\nservices in the cloud costs money, so I wanted to keep the cost
\ndown.<\/li>\n
\nwant to tie it to Windows, MacOS or Linux.<\/li>\n
\nabove, but I must also be able to use it as a basis for doing local
\napplication development and testing of containers.<\/li>\n
The Solution<\/h2>\n
To fulfill the first two criteria, I needed a hypervisor (preferably To meet the fourth criterion to minimise bandwidth, I decided to run a After you download Vagrant<\/a>, you can To run this solution, the setup will create a minimum of three VMs. For those of you wanting a Quick Start, you need the following software Then, it is as simple as dropping to a command prompt and running the git clone https:\/\/github.com\/rancher\/vagrant Rancher Server will start running Cattle with three nodes. This Quick git clone https:\/\/github.com\/rancher\/vagrant Thanks to my colleague James, for helping me enhance this solution to Chris Urwin works
\nfree) that could run on all platforms locally. Having had a reasonable
\namount of experience with
\nVirtualBox<\/a> (and it meeting
\nmy preferably free criterion), I decided to use it. The third criterion
\nwas to allow me to emulate environments locally that had the following
\nconfigurations:<\/p>\n\n
\ninstall Rancher Server and nodes<\/li>\n
\nterminated<\/li>\n
\nconfiguration with an externalized database and a configurable
\nnumber of nodes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nregistry mirror. It allowed me to destroy the setup and start afresh
\nquickly as all the VMs had Docker engine set to pull via the mirror. Not
\nonly does it save bandwidth, but it also significantly speeds up
\nrebuilds. Files for the mirror persist to the local disk to preserve
\nthem between rebuilds. For the final criterion of easy configuration, I
\ndecided that I was going to use Vagrant. For those reading who haven\u2019t
\nused Vagrant:<\/p>\n\n
\nportable, virtual software development environments.<\/li>\n
\ndeveloper, operator, or designer. It leverages a declarative
\nconfiguration file which describes all your software requirements,
\npackages, operating system configuration, users, and more.<\/li>\n
\nenvironments force users to give up their favorite editors and
\nprograms. Vagrant works with tools on your local system with which
\nyou\u2019re already familiar.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nspecify that it consumes its config from a separate file. For this
\nsetup, all configurable options are externalized into a config.yaml
\nfile that is parsed at startup. This means that you can configure and
\nuse it without having to have a deep, technical understanding of
\nVagrant. I also added an NFS server to the solution, running on the
\nmaster node so that services could be tested with persistent storage.
\nSo, what does the final solution look like?
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.rancher.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/06070805\/localranchervagrant-1024x253.png\")
<\/a>
\nThe master node runs a bunch of supporting services like MYSQL and
\nHAProxy to help all of this hang together. In true Docker style, all of
\nthese supporting services are containerised!<\/p>\nMinimum Setup<\/h2>\n
\nThere is a master, a minimum of one Rancher Server, and one node. Below
\nis an example of the config.yaml file with the main parts that you
\nwill change highlighted:
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.rancher.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/06093755\/Vagrant-config-761x1024.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
<\/a>
\nYou can find more detail on the config options in our repository for
\nthis setup<\/a>.<\/p>\nQuick Start<\/h2>\n
\ninstalled:<\/p>\n\n
\ndownload VirtualBox
\nhere<\/a>.<\/li>\n
\nhere<\/a>.<\/li>\n
\ncan download one here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nfollowing commands:<\/p>\n
\ncd vagrant
\nvagrant up<\/p>\n
\nStart also supports Rancher 2.0<\/a>, so if
\nyou want to check out the Tech Preview with the minimum of effort, run:<\/p>\n
\ncd vagrant
\ngit checkout 2.0
\nvagrant up<\/p>\n
\nwhat it has become.<\/p>\nAbout the Author<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.rancher.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/21103711\/ChrisUrwin-300x286.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nas a field engineer for Rancher Labs based out of the UK. He spends his
\ndays helping our enterprise clients get the most out of Rancher, and his
\nnights wishing he had more hair on his head!<\/p>\n