pbot/applets/pbot-vm/vagrant

Vagrant instructions

Install libvirt and QEMU/KVM

Follow PBot VM Prerequisites up to the libvirt and QEMU section, then return to this guide. If you’ve reached the section about making a pbot-vm user, adding yourself to the libvirt group or downloading any ISOs then you’ve read too far!

Install Vagrant

To install vagrant on openSUSE, use:

zypper install --no-recommends vagrant

Otherwise see https://vagrant-libvirt.github.io/vagrant-libvirt/installation.html for installation instructions for your platform.

Install vagrant-libvirt

vagrant plugin install vagrant-libvirt

Start Vagrant Box

To start a virtual machine, cd into one of the PBot-VM Vagrant sub-directories and run the following command. This will download the appropriate virtual machine image and automatically configure it as the default PBot VM Guest, pbot-vm described by host/config/vm-exec.json:

vagrant up

You may pass optional environment variables to override pbot-vm default configuration (see PBot VM Environment Variables). For example, to create pbot-test-vm described by host/config/vm-exec.json:

PBOTVM_DOMAIN=pbot-test-vm PBOTVM_SERIAL=7777 PBOTVM_HEALTH=7778 vagrant up

Connect to Vagrant Box

Use SSH to connect to the PBot VM Guest:

vagrant ssh

If you specified a PBOTVM_DOMAIN, e.g. pbot-test-vm, you must specify it:

PBOTVM_DOMAIN=pbot-test-vm vagrant ssh

Start PBot VM Guest Server

Once connected to the PBot VM Guest via SSH, start guest-server in the background:

sudo nohup guest-server &> log &

Some distributions may require you to specify the full path:

sudo nohup /usr/local/bin/guest-server &> log &

Disconnect from Vagrant Box

Now you can type logout to exit the PBot VM Guest.

Create snapshot of PBot VM Guest

After you’ve logged out of the PBot VM Guest with guest-server running in the background, create a snapshot. This allows PBot to revert to a known good state when a command times out. If a PBOTVM_DOMAIN was defined, replace pbot-vm with that name.

virsh -c qemu:///system snapshot-create-as pbot-vm 1

Edit vm-exec.json

If you used vagrant up without specifying a PBOTVM_DOMAIN, you must edit the ../host/config/vm-exec.json configuration file to set the vagrant value to 1 for the pbot-vm machine.

If you have specified a PBOTVM_DOMAIN, ensure the appropriate entries exist in the vm-exec.json configuration file.

By default, pbot-test-vm already has vagrant set to 1.

Start PBot VM Host Server

cd ../host/bin/
./vm-server

Test PBot VM

In your instance of PBot, the sh and cc, etc, commands should now produce output:

<pragma-> sh echo Hello world!
   <PBot> Hello world!

Starting PBot VM again

To start the PBot VM again, e.g. after a reboot:

cd applets/pbot-vm/host/bin
virsh -c qemu:///system net-start vagrant-libvirt
virsh -c qemu:///system snapshot-revert $PBOTVM_DOMAIN 1   # for each $PBOTVM_DOMAIN you need to start
./vm-server

Shutdown Vagrant Box

vagrant halt

Destroy Vagrant Box

vagrant destroy

Delete Vagrant Box

vagrant box list
vagrant box remove <name>

(Optional) Install Alternative Vagrant Box

To install an alternative Vagrant box with your preferred OS/distribution, search for one at https://app.vagrantup.com/boxes/search and then make a new directory, e.g. FreeBSD-14, and copy one of the existing PBot-VM Vagrantfiles into this directory, and then edit the config.vm.box line to point at the chosen OS/distribution, e.g. freebsd/FreeBSD-14.0-CURRENT.

Some boxes may have specific settings that you may need to copy over. To obtain and examine the box’s Vagrantfile:

vagrant init <OS/distribution>

Examples:

vagrant init debian/testing64
vagrant init debian/bookworm64
vagrant init opensuse/Tumbleweed.x86_64
vagrant init archlinux/archlinux
vagrant init freebsd/FreeBSD-14.0-CURRENT
vagrant init generic/openbsd7

Then use one of the existing PBot-VM Vagrantfiles as a guide for adjusting your alternative Vagrantfile.