vagrant minimal linux guest for dedicated services ("appliance")

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ivo welch

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Oct 11, 2017, 5:21:53 PM10/11/17
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I am a new vagrant user.  (I have used vmware fusion and virtualbox, albeit on full linux ubuntu guests.)

I am interested in building minimalistic guests for single functions.  think appliance.  for example, I may want to create a guest box that has perl, a few perl modules, possibly an nfs server (to change files when not on the host, possibly not).  after boot, it should run my designated perl program and restart or shutdown on exit.  no general shell, no multiuser capabilities, nothing else.  only necessary processes (e.g., basic networking).  the less crud, the better.  fewer intrusion vectors.  less space required.  lean and mean.

could someone please recommend the best existing box to the task?  the vagrantup getting-started page suggests only hashicorp/precise64 (12.04...really?), a set of cloud images, and bento boxes, which all seem to be fairly fat distros.  is there a turnkey linux or slimmer distro available for vagrant?

regards,

/iaw

Torben Knerr

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Oct 11, 2017, 5:28:06 PM10/11/17
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Sounds pretty much like you actually wanted to use docker ;-)

Haven't tried, but does this help?

Cheers, Torben 

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Jamie Jackson

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Oct 12, 2017, 7:50:15 AM10/12/17
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I was going to say the same thing: Docker seems like the right choice for this:

* there's no waiting for a bootup
* it is the most lightweight way to do this in an encapsulated way
* you can run your utility like a command and it exits like a command
* you can mount volumes from the host very easily

On Oct 11, 2017 5:28 PM, "Torben Knerr" <torben...@gmail.com> wrote:
Sounds pretty much like you actually wanted to use docker ;-)

Haven't tried, but does this help?

Cheers, Torben 
ivo welch <ivo...@gmail.com> schrieb am Mi. 11. Okt. 2017 um 23:22:

I am a new vagrant user.  (I have used vmware fusion and virtualbox, albeit on full linux ubuntu guests.)

I am interested in building minimalistic guests for single functions.  think appliance.  for example, I may want to create a guest box that has perl, a few perl modules, possibly an nfs server (to change files when not on the host, possibly not).  after boot, it should run my designated perl program and restart or shutdown on exit.  no general shell, no multiuser capabilities, nothing else.  only necessary processes (e.g., basic networking).  the less crud, the better.  fewer intrusion vectors.  less space required.  lean and mean.

could someone please recommend the best existing box to the task?  the vagrantup getting-started page suggests only hashicorp/precise64 (12.04...really?), a set of cloud images, and bento boxes, which all seem to be fairly fat distros.  is there a turnkey linux or slimmer distro available for vagrant?

regards,

/iaw

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On Oct 11, 2017 5:28 PM, "Torben Knerr" <torben...@gmail.com> wrote:
Sounds pretty much like you actually wanted to use docker ;-)

Haven't tried, but does this help?

Cheers, Torben 
ivo welch <ivo...@gmail.com> schrieb am Mi. 11. Okt. 2017 um 23:22:

I am a new vagrant user.  (I have used vmware fusion and virtualbox, albeit on full linux ubuntu guests.)

I am interested in building minimalistic guests for single functions.  think appliance.  for example, I may want to create a guest box that has perl, a few perl modules, possibly an nfs server (to change files when not on the host, possibly not).  after boot, it should run my designated perl program and restart or shutdown on exit.  no general shell, no multiuser capabilities, nothing else.  only necessary processes (e.g., basic networking).  the less crud, the better.  fewer intrusion vectors.  less space required.  lean and mean.

could someone please recommend the best existing box to the task?  the vagrantup getting-started page suggests only hashicorp/precise64 (12.04...really?), a set of cloud images, and bento boxes, which all seem to be fairly fat distros.  is there a turnkey linux or slimmer distro available for vagrant?

regards,

/iaw

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Yves Guerin

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Oct 12, 2017, 7:53:45 AM10/12/17
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Dear,

Create your own base box (I used the boxes from HashiCorp but I discover that the boxes contain too much stuff that I did want) and use vagrant and Jenkins to create the final box that you want, I did it wih Ubuntu 14.04 and I ran some shell scripts to create the box that I want, ooops, that the developpers need:
- base-Ubuntu14.04 server: only vagrant stuff to start the box and do ssh: only openssh running
- base-lamp: from the base-Ubuntu14.04 I ran some shell scripts from the Vagrantfile to add: apache2, MySQL, PHP, package the box, save it to Nexus or WebDav NAS.  Automate this processus with Jenkins and every monday morning my developpers have a brand new box to play (Jenkins runs during the week-end the job to update the box (apt-get stuff, do the packaging and save it to Nexus or WebDav NAS)
- lubuntu1404: from the base-ubuntu1404 I create an Lubuntu desktop with grails IDE, Chrome, RapidSvn, etc, for the developpers
- base-tomcat7mysql: from thebase-ubuntu1404 I installed Oracle JDK7 + tomcat7 + Percona MySQL
- the process is endless...

Have Fun :)

l2f

Yves Guerin

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Oct 12, 2017, 7:59:19 AM10/12/17
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The only thing Docker help you is: boot and shutdown time.  They use the same KVM module so VirtualBox with Vagrant or Docker is the same thing, may be is liteweigth concerning the infrastructure but the scripts you develop to build your dev environment can be use for publishing the app into your prod env.

l2f

Le mercredi 11 octobre 2017 17:21:53 UTC-4, ivo welch a écrit :
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