Vagrant Commands Guide
Vagrant Command Reference
Vagrant is a powerful tool for building and managing virtual machine environments in a single workflow. It simplifies the process of creating, configuring, and distributing development environments. Below is a reference for common Vagrant commands that are essential for any DevOps engineer working with virtualized infrastructure.
Core Vagrant Operations
These commands form the foundation of Vagrant's workflow, allowing you to initialize, provision, and manage your virtual machines.
# Initialize a new Vagrant environment in the current directory.
# This creates a Vagrantfile, which is the configuration file for your VM.
vagrant init
# Add a specific Vagrant "box" (a pre-packaged base image) to your local catalog.
# Example: Adding the hashicorp/precise32 box.
vagrant box add hashicorp/precise32
# Start and provision the virtual machine(s) defined in your Vagrantfile.
# If the VM is already created, this command will boot it up.
vagrant up
# Connect to the running virtual machine via SSH.
# This allows you to execute commands directly on the guest machine.
vagrant ssh
# Gracefully shut down the running virtual machine.
# This is equivalent to a clean shutdown of the operating system.
vagrant halt
# Suspend the virtual machine, saving its current state to disk.
# This allows for quick resumption later without a full boot process.
vagrant suspend
# Destroy the virtual machine and remove all associated resources.
# This returns the environment to its initial state, cleaning all data.
vagrant destroy
# Reload the virtual machine, applying any changes made to the Vagrantfile
# and re-running the provisioners. Useful for updating configurations.
vagrant reload --provision
Understanding Vagrant Boxes
Vagrant uses "boxes" as base images for your virtual machines. You can find a wide variety of boxes on the Vagrant Cloud, or create your own. The vagrant box add command is crucial for making these base images available for your projects.
Workflow with Vagrant
A typical Vagrant workflow involves initializing a project, adding a suitable box, bringing the machine up, connecting to it, making changes, and then halting or destroying it as needed. The vagrant reload --provision command is particularly useful for iterating on your environment's configuration.