CSC/ECE 517 Spring 2015/ch1a 1 DZ
Vagrant
Vagrant is a computer software that helps create, configure and manage virtual development or work environments. With its great portability and compatibility, team members can share a common development environment. Therefore minimize the cost of time for deployment and maximize the productivity and flexibility.
Background
Vagrant works with mainstream virtualization softwares like VirtualBox, VMware and AWS or any other provider. Virtualization machine, which is created by virtualization software, is an emulation of a real computer that provides a complete operating system. In other words, a virtual machine(VM) is a computer with a complete set of hardwares and operating system which runs in your own operating system. In that way, for example, one using Windows operating system can easily install Linux operating system in the VM rather than actually installing it on local machine. Therefore, any changes or modifications in the VM will not propagate to the operating system on which it runs.
Vagrant Box
Boxes are the package format for Vagrant environments. In other words, a box is a packed operating system which is used by Vagrant. vagrant box is the utility that downloads and manages different types of boxes.
vagrant box add {title} {url} can be executed under either Windows and Unix operating system to add a new box to Vagrant. title is a identifier and can be any text, and url is the network location of the box.
For example:
vagrant box add base hashicorp/precise64 downloads a standard Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit box from Vagrant Cloud.
vagrant box add base https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29173892/vagrant-boxes/debian7.3.0-vbox4.3.6-puppet3.4.1.box downloads a Debian 7.3.0 64-bit Puppet 3.4.1 box which is shared by personal user.
Vagrantfile
Vagrantfile is a configuration file which exists in every single vagrant folder
How it works
Set up
Step 1: Install a mainstream VM software. (e.g. VirtualBox Download Page) Step 2: Download Vagrant
Configure
Step 1: