– The builders are used to control the virtual machines. A tool to convert Veewee definitions to Parker definitions exists: Veewee-to-packer.Ī Packer setting is defined with a JSON file with “Builders” and “Provisioners”: Note that for Vagrant, base boxes are usually created with Veewee (Packer’s precursor) and there is a large repository of definitions. And this tool is not just for Vagrant: it can be used to prepare Docker containers, AMI for Amazon AWS, etc. Packer fully automates the creation of a Vagrant base box. This is where Packer comes in… Creating a Vagrant base box with Packer The procedure is not very complex, but it is tedious and error-prone. Operations for creating a base box are documented: you must follow the basic guide and apply specific rules to the provider ( here for Virtual Box). – if you want to freeze an exact version of your environment (not to depend on an apt-get update, for example). – if the provisioning of your box is time-consuming (package compilation, large downloads, …) – if there is no existing base box matching your needs – if you want to control the content of your VM (it is sometimes a security measure, …) It may be interesting to create your own base box, for instance: One of the mechanisms for Vagrant provisioning (Shell, Chef Solo, Puppet, etc…) is then used to set up the base box. In most cases, Vagrant is used from a base box such as those that can be found on. This is what makes the multi-machine mode possible. Put a Vagrant file at their disposal, let them enter vagrant up and in a few seconds or minutes, they will have a development environment with all the tools that you defined: Maven, Elasticsearch, NodeJS, etc…Īnother use case is reproducing a complex production environment with, for instance, a load-balancer and multiple back-ends. The most common is to ramp up a new developer from scratch. Vagrant therefore eliminates the ‘’works on my machine’’ syndrome.
It’s a great way to set up and deploy working environments in a reproducible manner. Have you heard of Vagrant? Vagrant is a tool that allows to create virtual machines with a given configuration. From development to production with Vagrant and Packer
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