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diff --git a/posts/2010-11-22-vagrant-rocks.md b/posts/2010-11-22-vagrant-rocks.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f576c1e --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/2010-11-22-vagrant-rocks.md @@ -0,0 +1,166 @@ +## tl;dr + +I've been toying with [vagrant](http://vagrantup.com/) 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: + +- [introduction](http://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/why-vagrant/) +- [google group](http://groups.google.com/group/vagrant-up) + +## 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 [Chef](http://www.opscode.com/chef) on top of [VirtualBox](http://www.virtualbox.org/) 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. + +> 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. + +## The basic + +To install vagrant, you'll need ruby and virtualbox. You have the basic instructions detailed [here](http://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/getting-started/). 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 [presque](https://github.com/franckcuny/presque). + +``` bash +mkdir presque +vagrant init +``` + +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: + +``` 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 +``` + +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: + +``` bash +mkdir cookbooks +mkdir -p cookbooks/vagrant_main/recipes +``` + +We need to add some cookbooks. You will find them on [GitHub](https://github.com/opscode/cookbooks). 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: + +``` ruby +require_recipe "ubuntu" +require_recipe "git" +require_recipe "perl" +require_recipe "redis" +require_recipe "runit" +``` + +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 [GitHub account](http://git.lumberjaph.net/chef-cookbooks.git/). 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: + +``` bash +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"} +``` + +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: + +``` ruby +config.vm.share_folder "v-code", "/deployment/code", "~/code/perl5" +config.vm.share_folder "v-data", "/deployment/data", "~/code/data" +``` + +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: + +``` 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 +``` + +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: + +``` bash +vagrant up presque +vagrant up workers +``` + +Now let's log on the worker VM + +``` bash +vagrant ssh workers +vagrant@vagrantup:~$ curl http://192.168.1.10:5000/q/foo +{"error":"no job"} +``` + +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: + +- [Why you should be using virtualisation](http://morethanseven.net/2010/11/04/Why-you-should-be-using-virtualisation.html) +- [nothingmuch setup](http://blog.woobling.org/2010/10/headless-virtualbox.html) + +(oh, and BTW, did you notice that [Dancer 1.2](http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Dancer) is out ?) |