Core Provisioner

Documentation for Core Provisioner
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Table of Contents

• About the Project
• Key Features
• Vagrantfile Explained
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• License
• Contact
• Acknowledgements

Core Provisioner

Core Provisioner is a modular framework designed to simplify the provisioning of virtual machines using Vagrant, with a focus on flexibility and extensibility. It leverages a YAML configuration file (Hosts.yml) and a Ruby interpreter (Hosts.rb) to dynamically generate Vagrant configurations, allowing for a more declarative approach to setting up virtual environments. This project aims to streamline the provisioning process by integrating default SSH keys for STARTcloud Vagrant projects and adding support for Ansible, enhancing automation and consistency across deployments.

Key Features

• Declarative Configuration: Utilizes Hosts.rb to parse Hosts.yml, a YAML file that contains all necessary configurations for setting up and running virtual machines.
• Default SSH Keys: Provides default SSH keys for all STARTcloud Vagrant projects, simplifying the authentication process.
• Ansible Support: Integrates Ansible support into the provisioning process, allowing for automated configuration management and deployment.

Submodule Support

Include this as a submodule in other projects with the following command:

git submodule add -b submodule https://github.com/STARTcloud/core_provisioner core

Vagrantfile Explained

The Vagrantfile acts as the orchestrator that sets up and configures the virtual machines (VMs) based on the specifications found in the Hosts.yml file. It does this by requiring and executing the Hosts.rb script, which interprets the Hosts.yml file and generates the necessary Vagrant configurations. Here's a breakdown of what the Vagrantfile is doing:

• Integration with Hosts.rb: The Vagrantfile requires the Hosts.rb script, which is responsible for interpreting the Hosts.yml file. This integration allows the Vagrantfile to leverage the configurations defined in Hosts.yml to dynamically generate Vagrant configurations for the VMs.

• Loading Hosts.yml Configurations: The Vagrantfile reads the Hosts.yml file using Ruby's YAML library. This file contains all the necessary configurations for setting up and running the VMs, such as provider settings, network configurations, disk setups, and provisioning scripts.

• Configuring Vagrant: After loading the configurations from Hosts.yml, the Vagrantfile uses the Hosts.configure method from Hosts.rb to apply these configurations to the Vagrant environment. This method dynamically generates Vagrant configurations based on the specifications provided in Hosts.yml.

• Provider Configuration: The Vagrantfile specifies the version of Vagrant being used ("2") and delegates the actual configuration of the VMs to Hosts.rb through the Hosts.configure method. This allows for a flexible and provider-agnostic setup process, as Hosts.rb can handle different VM providers based on the configurations in Hosts.yml.

In essence, the Vagrantfile is a bridge between the declarative Hosts.yml file and the Vagrant environment, utilizing Hosts.rb to interpret and apply the configurations defined in Hosts.yml. This approach allows for a highly customizable and scalable setup process, making it easier to manage complex VM configurations.

Roadmap

See the open issues for a list of proposed features (and known issues).

Provider Support

Provider	Supported by Core Provisioner
VirtualBox	Yes
Bhyve/Zones	Yes
VMware Fusion	No
Hyper-V	No
Parallels	No
AWS EC2	Yes
Google Cloud	No
Azure	No
DigitalOcean	No
Linode	No
Vultr	No
Oracle Cloud	No
OpenStack	No
Rackspace	No
Alibaba Cloud	No
Aiven	No
Packet	No
Scaleway	No
OVH	No
Exoscale	No
Hetzner Cloud	No
KVM	Yes
QEMU	Yes
Docker Desktop	No
HyperKit	No
WSL2	No

Built With

• Vagrant - Portable Development Environment Suite.
• VirtualBox - Hypervisor.
• Ansible - Virtual Machine Automation Management.

Contributing

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for details on our code of conduct, and the process for submitting pull requests to us.

Authors

• Joel Anderson - Initial work - JoelProminic
• Justin Hill - Initial work - JustinProminic
• Mark Gilbert - Refactor - MarkProminic

See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.

License

This project is licensed under the SSLP v3 License - see the LICENSE.md file for details

Acknowledgments

• Hat tip to anyone whose code was used