Setup a test environment

In this section you will:

  • Setup your own Rudder test environment in virtual machines

  • Have access to this platform for the rest of the tutorial

The rest of the tutorial assumes you are using this environment (you can also setup your own, you will only have to substitute hostnames/IP addresses when necessary).

This installation method is cross-platform, and you can use it on Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and more. You will need:

  • VirtualBox, to run the demo virtual machines

  • Vagrant, to handle the virtual machines configuration and provisioning

To install them, run:

  • sudo apt install -y virtualbox vagrant on Debian/Ubuntu systems

  • sudo yum install -y VirtualBox vagrant on RHEL systems

  • sudo dnf install -y VirtualBox vagrant on Fedora systems

Once they are installed, run:

git clone https://github.com/Normation/rudder-vagrant.git
cd rudder-vagrant

And then, to create the environment:

vagrant up

This will download the virtual machine image if needed, and will setup a Rudder environment using two virtual machines.

With recent VirtualBox, you need to defined the authorized IP range for created boxes. Boxes created with this method use networks from 192.168.42.0/24 and upward, incrementing with each new environment running.

To define this range, you need to create or edit as root file /etc/vbox/networks.conf to add

* 192.168.0.0/16
Vagrant commands

Here are the basic vagrant commands useful to manage your environment:

  • vagrant up to bring the environment up, whether the VM need to created or only started

  • vagrant halt to stop the virtual machines (but keep them for later use)

  • vagrant destroy to totally remove virtual machines

  • vagrant ssh server|agent to connect to one of your nodes using SSH

Once the command returns, you are ready to get started! You now have access to two virtual machines, server and node, with Rudder already installed.

You can connect to the server’s Web interface on:

https://localhost:8081/rudder/

You have to accept the self-signed certificate generated during installation, and you will see Rudder’s login page.

Rudder login page

You can login with:

  • User: admin

  • Password: admin

You now have access to a full Rudder platform, to follow this guide or for later tests.

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