Create Disposable Test Environments with Vagrant and Puppet

© Copyright 2015 Coveros, Inc. All rights reserved.
Creating Disposable Test Environments
with Vagrant and Puppet
Gene Gotimer, Senior Architect
gene.gotimer@coveros.com

2© Copyright 2015 Coveros, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Coveros helps organizations accelerate the delivery of
business value through secure, reliable software
About Coveros

Why Disposable Test Environments?
 Destructive testing
 Known baseline
 Available on-demand
 Not shared
 No vested interest in keeping them long-term
 Always up-to-date

Tools Involved
 VirtualBox
– virtualization software
 Vagrant
– virtualization automation
 Puppet
– configuration management and automation
– Chef, Ansible, or SaltStack would work equally well
 Packer
– machine image automation

VirtualBox

Oracle VM VirtualBox
 Virtualization software from Oracle
 Free
 Runs on Windows, Mac, Linux
 Runs as an application
 Allows us to use local VMs
 Easy to install
 Works well with Vagrant
https://www.virtualbox.org/

Vagrant

Vagrant
 Virtualization workflow software from HashiCorp
 Free, open-source
 Easy to install
 Works well with Puppet, Chef, Shell
– many other provisioners
 Works well with VirtualBox, VMware, Amazon Web Services
– many other providers
https://www.vagrantup.com/

Creating a Vagrant Box
 To create a VM:
– mkdir starcanada‐vagrant
– cd starcanada‐vagrant
– vagrant box add hashicorp/precise64
– vagrant init hashicorp/precise64
– vagrant up
 vagrant box add
– downloads a “base box”
– boxes at https://atlas.hashicorp.com/search
 vagrant init
– builds a Vagrantfile with the base box
 vagrant up
– starts the VM

Vagrantfile
 Vagrantfile
– lots of comments by default
– stock Vagrantfile without comments is:
Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|
config.vm.box = "hashicorp/precise64"
end

vagrant up
 vagrant up
– imports the base box to VirtualBox
– makes sure the base box is up to date
– sets a unique name for the VM
– sets up networking (just NAT by default)
– sets up port forwarding (just SSH by default)
– boots VM
– replaces known, insecure SSH key with a new random key
– makes sure VirtualBox Guest Additions are installed
– mounts shared folders (/vagrant by default on the VM)
– provisions software (nothing by default)

Access Vagrant Box
 To access a VM:
– vagrant ssh
 vagrant ssh
– connects to the VM via the forwarded SSH port
 requires an SSH client installed
– Git (https://msysgit.github.io/)
– openssh on Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/)
– PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/)
 requires converting the key format

Rebuild Vagrant Box
 To rebuild a VM:
– vagrant destroy
– vagrant up
 vagrant destroy
– deletes a VM
 vagrant up
– starts the VM

Puppet

Puppet
 Configuration management software from PuppetLabs
 Vaguely Ruby-based, domain-specific language
 Easy to install
 Works well with Vagrant
 Similar to Chef, Ansible, SaltStack
https://puppetlabs.com/

Install Apache with Puppet
 Modify the Vagrantfile:
Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|
config.vm.box = "hashicorp/precise64"
config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.33.10"
config.puppet_install.puppet_version = '3.8.1'
config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<‐SHELL
sudo puppet module install puppetlabs‐apache
SHELL
config.vm.provision "puppet" do |puppet|
puppet.manifests_path = "manifests"
puppet.manifest_file = "site.pp"
puppet.module_path = "modules"
end
end

Vagrant Networking
 config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.33.10"
– sets up a new network interface on the box
– private_network = host-only
 only this box and other VMs on this box can reach it

Vagrant Modules
 config.puppet_install.puppet_version = '3.8.1'
– Vagrant module from
https://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/wiki/Available-Vagrant-Plugins
– vagrant‐puppet‐install
 installs Puppet version 3.8.1
 could have been :latest, but I want control

Shell Provisioning
 config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<‐SHELL
sudo puppet module install puppetlabs‐apache
SHELL
– here-doc that runs all the commands until SHELL
– this command installs a Puppet module from
https://forge.puppetlabs.com/puppetlabs

Puppet Provisioning
 config.vm.provision "puppet" do |puppet|
puppet.manifests_path = "manifests"
puppet.manifest_file = "site.pp"
puppet.module_path = "modules"
end
– sets up a standard Puppet layout
– commands in manifests/site.pp
– reusable modules in modules

Example Puppet Code
 Example init.pp file in the modules/website/manifests directory:
class website {
class { 'apache': }
apache::vhost { "${::fqdn}":
vhost_name => '*',
default_vhost => true,
port          => '80',
docroot => '/var/www',
}
file { '/var/www/index.html':
ensure  => 'file',
content => template('website/index.html.erb'),
owner   => 'root',
group   => 'www‐data',
mode    => '0640',
require => Class['apache'],
}
}

Installing Apache httpd
 class { 'apache:' }
– installs Apache httpd server
– sets up default configuration

Configuring Apache httpd
 apache::vhost { "${::fqdn}":
vhost_name => '*',
default_vhost => true,
port => '80',
docroot => '/var/www',
}
– sets up default virtual host
– listening on port 80
– document root is /var/www

Installing Templated Content
 file { '/var/www/index.html':
ensure  => 'file',
content => template('website/index.html.erb'),
owner   => 'root',
group   => 'www‐data',
mode    => '0640',
require => Class['apache'],
}
– copies file from host box
– sets owner, group, and permissions

Automation Advantages
 Deploy is now automated
 Automated = repeatable, easy, quick
 Test on the system, make any changes we want, then
destroy it, recreate it in a pristine condition
 Reuse the deployment scripts in all environments
– including production
– especially production

Other Possibilities
 Template files
 Variable substitution/Configuration database
– YAML
– JSON
– Encrypted
 Multiple machines
 Different providers
– Managed
– VMware
– Amazon Web Services (AWS)
 Chef, Ansible, or SaltStack

Packer

Packer
 Machine image automation from HashiCorp
 Easy to install
 Works well with Puppet, Chef, Shell
– many other provisioners
 Works well with VirtualBox, VMware, Amazon Web Services
– many other providers
https://packer.io/

Packer Templates
 Packer templates on GitHub from Shiguredo, Inc.
 Templates for
– CentOS Linux 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 7.0, 7.1
– Scientific Linux 6.4, 6.5, 7.0
– Ubuntu Linux 12.04, 14.04
 Fork and edit to create you own base boxes
https://github.com/shiguredo/packer-templates

Wrap-Up

Tools Recap
 VirtualBox
– virtualization software
– https://www.virtualbox.org/
 Vagrant
– virtualization automation
– https://www.vagrantup.com/
– Boxes: https://atlas.hashicorp.com/search
– Plugins:
https://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/wiki/Available-
Vagrant-Plugins

Tools Recap
 Puppet
– configuration management and automation
– https://puppetlabs.com/
– Modules: https://forge.puppetlabs.com/puppetlabs
 Packer
– machine image automation
– https://packer.io/
– Templates: https://github.com/shiguredo/packer-
templates

Questions?
Gene Gotimer
gene.gotimer@coveros.com
http://www.coveros.com
@CoverosGene

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