Vagrant is an open source tool to build development environments. In the previous step, you followed the first instructions on README.md to install a BeLL virtual machine on your system. You may have noticed that one of the programs listed as dependencies was Vagrant.
We use Vagrant to power up our BeLL virtual machine. While this is done automatically (behind the scenes, as it were), it is useful for you to understand how to use Vagrant, because during your internship you may have to use it manually.
Vagrant only works if you are in the correct directory, which is a directory that includes a file called Vagrantfile. In our case, the directory is ole--vagrant-vi. Here, three options are provided for you to operate Vagrant.
1. Command Prompt
Sometimes there are two kinds of Command Prompt listed in your system. One is Command Prompt, and the other is Command Prompt(Admin). As is shown below:
Basically, they are the same, the only difference is the default path. For Command Prompt(Admin), the default path is C:Windows\system32 and Command Prompt is C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME. You can use either Command Prompt or Command Prompt(Admin) to access the right directory for Vagrant.
2. Windows PowerShell
Windows PowerShell is a default shell interface installed in your machine. When you open it, the default path is C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME.
3. Git Bash
Actually, Git Bash is also a good choice. As you open Git Bash, you will find the default path of it is also C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME.
As is mentioned above, the correct directory of Vagrant is C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\ole--vagrant-vi. So as long as you are at the correct directory, you can use any of those three options to run commands related to Vagrant. Among those three options we suggest mostly using Git Bash, which is already installed with the ole--vagrant-vi script. In Git Bash, you use the same commands as those you would use in Powershell. Some basic commands of Vagrant are as shown below.
First of all, make sure you are on the path C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME. Then if you type cd ole--vagrant-vi followed by vagrant global-status, you will see a screen similar to this,
id name provider state directory
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
219abaa vi virtualbox running /Users/aberdean/ole--vagrant-vi
The above shows information about all known Vagrant environments
on this machine. This data is cached and may not be completely
up-to-date. To interact with any of the machines, you can go to
that directory and run Vagrant, or you can use the ID directly
with Vagrant commands from any directory. For example:
"vagrant destroy 1a2b3c4d"
What this screen tells you is that you have a Vagrant virtual machine called vi running on VirtualBox. It also tells you the directory in which your Vagrantfile for that machine is located.
As you can see, in our case, the state of our machine is running. However, you can suspend your virtual machine issuing the command vagrant suspend or you can stop it completely with vagrant halt. In both cases, if you want to restart your machine, you will need to issue the command vagrant up.
When you issue the command vagrant suspend, your machine state will become saved, and after issuing vagrant up the machine will restart exactly from the point is was at when you suspended it. On the other hand, when you issue the command vagrant halt, the state will become poweroff, and after issuing vagrant up the machine will restart from the initial state it was at when you first installed it.
Another command that may be sometimes useful is vagrant destroy, which allows you to delete your virtual machine. In this case, you will have to rebuild a new machine from scratch, if you ever need to use the machine again.
You may want to try and issue the above commands on your system, to get familiar with Vagrant, since that will prove useful later on, during your internship.
You can also use vagrant --help to find out other possible commands you can issue on Vagrant. You will get a screen similar to this,
Usage: vagrant [options] <command> [<args>]
-v, --version Print the version and exit.
-h, --help Print this help.
Common commands:
box manages boxes: installation, removal, etc.
connect connect to a remotely shared Vagrant environment
destroy stops and deletes all traces of the vagrant machine
global-status outputs status Vagrant environments for this user
halt stops the vagrant machine
help shows the help for a subcommand
init initializes a new Vagrant environment by creating a Vagrantfile
login log in to HashiCorp's Atlas
package packages a running vagrant environment into a box
plugin manages plugins: install, uninstall, update, etc.
port displays information about guest port mappings
powershell connects to machine via powershell remoting
provision provisions the vagrant machine
push deploys code in this environment to a configured destination
rdp connects to machine via RDP
reload restarts vagrant machine, loads new Vagrantfile configuration
resume resume a suspended vagrant machine
share share your Vagrant environment with anyone in the world
snapshot manages snapshots: saving, restoring, etc.
ssh connects to machine via SSH
ssh-config outputs OpenSSH valid configuration to connect to the machine
status outputs status of the vagrant machine
suspend suspends the machine
up starts and provisions the vagrant environment
version prints current and latest Vagrant version
For help on any individual command run `vagrant COMMAND -h`
Additional subcommands are available, but are either more advanced
or not commonly used. To see all subcommands, run the command
`vagrant list-commands`.
Instructions to enable virtualization
Instructions to install Vagrant - README.md
Why to install Vagrant?
Vagrant download
Wikipedia page on Vagrant
Other helpful links and videos
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