Complete Beginner’s guide to setting up Vagrant and Github with ssh

1 Checking if you have virtualization Enabled

We can check if we have virtualization enabled by going to the task manager or by using command prompt.

However using command prompt is much more accurate as it tells us whether virtualization is actually enabled. Checking on task manager can show that it is enabled, but that may not be the case.

To Check if you have virtualization go to open command prompt then type this – wmic cpu get VirtualizationFirmwareEnabled

2 Install 4 programs

1 – Microsoft Visual C++ – required for oracle virtualbox – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170

2 – VirtualBox — https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads (windows hosts)

3 – Gitbash – better than using cmd — https://git-scm.com/download/win

4 – Vagrant – https://developer.hashicorp.com/vagrant/downloads

5 – Vagrant ubuntu/focal64 box, in case you want to install from local storage. https://app.vagrantup.com/ubuntu/boxes/focal64

3 In GIT

• right click, options, keys, ctrl+shift – to enable copying and pasting using ctrl+shift

4 Setting up vagrant with virtual box

• The vagrant box we are using is ubuntu/focal64
• in git bash, create a directory that will hold your vagrant box.
  • for example, creating a vagrant folder in documents, then an ubuntu folder.

CD into the ubuntu-focal folder

This is where all the magic happens. You will see later on how we can use bash files to be able to quickly start, login and stop our vagrant box.

The common option of adding the box, is by using this command. This will download the box and then simultaneously add it. vagrant box add ubuntu/focal64

However you can as well download it and then add it; for instance if you are on a limited data plan.vagrant box add --name ubuntu/focal64 ~/Desktop/Virtualbox/focal-server-cloudimg-amd64-vagrant.box

~/Desktop/Virtualbox/focal-server-cloudimg-amd64-vagrant.box – replace this with the location of where you have downloaded your box.

After we have added the box, we then need to initialize it. This creates the vagrantfile. vagrant init ubuntu/focal64

Installing this plugin can sometimes sort out certain issues that would prevent you box from starting up. vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest – to avoid issue with the last version of Vagrant (2.2.4 or latest)

Once initiliazed we are good to start our virtual box by doing vagrant up command.

vagrant up might bring problems as we experienced in the video

• first activate this – in Turn Windows features on or off
  • Select Start, enter Windows features, and select Turn Windows features on or off from the list of results.
  • In the Windows Features window that just opened, find Hyper-V, Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Hypervisor platform and select it.
  • Select OK. You might need to restart your PC.
• In command prompt with admin priviledges run this command – bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
• This command disable the Hypervisor launch type this command is used to turn off the Hypervisor launch type on a Windows computer, which can be useful in certain scenarios such as when you want to run other virtualization software that may conflict with the built-in Hypervisor.
• vagrant up can disturb, especially where it hangs at this section: default: SSH auth method: private key. make sure you halt (you can open oracle virtualbox), and then restart your PC. Sometimes restarting solves everything.

5 After vagrant up, we login to (start) ubuntu./focal

• vagrant ssh is the command to log into our vagrant box, the ubuntu/focal64.
• However using that command will will cause typing ctrl + c to exit ubuntu/focal
• so best to use ssh [email protected] -p2222 -i .vagrant/machines/default/virtualbox/private_key

6 Solving random logging out – time out issue

We have instances where all of a sudden after being away from your computer for a while, or when in the process of doing hard things, you notice that you have suddenly been logged out.

This can be rectified by making some changes to our ssh config file, so as to send alive packet data

• when you have already done vagrant up and you are logged in
• do cd ~/.ssh then open config file. if it is not there create it. ie vim config
• Add the following lines to the file to set the ServerAliveInterval and ServerAliveCountMax options
• NOTE: ON THE VIDEO WE USED ServerAliveCountMax 5L. THIS CAN BRING ISSUES, WRITE IT WITHOUT THE L AS ServerAliveCountMax 5

Host * 
ServerAliveInterval 60 
ServerAliveCountMax 5

• Breakdown
  • ServerAliveInterval
    • tells the SSH client to send a keep-alive packet (a message with no payload) to the server every 60 seconds.
    • By default, SSH clients do not send any packets to the server unless there is some data to send or receive, which can cause the connection to time out due to inactivity.
    • With ServerAliveInterval set, the SSH client will send a packet every 60 seconds, which will keep the connection active as long as the server is still responding.
  • ServerAliveCountMax
    • sets the maximum number of keep-alive packets that can be sent without receiving a response from the server.
    • If the client sends a keep-alive packet and does not receive a response from the server within a certain period (which is typically a multiple of the ServerAliveInterval), it assumes that the connection has been lost and tries to reconnect.
    • By default, the SSH client will try to reconnect indefinitely, which can be problematic if the server is no longer available or if there is some other issue preventing the connection from being established.
    • With ServerAliveCountMax set, the client will only try to reconnect a certain number of times before giving up.
  • Summary
    • In general, when the client sends a keep-alive packet, the server should always respond with an acknowledgement packet, even if there is no data to send or receive.
    • However, there are some cases where the server may not respond, such as if it has crashed or if the network connection has been lost.
    • In these cases, the client will assume that the connection has been lost and try to reconnect.
    • By setting ServerAliveCountMax, the client can limit the number of failed attempts to reconnect and avoid getting stuck in a loop trying to reconnect indefinitely.
  • Overall, these settings help to ensure that SSH connections remain active and do not get terminated due to inactivity or other issues.

7 IMPORTANT VAGRANT COMMANDS

• vagrant up – this starts the vagrant box. Also when done for the very first time it creates the vagrant box in the oracle virtualbox.
• vagrant halt – this stops the virtual box.
• vagrant status – checks if virtual box is running.
• vagrant global-status – lists all Vagrant environments that are currently active on your machine.

8 MAKE WORK EASIER – creating bash files

“log” – vagrant ssh

create it in the directory of where you installed your box

#!/bin/bash
ssh [email protected] -p2222 -i .vagrant/machines/default/virtualbox/private_key

“up” – vagrant up

#!/bin/bash
cd ~/Documents/Vagrant/ubuntu
vagrant up
./log

create “log” in home directory

you can also have this log file in the home directory, so that you can open more instances of ubuntu/focal

since the log file will be in the home directory, we need to include a command that changes directory to the ubuntu folder.

#!/bin/bash
cd Documents/Vagrant/ubuntu
ssh [email protected] -p2222 -i .vagrant/machines/default/virtualbox/private_key

“halt” – vagrant halt

#!/bin/bash
cd Documents/Vagrant/ubuntu
vagrant halt

9 GIT HUB – creating public and private keys

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C “email” – create private and public keys

paste public key on github at ssh and gpgkeys

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)" – starts the agent

ssh-add ~/.ssh/{key-name} – add private key

-ssh -T git@github – confirm key added

One must set their identity on GitHub

Your identity tells github who you are, so it knows when you are pushing files to github.

• git config --global user.email "email-address" – adding your GitHub email address
• git config --global user.name "username" – adding your GitHub username
• git config --global --list – to check which identity has been set

Add private key to bash.rc file

so that it loads automatically every time you start a session.

• go to .bashrc file in home directory. ie vim ~/.bashrc
• add this lines

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/{key-name}

10 Changes to Vim

Vim is a powerful text editor, but in its raw form it is lacking quite a few powerful punches.

If you were to search for a line of code, you would have a very hard time, since the editor is not numbered.

We can however mitigate this dilemma, by making a few changes with the vim editor.

In order to customise your vim configuration, you’ll need to modify the file .vimrc in your home directory.

This code should create the .vimrc file with the necessary text required to do this. echo -e "set tabstop=8 shiftwidth=8\nset autoindent\nset smartindent\nset cindent\nsyntax enable\nset number\nset formatoptions+=ro" > ~/.vimrc

11 Simple Vim commands

We can easily modify our files to make sure it is in proper order and properly indented.

Here are some of the basic vim commands. Their use have been well explained in the video.

• gg=G – to autoindent
• %s/\s\+$//g – remove white spaces at end
• %s/^[ ]\+//g – remove white spaces at beginning.
• %s/^$\n//g – remove empty lines

12 Installing Betty

GitHub site for betty documentation: https://github.com/holbertonschool/Betty

#Download script
git clone https://github.com/holbertonschool/Betty.git

#GO TO SCRIPT FOLDER - if cloned in home directory
cd Betty

#Run the script:
./install.sh 
#or
sudo ./install.sh

#create new file
vim betty

#paste contents below to file

#Give execution permission
chmod a+x betty

#move betty to bin folder
mv betty /bin/

#can confirm move by
ls /bin | grep betty

#how to use betty

betty name-of-file

Code to be added in the file betty we just created. Copy exactly as so

#!/bin/bash
# Simply a wrapper script to keep you from having to use betty-style
# and betty-doc separately on every item.
# Originally by Tim Britton (@wintermanc3r), multiargument added by
# Larry Madeo (@hillmonkey)
BIN_PATH="/usr/local/bin"
BETTY_STYLE="betty-style"
BETTY_DOC="betty-doc"
if [ "$#" = "0" ]; then
    echo "No arguments passed."
    exit 1
fi
for argument in "$@" ; do
    echo -e "\n========== $argument =========="
    ${BIN_PATH}/${BETTY_STYLE} "$argument"
    ${BIN_PATH}/${BETTY_DOC} "$argument"
done