webdev-vagrant

Creates VirtualBox VM on your local machine pre-configured with Apache, PHP, MySQL. This method provides a viable alternative to MAMP or XAMPP or even a local LAMP stack, especially for diverse teams working on the same project.

Requirements

• VirtualBox version 4.2.10 or newer - https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
• VirtualBox extensions 4.2.10 or newer - http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.2.10
• Vagrant version 1.0.7 or newer - http://vagrantup.com/
• A 64bit-capable processor and operating system (Tested with Ubuntu 12.10 and OS X 10.6)
  • It should be possible to run on a 32bit host machine by substituting a 32bit base box, but this has not been tested. Feedback is welcome!

Installation

• Install vagrant 1.0.x (the 1.1 branch might work, but we haven't tested it)
• Install VirtualBox
• Install git if you don't have it already. If you're not familiar with git, ensure you are.
• Clone this repository. It provides the root of a new project repository.
• Put your project webroot in the {reporoot}/htdocs directory.

Configuration details

• The VM is running CentOS 6, Apache 2.2.15, MySQL 5.1, PHP 5.3.3.
• The EPEL repo is enabled, so newer versions of packages are available.
• Apache is configured to serve up /server/htdocs by default.
• The root password is 'vagrant'.
• The 'vagrant' user is set to have full sudo rights, no password required.
• The root user on the MySQL server is preconfigured and the credentials are stored in the root user's .my.cnf, so you can run sudo mysql and be logged in on the MySQL console as root.
• The directory containing the Vagrantfile config file and the rest of this repository (including your project webroot) on your local machine is mounted on the virtual machine in /server to facilitate moving files to and from the virtual machine.

Usage

• To start up the virtual machine, run vagrant up in the same directory as the Vagrantfile config file. As soon as it's booted you should be able to hit http://localhost:8080/ and see whatever is in the {reporoot}/htdocs directory.
• If your application uses a MySQL database, configure your app to connect to localhost with the username root and password root.
• To access the virtual machine, run vagrant ssh. That will log you into the virtual machine as the user vagrant.
  • In typical usage, you should only need to run database commands within the VM. All other work happens on your physical host computer.
• To shut the machine down, run vagrant halt. This gracefully shuts the machine down, retaining whatever changes you've made to the VM.
• To delete the virtual machine, run vagrant destroy. This will completely erase the virtual machine and your MySQL databases. Your Vagrantfile, application code, and puppet rules are all left intact.

Credits

A big thanks to Evan Heidtmann (ezheidtmann) for taking my vague, badly-implemented idea and making it actually work. The base box and most of the Puppet and configuration scripts are his work.

Huge chunks shamelessly stolen from a gist posted by David Lutz (dlutzy): https://gist.github.com/2469037/646a2b99656ef68eba87cec3ecec96d2d581f68d