Vagrant Developer Environment

This development environment is targeted for use in courses about Java Software Development and therefore contains most important tools typically needed in such a setup.

Tools Included

• Git
• Nano (a simple editor)
• Open JDK
• docker
• docker-compose
• IntelliJ Ultimate
• Firefox

Optional tools

Those can be included in the provision.sh script, when needed (but are not included by default, since not really needed anymore)

• nvm (as long as no NodeJS needed)
• oh-my-zsh (took too long for installation)
• Maven (we prefer gradle)
• Gradle (we prefer allways to use right gradle version for a project by using gradle wrapper from version control instead)
• Atom Text Editor (we prefer IntelliJ anyways)

Prerequisites

To run this Vagrant VM, you have to install the following tools:

• VirtualBox >= 6.1.14
• Vagrant >= 2.2.10

Getting Started

Installing the VM

1. Make sure you have a reliable internet connection 😉
2. Only on Windows:
   • Make sure Hyper-V support is turned off (VirtualBox will not work with HyperV turned on)
3. Open a console in the directory with the cloned or downloaded config files (where the Vagrantfile is)
4. Install the VirtualBox Guest Additions plugin for Vagrant with vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest
5. Start the setup with vagrant up (this may take a while - typically around 30 minutes in total - so take a coffee and relax! ☕ )
6. Once the installation is done you should see something like: CLEANUP DONE
7. In case you get some error output regarding vbguest additions and the process stops - try following to continue:
   • keep the started VM open (it should still be open)
   • run in the command line: vagrant vbguest --do install
   • try following commands to continue: vagrant provision or vagrant up
   • after some patience you should see: CLEANUP DONE
8. Use vagrant reload to bring the virtual machine up in graphical mode

Using the VM

1. Start the VM with vagrant up
2. The default user is vagrant with the password vagrant

Note: Once installed you can as well start and stop the VM directly from VirtualBox UI (unless you do config changes in your Vagrantfile)

Configure the VM

To increase performance 🚀

• In VirtualBox UI you may configure that the VM gets more memory or cpu: Stop the VM first and then change it under Change/System on the VM.

Known Issues / Troubleshooting

• In case you have troubles that automatic maximising of screen size to the host screen size does not work and the option automatic adoption of guest screen size is disabled in virtual box menu Display, then do the following:
  • run the command vagrant vbguest --do install while the VM is running
  • after restart the vm again with vagrant reload
  • when logged in, you should be able to maximize the screen to your screen
  • check that the option Automatic adoption to guest screen size is enabled and selected in virtual box menu Display.
• When 3D acceleration is enabled the use of Chromium is discouraged as it can crash the Virtual Machine.
• In Virtual Box 6.0.6 the configured shared folder might currently not work as expected.
• If the download mirror for the base box returns a 404 status: try using a different URL by using the property config.vm.box_url - go to the problematic url to find out the real URL and set it (instead of property config.vm.box_version)

Background Information

Why is VirtualBox used and not VMWare?

Vagrant supports only VirtualBox for free, if you want to use it with VMWare you have to pay.

Note: For a commercial project it might be a good idea to pay and use VMware together with Vagrant instead, because the integration with VMware should be more performant and has better support by Vagrant.

Authors

• original VM setup provided by @SimonMueller
• modified by Rolf Bruderer