pvanisacker / foreman-vagrant

Automate the creation and configuration of a Foreman server VM and multiple Puppet Agent VMs

Foreman-Puppet-Vagrant Multiple-VM Creation and Configuration

Automatically provision multiple VMs with Vagrant and VirtualBox. Automatically install, configure, and test Foreman and Puppet Agents on those VMs.

JSON Configuration File

The Vagrantfile retrieves multiple VM configurations from a separate nodes.json JSON file. All VM configuration is contained in that JSON file. You can add additional VMs to the JSON file, following the existing pattern. The Vagrantfile will loop through all nodes (VMs) in the nodes.json file and create the VMs. You can easily swap configuration files for alternate environments since the Vagrantfile is designed to be generic and portable.

Host entries plugin

The Vagrantfile uses the vagrant-hostmanager plugin and makes sure that all entries are consistent between guests and also the host itself. The plugin must be installed with vagrant plugin install vagrant-hostmanager.

Instructions

Suggest provisioning Foreman VM first, before agents. It will takes several minutes to create.

vagrant up theforeman.example.com

Important, when the provisioning is complete, note the results displayed once Foreman is installed! They provide the admin login password and URL for the Foreman console.

==> theforeman.example.com:   Success!
==> theforeman.example.com:   * Foreman is running at https://theforeman.example.com
==> theforeman.example.com:       Initial credentials are admin / 7x2fpZBWgVEHvzTw
==> theforeman.example.com:   * Foreman Proxy is running at https://theforeman.example.com:8443
==> theforeman.example.com:   * Puppetmaster is running at port 8140
==> theforeman.example.com:   The full log is at /var/log/foreman-installer/foreman-installer.log

Log into the Foreman web-browser based console. Change the admin account password, and/or set-up your own admin account(s).

Next, build two puppet agent VMs.

vagrant up

# Shift+Ctrl+T # new tab on host
vagrant ssh agent01.example.com # ssh into agent node
# initiate certificate signing request (CSR)
sudo puppet agent --test --waitforcert=60

Forwarding Ports

Used by Vagrant and VirtualBox. To create additional forwarding ports, add them to the 'ports' array. For example:

"ports": [
       {
         ":host": 1234,
         ":guest": 2234,
         ":id": "port-1"
       },
       {
         ":host": 5678,
         ":guest": 6789,
         ":id": "port-2"
       }
     ]

Errors

Error: Unknown configuration section 'hostmanager'. => **Solution: **Install the vagrant-hostmanager plugin with vagrant plugin install vagrant-hostmanager

Useful Multi-VM Commands

The use of the specific name is optional in most cases.

• vagrant up <machine>
• vagrant reload <machine>
• vagrant destroy -f <machine> && vagrant up <machine>
• vagrant status <machine>
• vagrant ssh <machine>
• vagrant global-status

Useful Logs for Debugging Project Issues

Some logs require sudo access

• sudo tail -50 /var/log/syslog
• sudo tail -50 /var/log/puppet/masterhttp.log
• sudo tail -50 /var/log/foreman/production.log
• sudo tail -50 /var/log/foreman-installer/foreman-installer.log
• sudo tail -50 /var/log/foreman-proxy/proxy.log
• tail -50 ~/VirtualBox\ VMs/<group>/<machine>/Logs/VBox.log