Chapter 1, Introduction, acts as a great introduction to the world of Vagrant. It will help create a foundation of knowledge to guide you through the book. You will learn what Vagrant is, the benefits of Vagrant, what VirtualBox is, and what DevOps is. You'll also learn how Vagrant fits into the DevOps landscape, how it can be used as a DevOps tool, and take a look at other pieces of software.
Chapter 2, Installing VirtualBox and Vagrant, Windows, macOS, and Linux, gets your hands dirty by teaching you how to install VirtualBox and Vagrant. We'll cover the three main operating systems: Windows, macOS, and Linux. You'll learn how to navigate both websites (https://www.virtualbox.org and https://www.vagrantup.com) to download, install, and verify the software, once it has been installed.
Chapter 3, Command Line-Interface - Vagrant Commands, teaches you about the range of useful commands that Vagrant provides. You'll learn about all of the available commands and sub-commands. You'll also learn about the structure of Vagrant commands, how to use the help command to get more information, and a brief description of what each one does. You will feel confident in managing Vagrant via the command line by the end of this chapter.
Chapter 4, Discovering Vagrant Boxes - Vagrant Cloud, covers all aspects of Vagrant boxes. We will look at how to manage them: installation, deletion, and versioning. We will also create a base box that has the minimum requirements for building a Vagrant environment. In this chapter, we will also cover Vagrant Cloud and what it offers you. Vagrant Cloud is a searchable index of Vagrant boxes that are ready to download. We'll cover a range of things, such as how to use the the Vagrant Cloud website, how to search for a specific box, and how to install that box.
Chapter 5, Configuring Vagrant Using a Vagrantfile, explores the Vagrantfile, which allows you to easily customize your Vagrant machine. The Vagrantfile offers many different configuration options, such as networking, folder syncing, the multi-machine option, provisioning, and provider-specific settings. You'll also learn the syntax and formatting of a Vagrantfile and how to validate it, once created.
Chapter 6, Networking in Vagrant, explains how networking in Vagrant is easily configurable and can be used to create some powerful setups. There are three key networking configuration options that you will learn about in this chapter: port forwarding, public networking, and private networking. You'll learn how to use each one through examples and view the benefits of each.
Chapter 7, Multi-Machine, looks at the multi-machine option, which allows you to create multiple Vagrant machines and manage/configure them using a single Vagrantfile. You will create a multi-machine environment that mimics a real-world scenario. You will create one machine that runs a web server and another that runs a database. These machines will communicate using a networking configuration. This will give you a solid foundation and help you to start creating powerful environments using the multi-machine option.
Chapter 8, Exploring Vagrant Plugins and Syncing Files, gets into how, although Vagrant offers many features, there may be a specific use case where you require some additional functionality. In this chapter, you will learn all about Vagrant plugins. You will see how easy it is to install and use Vagrant plugins. There are a range of commands and sub-commands to learn about, too. In this chapter, you will also learn about syncing files with Vagrant and the different configuration options available.
Chapter 9, Shell Scripts - Provisioning, deals with provisioning in Vagrant, which is another powerful Vagrant feature, giving you the ability to easily provision your Vagrant machines. This chapter acts as an introduction to provisioning and will teach you more about configuration management tools, shell provisioning, and file provisioning. There are multiple configuration options available when using these types of provisioning to learn about, too.
Chapter 10, Ansible - Using Ansible to Provision a Vagrant Box, teaches you how to provision a Vagrant environment using Ansible and Ansible playbooks. You will also briefly learn how to install Ansible on your Vagrant machine, before learning how to use Ansible on the host machine to provision the Vagrant box.
Chapter 11, Chef - Using Chef to Provision a Vagrant Box, teaches you how to provision a Vagrant environment using Chef and Chef cookbooks. You will look at provisioning the machine using the basic option, Chef Solo, and the advanced option, Chef Client.
Chapter 12, Docker - Using Docker with Vagrant, delves into how to provision a Vagrant environment using Docker. We'll look at searching and pulling images from the Docker Hub and then running them as containers. We'll also look at the different options Docker accepts when we're using it as a Vagrant provisioner.
Chapter 13, Puppet - Using Puppet to Provision a Vagrant Box, explores how to provision a Vagrant environment using Puppet. You will learn about the two main options available with Vagrant: Puppet Apply and Puppet Agent. Using Puppet Agent, you will see how to connect to a Puppet master and retrieve instructions from that.
Chapter 14, Salt - Using Salt to Provision a Vagrant Box, tackles how to provision a Vagrant environment using Salt. You will also learn about Salt states, which allow us to dictate which packages and services should be added into the provisioning.
