vagrant_notes.txt

* Vagrant Notes


Vagrant is a very powerful tool because of the two concepts it can manage for us:
**** Virtualization
**** Provisioning
 Provisioning is the process of setting up a virtual machine so 
 that it can be used for a specific purpose or project. Typically, this involves installing 
 software, configuring the software, managing services running on the machine, and 
 even setting up users and groups on the machine

** Installation
1. download vagrant
2. download virtualbox
3. select appropriate image, ubuntu, linux etc.
4. vagrant init -> creates a initial configuration file, update the
   file as required.
5. vagrant up -> starts the virtual server
6. other commands -> vagrant reload, vagrant suspend, vagrant destroy etc
7. enable virtualization on the machine from the bios setting, vt-x
8. to enable xwin server and desktop install lxde, other options
   being  ubuntu unity, gnome, xdfce, kde and etc. lxde is light weight.
9. some of the commands needed are:
   sudo apt-get install lxde
   sudo aptitude update
   sudo aptitude install xorg lxde
   sudo mkdir /usr/share/backgrounds 
   
***** check if you need to do following:
  In order to install the virtualbox-guest-additions in a way that causes no hiccups, we will do it via the temrinal window.
  First, make sure you have the DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support) package.
  In a terminal window type:
      Code:
       sudo apt-get install dkms
  Then, install the virtualbox-guest-additions by typing the following apt command in the terminal window:
      Code:
        sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-additions

***** check if you need this:
      $ vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest
      https://github.com/dotless-de/vagrant-vbguest
 
***** install linux vbox additions to get correct screen resolution
cd /media; cd /VBOX*; install linux additions as sudo


** Basic Commands
1. vagrant box --help
   Available subcommands:
     add
     list
     remove
     repackage
2. vagrant resume, vagrant halt, vagrant destroy, vagrant up, vagrant provision

** Provisioning
1. Shell script
2. Puppet
3. Chef

** Shell Script
config.vm.provision :shell, :inline => "apt-get update" 

** Chef

** Puppet
Puppet can be used to install software, manage cron jobs, manage
users and groups, run commands. We have modules, classes and stages
in puppet.

Resource types available include:
•  cron: To manage cronjobs on Linux and UNIX basedsystems
•  exec: To runcommands at the terminal/commandprompt
•  file: To manage andmanipulate files and folders on the filesystem
•  group: To manageuser groups
•  package: To install software
•  service: To manage running services on themachine
•  user: To manage useraccounts on the machine

config.vm.provision :puppet do |puppet|
 puppet.manifests_path = "provision/manifests"
 puppet.manifest_file = "default.pp"
 puppet.module_path = "provision/modules"
end

To use 'test' command on linux:  test -L /usr/local/bin/tmux | echo "$?"

*** Git Clone Puppet modules
1. git clone https://github.com/puppetlabs/puppetlabs-apt.git apt
2. git clone https://github.com/vagrantee/puppet-git.git  git
3. git clone https://github.com/puppetlabs/puppetlabs-stdlib.git stdlib
4. git clone https://github.com/puppetlabs/puppetlabs-ruby.git ruby

 
** Ubuntu Notes
1. PPA , personal package archive. It is a collection of software
   not included in Ubuntu by default. 
   
   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:repo-name
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install <name>
   sudo apt-get remove <name>
   
   To upgrade all the currently installed software packages on the
   system, currently installed packages are not removed or packages
   which are not already installed neithere retrieved and installed
   to satisfy upgrade dependencies.

   sudo apt-get upgrade

   If unconcerned of whether software packages will be added or
   removed to fulfill dependencies:

   sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

   To remove software packages including their configuration files,
   use 'purge' sub command
   sudo apt-get purge <name>

   Clean up disk space : sudo apt-get clean

   Download without installing
   sudo apt-get download <name>

   Check for dependencies , borken:
   sudo apt-get check

   To free up significant volume of disk space
   sudo apt-get autoclean

2. apt-cache

   The apt-cache command line tool is used for searching apt software
   package cache.It is used to search software packages, collects
   information of packages and also used to search for what available
   packages are ready for installation on Debian or Ubuntu.

   apt-cache pkgnames
   apt-cache search <name>
   apt-cache show <name>
   apt-cache stats

3. set time on linux
   . more /etc/timezone
   . sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
   . sudo service ntp stop
   . sudo ntpdate pool.ntp.org
   . sudo service ntp start

4. for tmux installation, git clone source and configure. soure-file
   ~/path to .tmux.conf to start using local tmux.conf

5. for ssh into guest machine from the host
   Execute the following command:
    vagrant ssh-config | grep IdentityFile  | awk '{print $2}'
    Then you should get something like:
     /<somepath>/<username>/.vagrant.d/insecure_private_key
    Now you can ssh into the VM by:
    ssh 127.0.0.1 -p 2222  -i /<somepath>/<username>/.vagrant.d/insecure_private_key -l vagrant

6. Displaying remote clients
    Displaying remote X clients with Cygwin/X is identical to displaying remote X clients with any other X Server.
    
    It is recommended that you use the secure method of tunnelling the X connection over ssh.
    Alternatively, you can use the host-based access control provided by
    the X server,
    connecting to the remote machine using telnet or rsh and directing
    clients to connect to the server by setting the DISPLAY environment
    variable. 
    
    
    Secure ssh
    
    On your Windows machine:
    
    Make sure you have the openssh package installed.
    
    Launch Cygwin/X
    
    Ensure the DISPLAY environment variable is set correctly.
    (This step is not neccessary if you are entering your commands into an X terminal, as DISPLAY must already be set in that case)
    $ export DISPLAY=:0.0
    Run the ssh command to connect to the remote host:
    
    $ ssh -Y username@remote_hostname_or_ip_address
    Enter your password when prompted by ssh.
    
    Your ssh session should now show you a shell prompt for your remote machine.
    
    Note: The ssh server will automatically set the DISPLAY environment
    variable appropriately, 
    typically to something like localhost:10.0, so clients will connect 
    to a proxy X11 display on the remote host from which the X11 protocol will be forwarded over ssh to your X server.
    
    If your login scripts unconditionally set DISPLAY to something else, this will break X11 forwarding.
    
    You can now launch remote X clients in your ssh session, for example:
    
    $ xterm &
    will launch an xterm running on your remote host that will display on your Cygwin/X screen.
    
    Launch other remote clients in the same manner. I recommend starting
    the remote clients in the background,
     by appending & to the command name, so that you don't have to open several ssh sessions.
    
    Note: By default, the OpenSSH server does not allow forwarded X
    connections.
    This must be configured on the remote host by adding X11Forwarding
    yes to the sshd_config configuration file.
    The OpenSSH server must be restarted or SIGHUP'ed to re-read the configuration file after it is changed.
    
    Note: The OpenSSH server requires the xauth command to be available to
    forward X connections. Consequently, it must be installed on the
    remote host.
    
    -> export DISPLAY=:0.0
    -> ssh -Y vagrant@127.0.0.1 -p 2222
    
7. to turn off bell -> xterm -vb & 

8. x-11 installation
   sudo apt-get update 
   sudo apt-get upgrade
   sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-core
   sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg
   sudo apt-get install xorg
   sudo apt-get install xorg openbox
   sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
   https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ServerGUI
   apt-get install dbus-x11
   Sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg
   Sudo apt-get remove --purge xserver-xorg
   Sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

9. copy dot-files
   ln -s /vagrant/dot-files/.tmux.conf .tmux.conf
   ln -s /vagrant/dot-files/init.el .emacs.d/init.el
   ln -s /vagrant/dot-files/.bash_profile .bash_profile

   

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