Vagrant Multiple-VM Creation and Configuration

Automatically provision multiple VMs with Vagrant and VirtualBox. Automatically install, configure, and test Puppet Master and Puppet Agents on those VMs. All instructions can be found in my blog post: http://wp.me/p1RD28-1kX

JSON Configuration File

The Vagrantfile retrieves multiple VM configurations from a separate nodes.json file. All VM configuration is contained in the JSON file. You can add additional VMs to the JSON file, following the existing pattern. The Vagrantfile will loop through all nodes (VMs) in the nodes.json file and create the VMs. You can easily swap configuration files for alternate environments since the Vagrantfile is designed to be generic and portable.

Instructions

vagrant up # brings up all VMs
vagrant ssh puppet.example.com

sudo service puppetmaster status # test that puppet master was installed
sudo service puppetmaster stop
sudo puppet master --verbose --no-daemonize
# Ctrl+C to kill puppet master
sudo service puppetmaster start
sudo puppet cert list --all # check for 'puppet' cert

# Shift+Ctrl+T # new tab on host
vagrant ssh node01.example.com # ssh into agent node
sudo service puppet status # test that agent was installed
sudo puppet agent --test --waitforcert=60 # initiate certificate signing request (CSR)

Back on the Puppet Master server (puppet.example.com)

sudo puppet cert list # should see 'node01.example.com' cert waiting for signature
sudo puppet cert sign --all # sign the agent node(s) cert(s)
sudo puppet cert list --all # check for signed cert(s)

Forwarding Ports

Used by Vagrant and VirtualBox. To create additional forwarding ports, add them to the 'ports' array. For example:

"ports": [
       {
         ":host": 1234,
         ":guest": 2234,
         ":id": "port-1"
       },
       {
         ":host": 5678,
         ":guest": 6789,
         ":id": "port-2"
       }
     ]

Useful Multi-VM Commands

The use of the specific name is optional.

• vagrant up <machine>
• vagrant reload <machine>
• vagrant destroy -f <machine> && vagrant up <machine>
• vagrant status <machine>
• vagrant ssh <machine>
• vagrant global-status
• facter
• sudo tail -50 /var/log/syslog
• sudo tail -50 /var/log/puppet/masterhttp.log
• `tail -50 ~/VirtualBox\ VMs/postblog//Logs/VBox.log'