Change vagrant-multi-machine to use the Vai provisioner.

This one is much more capable then the official Ansible provisioner.

vagrant-multi-machine/.debops.cfg

@@ -1,5 +1 @@
-[ansible defaults]
-private_key_file = ~/.vagrant.d/insecure_private_key
-remote_user = vagrant
-host_key_checking = False
-
+#

vagrant-multi-machine/README.rst

@@ -4,10 +4,15 @@ Using Debops with a multi-machine Vagrantfile
 =====================================================
 
 This project is an example for using Debops with a multi-machine
-Vagrantfile. It uses the Vagrant Ansible provider only to generate the
-inventory-file. Provision is then actually done using `debops` as
+Vagrantfile. It uses the Vagrant provisioner plugin Vai_ to generate
+the inventory-file. Provision is then actually done using `debops` as
 usual.
 
+The Vagrant Ansible provisioner is not used at all, because Vai does a
+much better job for our needs. (A former version of this example used
+the Vagrant Ansible provisioner, but have been much more complicated, see
+below.)
+
 
 Requirements
 ==============
@@ -20,37 +25,40 @@ Requirements
 Quick Start
 ===========
 
+* Install the Vagrant provisioning plugin Vai_::
+
+    vagrant plugin install vai
+
 * Fire up Vagrant: ``vagrant up``
 
-  This will create two virtual machine `web` and `db` and run a dummy
-  playbook on it. This playbook will do nothing, but is required to
-  make Vagrant generate the inventory file.
+  This will create two virtual machine `web` and `db` and generate the
+  inventory file in ``ansible/inventory``.
 
-  In addition, the Vagrantfile creates a symlink from the
-  auto-generated inventory-file by Vagrant to your
-  ``ansible/inventory``.
+* Run::
 
-* Run ``debops ./simpletest.yml``
+    ANSIBLE_SSH_ARGS="-o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null" debops ./simpletest.yml
 
   This will run a simple playbook testing if files have been found and
   variables have been set up as correctly as expected. You should get
   "okay" for all tasks.
 
-Now you can use debops as usual. It will automatically include the
-host definitions auto-generated by vagrant. If for some reason debops
-resp. Ansible does not find the inventory, you may safely run ``vagrant
-provision`` to regenerate it.
+  Please note: Using this ``ANSIBLE_SSH_ARGS=...`` is optional. But it
+  avoids cluttering your known_hosts with keys of your ever-changing
+  vagrant VMs. *Absolutely do not use this for your production servers!*
+
+Now you can use debops as usual (mind ``ANSIBLE_SSH_ARGS=...`` :-). It
+will automatically include the host definitions auto-generated by
+vagrant. If for some reason debops resp. Ansible does not find the
+inventory, you may safely run ``vagrant provision`` to regenerate it.
 
 
 How it works
 ==============
 
-In addtion to the symlink to the generated inventory file, this
-example makes use of both :file:`.debops.cfg` and the
-``ansible_config_hook``. The former will define the hook and the hook
-will add some requried configuration to ``ansible.cfg``. Required
-options are the ssh-user, the ssh-key-file and (optionally) swicthing
-of ssh host-key-checking.
+The `Vai` provisioner generates a inventory file which is setting up
+host, port, private key file and the remote user as required by
+Vagrant. Ansible resp. debops will read the information an know how to
+connect to the Vagrant VM.
 
 
 
@@ -64,8 +72,12 @@ In short:
 
 * Set up your host- and group-vars in ``ansible/inventory`` as usual.
 
-* Define your groups in ``ansible/inventory/groups`` (the actual name
-  of the file does not matter).
+* Define your groups in the Vagrantfile and/or in an inventory-file
+  (e.g. ``ansible/inventory/groups``, the actual name of the file does
+  not matter).
+
+  In this example we do both: ``secondGroup`` is defined using the
+  `Vagrantfile` and ``firstGroup`` is defined in an inventory-file.
 
 * Add more machines to the ``Vagrantfile`` as you need.
 
@@ -74,8 +86,27 @@ In short:
 
 
 
-Reasoning for using this way
-===============================
+Why using `Vai` instead of the `Ansible` provisioner
+=====================================================
+
+A former version of this example used the official Vagrant Ansible
+provisioner. But this has be much more complicated, inflexible and
+insecure.
+
+The Vagrant Ansible provider was only used to generate the
+inventory-file. But this inventory-file did not contain all required
+information, so the remote user and the private key file have had been
+defined in :file:`.debops.cfg`.
+
+Additionally the Vagrant file was required to contain code for
+creating a dummy playbook (which the Ansible provisioner requires) and
+sym-linking the inventory-file into the inventory.
+
+So as `Vai` came up, we decided to switch to it.
+
+
+Reasoning for why we formerly did it that way
+----------------------------------------------
 
 We tried a lot off different setups, but the only one working
 reasonable is to *not* provision from within the Vagrantfile, but use
@@ -140,6 +171,9 @@ Please note that when using a hand-crafted inventory. you will have to
 take care of the actual configuration of the machines changing. E.g.
 IP-ports may change if other machines are running, too.
 
+
+.. _Vai: https://github.com/MatthewMi11er/vai
+
 ..
  Local Variables:
  mode: rst

vagrant-multi-machine/Vagrantfile

@@ -23,28 +23,7 @@ HOSTS = {
    "db" => [NETWORK+"11", RAM, GUI, BOX],
 }
 
-ANSIBLE_INVENTORY = 'ansible/inventory'
-
-# ---- Custom commands run on the main host ----
-
-# Create a dummy playbook to both get the auto-generated inventory and
-# keep `ansible-playbook` happy.
-ANSIBLE_DUMMY_PLAYBOOK  = ".vagrant/provisioners/ansible/dummy.yml"
-require 'pathname'
-pb = Pathname.new(ANSIBLE_DUMMY_PLAYBOOK)
-pb.parent.mkpath()
-pb.open('w') do |f1|
-  f1.puts '---'
-  f1.puts '- hosts: "!all"'
-end
-
-# Symlink auto-generated inventory-file to inventory
-aiv = Pathname.new(ANSIBLE_INVENTORY)
-viv = Pathname.new('.vagrant/provisioners/ansible/inventory')
-aiv.mkpath()
-name = 'vagrant_ansible_inventory'
-target = aiv+name
-target.make_symlink((viv+name).relative_path_from(aiv)) unless target.symlink?()
+ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_DIR = 'ansible/inventory'
 
 # ---- Vagrant configuration ----
 
@@ -66,10 +45,13 @@ Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|
     end
   end # HOSTS-each
 
-  config.vm.provision "ansible" do |ansible|
-    ansible.host_key_checking = "false"
-    ansible.playbook = ANSIBLE_DUMMY_PLAYBOOK
-    ansible.raw_arguments = ['--syntax-check']
+  config.vm.provision "vai" do |ansible|
+    ansible.inventory_dir=ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_DIR
+    # optional: add a group listing all vagrant machines
+    ansible.groups = {
+      'secondGroup' => [ "db" ],
+    #  '_provided_by_vagrant_'=> HOSTS.keys,
+    }
   end
 
 end

vagrant-multi-machine/ansible/inventory/groups

@@ -1,5 +1,2 @@
 [firstGroup]
 web
-
-[secondGroup]
-db