README.rst

Set up and use a network of local development VMs

... using Vagrant to manage VirtualBox VMs. (The author of this documentation wasted a lot of time trying to get Vagrant to work with KVM/libvirt. Issues with networking that looked like guest misconfigurations vanished after changing to the better-tested combination of Vagrant and VirtualBox.)

Use the local development environment

1. Enter the project's nix-shell:

   nix-shell ../../../shell.nix

2. Build and start the VMs:

   VAGRANT_DEFAULT_PROVIDER=virtualbox vagrant up

3. Then, add the Vagrant SSH configuration to your user's ~/.ssh/config file:

   install -d ~/.ssh ; vagrant ssh-config >> ~/.ssh/config

4. Edit the generated configuration: Add the publicIP addresses from grid.nix to ssh config Host match blocks (not HostName) so the Host lines all read like:

   Host payments1 192.168.67.21
     HostName 127.0.0.1
     User vagrant
     [...]

From version 1.5.0 Morph honors the SSH_CONFIG_FILE environment variable since 3f90aa88 (March 2020, v 1.5.0), so in the future this will get a bit more convenient.

5. Add your SSH key to users.nix so you'll be able to log in after deploying the new configuration:

   $EDITOR secrets/users.nix

5. Then, build and deploy our software to the Vagrant VMs:

   morph build grid.nix
   morph push grid.nix
   morph deploy grid.nix boot
   vagrant halt
   vagrant up
   morph upload-secrets grid.nix

You should now be able to log in with the users and keys you set in your users.nix file.