_update = false

  # Vbguest plugin
  if Vagrant.has_plugin?("vagrant-vbguest")
    config.vbguest.auto_update = false
    config.vbguest.no_remote   = true
  end

  # config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 80, host: 8080, host_ip: "127.0.0.1"
  # Public network, which generally matched to bridged network.
  # config.vm.network "public_network"

  # config.vm.synced_folder "hostDir", "/InVagrantMount/path" 
  # config.vm.synced_folder "../data", "/vagrant_data"

   config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
     vb.gui    = true
     vb.memory = "3072"
     vb.name   = machineName + "_vagrant"
   end
  
   config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL
     export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
     setxkbmap gb
     apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -yq
     apt-get install -yq ubuntu-desktop --no-install-recommends
     apt-get install -yq terminator tmux
     #only U16 xenial to fix Unity
     #apt-get install -yq unity-lens-files unity-lens-applications indicator-session --no-install-recommends 
   SHELL
end

Running up

vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest
vagrant up && vagrant vbguest --do install && vagrant reload

Xface

Get a basic Ubuntu image working, boot it up and vagrant ssh. Next, enable the VirtualBox display, which is off by default. Halt the VM and uncomment these lines in Vagrantfile:

config.vm.provider :virtualbox do |vb|
  vb.gui = true
end

Boot the VM and observe the new display window. Now you just need to install and start xfce4. Use vagrant ssh and:

sudo apt-get install -y xfce4 virtualbox-guest-dkms virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-x11
#guest additions are already installed on most of the Vagrant boxes

Don't start the GUI as root because you really want to stay the vagrant user. To do this you need to permit anyone to start the GUI:

sudo vim /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config and edit it to allowed_users=anybody
sudo startxfce4&
sudo VBoxClient-all #optional

You should be landed in a xfce4 session.

(Optional) If VBoxClient-all script isn't installed or anything is missing, you can replace with the equivalent:

sudo VBoxClient --clipboard
sudo VBoxClient --draganddrop
sudo VBoxClient --display
sudo VBoxClient --checkhostversion
sudo VBoxClient --seamless

References

• Vagrant GUI vms stackoverflow

Windows

# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "gusztavvargadr/windows-server"
  config.vm.box_check_update = false
  config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
     vb.gui = true       # Display the VirtualBox GUI when booting the machine
     vb.memory = "3072"  # Customize the amount of memory on the VM:
  end
  # Plugins
  config.vbguest.auto_update = false
  config.vbguest.no_remote = true
end

Shared location

• enable Network Sharing
• Vagrant path is mapped to \\VBOXSVR\vagrant

WIP DevOps workstation

This to contain:

• bashrc with git branch in ps1
• bash autocomplete (...samename)
• bash colored symlinks
• bash_logout and .profile to eval ssh-agent and kill on exit
• git install
• ansible 1.9.4
• java Oracle
• clone tfenv and install terraform
• vim install
• vundle install
• [done] python 2.7 OOB in 16.04
• [done]python pip: awscli, boto, boto3, etc..

Challenges:

• Ubuntu 16.04 official box does not come with a default vagrant user but instead comes with ubuntu user. This causes a number of incompatibilities.
  • Read more at launchpad vagrant xenial box is not provided with vagrant/vagrant username and password
• Solutions
  • on W10 host both users: ubuntu & vagrant exist. Only vagrant has insecure_pub installed OOB. I am coping vagrant user pub key into ubuntu user authorized_keys
  • on U16.05 host the official image does not seem to come with vagrant user but Ubuntu user works OOB
  • Read more at SO
    • [Vagrant's Ubuntu 16.04 vagrantfile default password https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41337802/vagrants-ubuntu-16-04-vagrantfile-default-password]
    • How do I add my own public key to Vagrant VM?
    • Running a Shell Script Once Only in vagrant

References

• Vagrant Start up documentation
• Vagrant Hashicorp VMs repository Virtualbox
• Vagrant Ubuntu VMs images Virtualbox
• Vagrant and Ansible provisioner Vagrant docs