Merge branch 'convert-to-org'

1 files changed, 218 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/posts/2010-11-22-vagrant-rocks.org b/posts/2010-11-22-vagrant-rocks.org
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..509000c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/posts/2010-11-22-vagrant-rocks.org
@@ -0,0 +1,218 @@
+** tl;dr
+
+I've been toying with [[http://vagrantup.com/][vagrant]] lately, and it
+*really rocks*. You should definitly give it a try. If you're only
+looking for some resources to get started with it, go there:
+
+-  [[http://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/why-vagrant/][introduction]]
+-  [[http://groups.google.com/group/vagrant-up][google group]]
+
+** What is Vagrant
+
+"Vagrant is a tool for building and distributing virtualized development
+environments." This sentence summarizes perfectly the project.
+
+The idea is to use [[http://www.opscode.com/chef][Chef]] on top of
+[[http://www.virtualbox.org/][VirtualBox]] to deploy a VM like you would
+deploy a server in your production environment.
+
+I won't go into the details to describe Chef and VirtualBox, but here is
+a quick reminder. Chef is a framework to deploy infrastructures. It's
+written in ruby, it uses *cookbooks* to describe how to deploy stuff,
+and VirtualBox is a virtualization software from Oracle.
+
+#+BEGIN_QUOTE
+  A little disclaimer. I don't use Chef outside from vagrant, so I may
+  say/do some stupid things. The aim of this tutorial is not about
+  writing a recipe for Chef, but to show what you can do thanks to Chef.
+  So don't hesitate to correct me in the comments if I'm doing some
+  utterly stupid things.
+#+END_QUOTE
+
+** The basic
+
+To install vagrant, you'll need ruby and virtualbox. You have the basic
+instructions detailed
+[[http://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/getting-started/][here]]. This will
+explain how to install vagrant and how to fetch a *base* image.
+
+*** Creating a first project
+
+You'll probably want to start creating a new project now. For this
+tutorial, I'll create an image for
+[[https://github.com/franckcuny/presque][presque]].
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC sh
+    % mkdir presque
+    % vagrant init
+#+END_SRC
+
+This will create a new image for your project, and create a new file in
+your directory: *Vagrantfile*. Modify this file to make it look like
+this:
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC ruby
+    Vagrant::Config.run do |config|
+      config.vm.box = "base"
+      config.vm.provisioner = :chef_solo
+      config.chef.cookbooks_path = "cookbooks"
+      config.chef.add_recipe("vagrant_main")
+      config.vm.forward_port("web", 5000, 8080)
+    end
+#+END_SRC
+
+These instructions will:
+
+-  tell vagrant to use the image named *base* (a lucid32 image by
+   default)
+-  use chef in *solo* mode
+-  the recipes will be in a directory named *cookbooks*
+-  the main recipe will be named *vagrant\_main*
+-  forward local HTTP port 4000 to 5000 on the VM
+
+*** My recipes
+
+Now we need to create or use some recipes. First we create our
+*cookbooks* directory:
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC sh
+    % mkdir cookbooks
+    % mkdir -p cookbooks/vagrant_main/recipes
+#+END_SRC
+
+We need to add some cookbooks. You will find them on
+[[https://github.com/opscode/cookbooks][GitHub]]. Copy the following
+cookbooks inside the *cookbooks* repository:
+
+-  apt: instructions on how to use apt
+-  ubuntu: this one manages the sources and executes *apt-get update*
+-  build-essential: installs the build-essential package
+-  git: installs git
+-  perl: configures CPAN
+-  runit: will be used to monitor redis and our web application
+
+Edit *vagrant\_main/recipes/default.rb* to add them:
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC ruby
+    require_recipe "ubuntu"
+    require_recipe "git"
+    require_recipe "perl"
+    require_recipe "redis"
+    require_recipe "runit"
+#+END_SRC
+
+If the VM is already started, you can run =vagrant provision= or
+=vagrant up=. This will deploy the previous cookbooks on the VM. When
+it's done, you can log on the VM with =vagrant ssh=.
+
+You'll need to additional recipes: one for redis; one for presque.
+You'll find them on my
+[[http://git.lumberjaph.net/chef-cookbooks.git/][GitHub account]]. Copy
+the two recipes inside your cookbook directory, and execute
+=vagrant provision= to install them.
+
+If everything works fine, you should be able to start using presque.
+Test this:
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC sh
+    % curl http://localhost:8080/q/foo/
+    {"error":"no job"}
+
+    % curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"foo":"bar"}' http://localhost:8080/q/foo/
+
+    % curl http://localhost:8080/q/foo/
+    {"foo":"bar"}
+#+END_SRC
+
+If everything is fine, you can shut down the VM with =vagrant halt=.
+
+*** Mounting directories
+
+Instead of pulling from github, you may prefer to mount a local
+directory on the VM. For this, you'll need to modifiy the *Vagrantfile*
+to add this:
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC sh
+    config.vm.share_folder "v-code", "/deployment/code", "~/code/perl5"
+    config.vm.share_folder "v-data", "/deployment/data", "~/code/data"
+#+END_SRC
+
+This will mount your local directories *perl5* and *data* under
+*/deployment/{code,data}* on the VM. So now you can edit your files
+locally and they will be automagically updated on the VM at once.
+
+** and now the awesome part
+
+If you're like me, you may end up with the need to have multiple VMs
+which will talk to each other. Common scenarios are a VM with the
+website, and another one with the DB, or one VM with a bunch of API
+webservices and another with Workers who need to interact with the VM.
+Rejoice, this kind of stuff is also handled by vagrant!
+
+Replace the content of the previous *Vagrantfile* with this:
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC ruby
+    Vagrant::Config.run do |config|
+      config.vm.box = "base"
+      config.vm.provisioner = :chef_solo
+
+      config.chef.cookbooks_path = "cookbooks"
+
+      config.vm.define :presque do |presque_config|
+        presque_config.chef.add_recipe("vagrant_presque")
+        presque_config.vm.network("192.168.1.10")
+        presque_config.vm.forward_port("presque", 80, 8080)
+        presque_config.vm.customize do |vm|
+          vm.name = "vm_presque"
+        end
+      end
+
+      config.vm.define :workers do |workers_config|
+        workers_config.chef.add_recipe("vagrant_workers")
+        workers_config.vm.network("192.168.1.11")
+        workers_config.vm.customize do |vm|
+          vm.name = "vm_workers"
+        end
+      end
+    end
+#+END_SRC
+
+In this configuration, we're creating two VMs, *presque* and *workers*.
+You'll need to create two new cookbooks, one for each new VM
+(vagrant\_presque, with the same content as vagrant\_main, and
+vagrant\_workers, with only the recipe for ubuntu and the instructions
+to install curl). Once it's done, boot the two VMs:
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC sh
+    % vagrant up presque
+    % vagrant up workers
+#+END_SRC
+
+Now let's log on the worker VM
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC sh
+    % vagrant ssh workers
+    vagrant@vagrantup:~$ curl http://192.168.1.10:5000/q/foo
+    {"error":"no job"}
+#+END_SRC
+
+and voilà.
+
+** Conclusion
+
+I've started to use vagrant for all my new personal projects and for
+most of my stuff at work. I really enjoy using this, as it's easy to
+create a cookbook or add one, it's easy to setup a multi VM environment,
+you can share a configuration amongst your coworkers, etc.
+
+If you haven't started yet using a VM for your own projects, you really
+should give it a try, or use a simple VirtualBox setup. If you want to
+read more on the subject, these two blog posts may be relevant:
+
+-  [[http://morethanseven.net/2010/11/04/Why-you-should-be-using-virtualisation.html][Why
+   you should be using virtualisation]]
+-  [[http://blog.woobling.org/2010/10/headless-virtualbox.html][nothingmuch
+   setup]]
+
+(oh, and BTW, did you notice that
+[[http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Dancer][Dancer 1.2]] is out ?)