Creating a Vagrant Box

Even though you have VirtualBox and Vagrant installed, you can't get any work done without a box to work within.

For this example we'll create an Ubuntu 14.04 64bit vanilla box. The term vanilla means nothing extra is installed. It is just like a freshly installed machine.

Step 1 - Create a directory for our box

From a terminal window, create the directory structure.

$ mkdir vagrant
$ mkdir vagrant/laravel
$ mkdir vagrant/laravel/projects

Step 2 - Create the Vagrantfile

Change into the newly created vagrant/laravel directory and create a new file there called Vagrantfile with the following content.

VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION = "2"
Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|
  config.vm.box = "precise64"
  config.vm.box_url = "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/vagrant/trusty/current/trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-vagrant-disk1.box"
  config.vm.network :private_network, ip: "192.168.100.100"
end

Step 3 - Create the virtual machine

This will download, create and configure the virtual machine based on the contents of the Vagrantfile we created.

$ cd vagrant/laravel
$ vagrant up

This can take a while, especially if its the first time you've installed the precise64 box.

Step 4 - Tweak the Box

Next we'll connect to the virtual machine, and do some minor tweaks.

$ cd vagrant/laravel
$ vagrant ssh

After you successfully connect, your prompt will change to vagrant@precise64-vanilla. This indicates you are logged into the virtual machine.

vagrant@precise64-vanilla:~$ echo "export PS1='laravel:\w\$ '" >> .bashrc
vagrant@precise64-vanilla:~$ ln -s /vagrant/projects
vagrant@precise64-vanilla:~$ cat << EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/motd.tail
***************************************
Welcome to precise64-vanilla Vagrant Box
For Laravel development
***************************************
EOF
vagrant@precise64-vanilla:~$ exit

Step 5 - Install basic items

Now when you connect you'll receive new welcome message we created in the last step and your prompt will now be laravel instead of vagrant@precise64-vanilla.

$ cd vagrant/laravel
$ vagrant ssh
laravel:~$ sudo apt-get update
laravel:~$ sudo apt-get install -y python-software-properties build-essential
laravel:~$ sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php5
laravel:~$ sudo apt-get update
laravel:~$ sudo apt-get install git-core subversion curl php5-cli php5-curl \
laravel:~$ exit

Step 1

A subdirectory called vagrant was created. This is where any Vagrant files will be created. The one laravel directory will contain the virtual machine we're setting up. If you set up another virtual machine, create an additional directory to use as the base directory.

Step 2

The Vagrantfile was created to specify the name of the box (precise64) and the url it can be found at. The first time you install a box Vagrant downloads it, but subsequent installs are much faster.

The config.vm.network line specifies this box will have the IP of 192.168.100.100. You can use any IP address as long as it doesn't conflict with something else in your network. Keep the first two numbers 192 and 168, though.

When the machine is running, you'll be able to point your browser to 192.168.100.100 and see the web page from the virtual machine.

Step 3

The vagrant up command will initialize the virtual machine and bring it up. This step can take a while. Especially since the first time you do it the precise64 operating system must be downloaded. Once the machine is configured, it only takes a second or two to bring it up.

Step 4

The echo "export PS1..." line will make it so the next time we ssh to the virtual machine, it will show a prompt of vagrant:~$ instead of vagrant@precise64-vanilla:~$. If you have multiple Vagrant boxes you should have the prompt mean something special so you always know which box you're on.

The ln -s /vagrant/projects will create a symbolic link in the home directory of the projects folder created back in Step 1. Any new Laravel projects will be created here and can be edited from the host operating system. Vagrant shares that folder with the host OS. If you edit ~/vagrant/laravel/projects/test.txt from your host OS, you'll be able to see it within Vagrant as ~/projects/test.txt.

Step 5

This step installed basic system utilities in the Vagrant machine including git, subversion, and the latest version of PHP.