A VMware Administrator's Guide to Setting Up a DevOps Configuration Management Test Environment
- Environment Provisioning with AutoLab
- Environment Provisioning with Vagrant
- Creating Images with Packer
- Managing Source Code
- Summary
- References
Before we dive headfirst into implementing DevOps tools, let’s examine how we can set up our test environments to adequately prepare ourselves. We’ll also take a look at how we can start treating our infrastructure instructions just like a developer’s source code.
Topics covered in this chapter include the following:
- Environment provisioning with AutoLab
- Environment provisioning with Vagrant
- Creating images with Packer
- Managing source code
- Git source code control
Environment Provisioning with AutoLab
AutoLab is a vSphere test lab provisioning system developed by Alastair Cooke and Nick Marshall, with contributions from others in the VMware community. AutoLab has grown so popular that at least one cloud provider (Bare Metal Cloud) allows you to provision AutoLab installations on its servers. As of this writing, AutoLab supports the latest release of vSphere, which will enable you to run a virtual lab that includes VSAN support. If you’re unfamiliar with the tool, head over to http://www.labguides.com/ to check out the AutoLab link on the home page. After filling out the registration form, you will have access to the template virtual machines (VMs) to get your own AutoLab setup started. The team has a helpful selection of how-to videos on the AutoLab YouTube channel for anyone needing extra assistance.