Cooking up a Virtual Development Environment

In this technical tutorial we will cover the use Vagrant & Chef to script and automate the setup of a Virtual development environment tailored to PHP.

We will begin by investigating the problems associated with differing environments within a development team when working with PHP and LAMP stacks, explaining how differing software stacks can lead to unexpected defects. Most notably introducing risk to our projects during deployment based on environment differences.

Based on example lead steps, delegates will build a virtual environment using a scripted Chef recipe. Over the course of the tutorial delegates will build a local virtual server with a full LAMP stack and their preferred development tools such as PHPUnit, PHPCode_Sniffer and PHPSpec. They will create a shared file system between the virtual server and their laptop to allow them to continue to use their editor of choice.

By the end of the tutorial delegates will have created a fully automated process for creating a repeatable and distributable virtual environment. They will then be able to apply these practices within their own development teams to streamline the creation of a unified environment for their software projects.

Transcript

1. COOKING UP A Virtual Development Environment @alistairstead Vagrant + VirtualBox + Chef
2. @alistairstead Technical Assurance Manager @inviqa astead@inviqa.com Me!
3. •1 x 20 minute break for coffee •Email during this breaks •Silence your mobile •Value everybody’s opinion •Parking lot for ideas as we go Local rules...
4. Questions? before we start...
5. Why do we need or use virtualisation? Question:
6. Answers: • Software requirements • Reproducible environment • Portable environment • Testing environment • Maximize productivity • Maximize flexibility
7. What problems does virtualisation help avoid? Question:
8. Answers: • Skill requirement • Additional software requirements • Increased basic hardware requirements • Additional licensing
9. What virtualisation solutions have you used? Question:
10. Answers:
11. Questions? moving on...
12. Repeatable State! Repeatable State Repeatable State Repeatable State Repeatable State Repeatable State Repeatable State Repeatable State Repeatable State Repeatable State Repeatable State Repeatable State
13. Vagrant + VirtualBox
14. Vagrant Vagrant is a tool for building and distributing virtualised development environments • Ruby gem • Provides simple interface for VirtualBox • Interacts with VirtualBox API • Extendable through a plug-in interface
15. Features • Automated creation of VMs • Automated provisioning of VMs • Scripted configuration of VM properties • Simple interface to manage virtual environment • Reduce setup to a single command • Scripted configuration of shared file system • Scripted configuration of network
16. Chef Scripted Infrastructure
17. Questions? moving on...
18. Exercise 1 Download and install VirtualBox https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads Install the vagrant gem $ sudo gem install vagrant
19. help: Usage: vagrant [-v] [-h] command [<args>] -v, --version Print the version and exit. -h, --help Print this help. Available subcommands: basebox box destroy gem halt init package provision reload resume ssh ssh-config status suspend up For help on any individual command run `vagrant COMMAND -h`
20. Base Boxes • Simple VM Images • Distribution and Architecture specific • Setup with a minimal set of packages • Include a common SSH key for access • Include VirtualBox tools
21. Box Sub Commands: •$ vagrant box add •$ vagrant box list •$ vagrant box remove •$ vagrant box repackage
22. Add base box: $ vagrant box add <name> <location> Parameters • Name: Local name referenced in configuration • Location: • Local file system • Remote location accessible via HTTP
23. Exercise 2 Add a new base box for Ubuntu 11.10 to your local system from: http://vagrantbox.es/ Name the box Ubuntu-11.10 List the locally available base boxes.
24. Questions? moving on...
25. Exercise 3 Create your first Vagrant project $ mkdir vagrant-tutorial $ cd vagrant-tutorial Initialize Vagrant $ vagrant init Ubuntu-11.10
26. Configuration • Ruby DSL • Host environment conditions • Executed Ruby code • Extensible
27. Vagrantfile • VM(s) Configuration • Shared File System • Provisioning
28. Exercise 4 Update your VagrantFile to set the name of the VM, assign a static IP address and assign 1G of RAM. Once you have updated the configuration run: $ vagrant up
29. Questions? moving on...
30. Coffee or Tea time for a break...
31. Commands: •$ vagrant up •$ vagrant status •$ vagrant suspend •$ vagrant resume •$ vagrant halt •$ vagrant reload •$ vagrant destroy
32. Access: Key based authentication $ vagrant ssh Password based access $ ssh vagrant@localhost $ ssh vagrant@192.168.33.10 Password : vagrant
33. Exercise 5 After creating your VM pause it and start it again ssh into the VM and install a package such as apache $ sudo apt-get install apache2 Then destroy the VM before recreating it again. Once recreated can you use apache?
34. Questions? moving on...
35. Files: • Multiple shared locations • Support for NFS (Dependent upon Host*) • Use your preferred editor • No need to synchronise files
36. Exercise 6 Update your VagrantFile to include a shared folder and then reload your VM to apply the changes. config.vm.share_folder("Sites", "/mnt/Sites", "#{ENV['HOME']}/ Sites")
37. NFS VirtualBox Shared Folders: 5m 14s Host File System: 10s Native VM File System: 13s NFS Shared Folders: 22s NFS Shared Folders (warm cache): 14s
38. Hosts Not all host OS are made equal. Windows does not support NFS for example!
39. Exercise 7 Update your VagrantFile to use NFS mounted file system if you host machine is not running Windows. require 'ffi' config.vm.share_folder( "Sites", "/mnt/Sites", "#{ENV['HOME']}/Sites", :nfs => (FFI::Platform::IS_WINDOWS ? false: true) )
40. Questions? moving on...
41. Provisioning • Scripted installation of packages • Scripted updates to configuration • Scripted starting of services
42. Provisioning • Shell • Puppet http://puppetlabs.com/ • Puppet Solo • Puppet Server • Chef http://www.opscode.com/chef/ • Chef Solo • Chef Server
43. Why would we choose a specific provisioning solution? Question:
44. Answers: • External dependency • Familiarity • Compatibility • Simplicity • Ease of learning • Extensibility • Personal preference • Cost
45. Add recipes: Chef cookbooks include recipes. Each recipe installs or updates a software package and applies the defined configuration chef.add_recipe("apt") chef.add_recipe("mysql") chef.add_recipe("apache2") chef.add_recipe("php") chef.add_recipe("project")
46. Exercise 8 Configure the paths for chef-solo provisioning of your VM. Assign a recipe to your runlist. Run the provisioning command for your VM to execute the runlist.
47. Configuration Each software package can be configured with sensible defaults then the defaults overridden within the VagrantFile chef.json = { :mysql_password => "foo" }
48. Exercise 9 Update the mysql server root password by overriding it within the VagrantFile. This will not take effect until you re-build the virtual machine
49. Questions? moving on...
50. Multiple VMs • Individual configuration per VM • Still contained in a single VagrantFile • Vagrant commands become VM specific
51. Multi Config: config.vm.define :web do |web_config| /..... web_config.vm.network :hostonly, "192.168.33.10" end config.vm.define :db do |db_config| /...... db_config.vm.network :hostonly, "192.168.33.11" end
52. Exercise 10 Split the configuration into two VMs and configure one as a Web Server and the second as a Database Server. Remember to update the IP assignment and select the correct recipes for the machine.
53. Questions? Thank you! @alistairstead
54. http://bit.ly/Mg1sIf All references and slides
55. Come Join us... http://inviqa.com/careers