G1Joshi Vagrant
Vagrant provides reproducible, portable development environments using Virtual Machines (VirtualBox, VMWare, Hyper-V).
When to Use
- Legacy/Full OS Dev: You need to simulate a full Linux Kernel or multi-vm network that Docker cannot easily do.
- Local Testing: Testing Ansible Playbooks locally on a clean VM.
- Windows/Mac: Running Linux VMs on non-Linux hardware with ease.
Quick Start
# Vagrantfile
Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
config.vm.box = "hashicorp/bionic64"
config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 80, host: 8080
config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL
apt-get update
apt-get install -y apache2
SHELL
end
vagrant up -> vagrant ssh
Core Concepts
Boxes
Base images. Analogous to Docker Images. (e.g. ubuntu/trusty64).
Providers
The hypervisor backend. VirtualBox (default), VMWare, Hyper-V, Docker, Libvirt.
Provisioners
Scripts that run on first boot (Shell, Ansible, Chef) to set up the software.
Best Practices (2025)
Do:
- Use Multi-Machine: Simulate a network (DB + Web) in one Vagrantfile.
- Sync Folders: Edit code in VS Code on Host, run it on Guest VM.
- Consider Docker: For most "App Dev" use cases, Docker/DevContainers are preferred in 2025. Use Vagrant for "Infra Dev".
Don't:
- Don't check in
.vagrant/: Add it to.gitignore.