Vagrant.json

Vagrantfile can get pretty messy with bigger projects. Vagrant.json simplifies VM configuration/setup for individuals and team projects.

Requirements

• VirtualBox or AWS account or DigitalOcean account.
• Latest version Vagrant.

Installation

git clone git://github.com/ptahdunbar/Vagrant.json.git new-project && cd new-project
vagrant up

Getting started

• Customize Vagrant.json with your VM settings (see the example files for ideas).
• vagrant up

What is Vagrant.json?

Vagrant.json provides a json key/value structure to configure your boxes without having to mess with Vagrantfile.

Vagrantfile configuration

• Settings should be self-explanatory and should mirror the official vagrant API.
• This is an example Vagrant.json file with all available settings.
• Please note that you probably don't need all these configured. This is just an example to copy/paste from.

[{
	"hostname": "vagrant.dev",
	"box": "ubuntu/trusty64",
	"scripts": [
		"ops/provisioning/base.sh"
	],
	"github_ssh_keys": [
		"github-username",
		"another-user"
	],
	"forwarded_ports": [
		{ "host": "3000", "guest": "3000" },
		{ "host": "8000", "guest": "80" }
	],
	"synced_folders": [
		{
            "host" : ".",
            "guest" : "/srv",
            "group": "www-data",
            "mount_options": [
                "dmode=775",
                "fmode=667"
            ]
        }
	],
	"settings": [
		"ssh_username": "root",
		"ssh_host": "10.10.10.100",
		"ssh_port": 22,
		"private_key_path": "~/.ssh/id_rsa",
		"insert_key": true,
		"disable_default_synced_folder": false,
		"cpus": 1,
		"memory": 512,
		"gui": false
	],
	"aws": {
		"access_key_id" : "xxxxxxxxxxxx",
		"secret_access_key" : "xxxxxxxxxxxx",
		"keypair_name" : "xxxxxxxxxxxx",
		"subnet_id" : "xxxxxxxx",
		"private_key_path" : "~/.ssh/id_rsa",
		"username" : "ubuntu",
		"security_groups" : [ "default" ],
		"ami" : "ami-9a562df2",
		"region" : "us-east-1",
		"instance_type" : "m3.medium",
		"elastic_ip" : false
	},
	"digital_ocean": {
		"token": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
		"private_key_path": "~/.ssh/id_rsa",
		"username": "root",
		"image": "ubuntu-14-04-x64",
		"region": "nyc2",
		"size": "512mb",
		"ipv6": false,
		"private_networking": false,
		"backups_enabled": false,
		"setup": true
	}
}]

See Vagrantfile for all configuration settings.

Example Vagrant.json file for AWS

Create a new EC2 instance on the AWS platform.

vagrant up --provider=aws

Required definitions:

• username
• keypair_name
• private_key_path

Example definition

[
    {
        "hostname": "vagrant",
        "aws": {
            "access_key_id": "xxxxxxxxxx",
            "secret_access_key": "xxxxxxxxxx",
            "username": "ubuntu",
            "keypair_name": "my-aws-keypair",
            "private_key_path": "~/.ssh/my-aws-keypair.pem"
        }
    }
]

Recommendations

• Read up on all available configuration settings for vagrant-aws.
• Consider setting elastic_ip to true for more longer lived instances.
• Use your subnet_id to boot up smaller instances outside of your VPC.
• Consider adding your AWS credentials to your .bashrc or .zshrc file and remove it from Vagrant.json.
• Check out the AWS documentation on various instance types available.

Example Vagrant.json file for Digital Ocean

vagrant up --provider=digital_ocean

Required definitions:

• token
• private_key_path

Example definition

[
    {
        "hostname": "vagrant",
        "digital_ocean": {
            "token": "xxxxxxxxxx",
            "private_key_path": "~/.ssh/my-do-keypair.pem"
        }
    }
]

Recommendations:

• Read up on all available configuration settings for vagrant-digitalocean.

Defining multiple VMs

Here's an example Vagrant.json config for 3 VMs:

[
    {
        "hostname": "vagrant",
        "github_ssh_keys": "githubusername",
        "synced_folders": [
            {
                "host" : ".",
                "guest" : "/srv",
                "group": "www-data",
                "mount_options": [
                    "dmode=775",
                    "fmode=667"
                ]
            }
        ],
        "scripts": [
            "provision-nginx.sh",
            "provision-php.sh"
        ]
    },
    {
        "hostname": "db",
        "settings": {
            "disable_default_synced_folder": true
        },
        "forwarded_ports": [
            { "host": "3306", "guest": "3306" }
        ],
        "scripts": "provision-db.sh"
    },
    {
        "hostname": "nodeapp",
        "forwarded_ports": [
            { "host": "3000", "guest": "3000" }
        ],
        "synced_folders": [
            {
                "host" : "node-app",
                "guest" : "/var/www"
            }
        ],
        "scripts": "provision-node.sh"
    }
]

Vagrant.local.json

Optionally create a Vagrant.local.json (which is private and .gitignore) for testing/debugging or when working in a team.

Vagrant plugins

Vagrant.json To make your development workflow easier comes bundled with the following vagrant plugins:

• vagrant-cachier - Speeds up apt-get.
• vagrant-exec - Run one-liner commands into a machine from the host
• vagrant-pristine - Adds pristine command to vagrant.
• vagrant-dns - Updates your /etc/hosts file with machine IP addresses.
• vagrant-hostsupdater - Updates your /etc/hosts file with machine IP addresses.
• vagrant-awsinfo - Retrieve AWS data about your instance.
• vagrant-aws - Test/deploy to your amazon AWS account.
• vagrant-digitalocean - Test/deploy to your Digital Ocean account.
• vagrant-managed-servers - Test/deploy to any VPS server via SSH.

Troubleshooting

VPCResourceNotSpecified => The specified instance type can only be used in a VPC. A subnet ID or network interface ID is required to carry out the request.

• Navigate to https://console.aws.amazon.com/vpc/
• Click on the left navigation menu "Subnets"
• Use any of the "Subnet ID" identifiers in the table list.

No host IP was given to the Vagrant core NFS helper. This is an internal error that should be reported as a bug.

• Remove any NFS flags from your shared_folders definition in order to use AWS

Getting Help

Submit an issue and I can provide further assistance.

Yarrty yarr matey -_O

Pirate Dunbar