Lab
A Cloud Guru

Syncing Files with Vagrant

When using Vagrant, being able to sync applications, infrastructure, and other important files between your workstation and the resulting environment is paramount. It ensures that any changes we make to our working environment will persist after a `vagrant destroy` — after all, the Vagrant environment is ephemeral. In this hands-on lab, we will specifically explore syncing our host and guest directories using the `rsync` implementation by updating our `Vagrantfile`.

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Path Info

Level

Beginner

Duration

15m

Published

Oct 18, 2019

Challenge

Update the Vagrantfile

Use the config.vm.synced_folder option to set up file syncing based on the parameters from the instructions:

 Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
   config.vm.box = "fgrehm/trusty64-lxc"
   config.vm.define "app" do |app|
     app.vm.provider :lxc do |lxc|
       lxc.container_name = 'app'
     end
   end
   config.vm.synced_folder "/home/cloud_user/wanderer/app", "/opt/wanderer", type: "rsync",
     id: "wanderer-app", rsync__auto: true
 end

Save and exit.

Challenge

Test the Vagrant Environment and Check the Sync
1. Deploy the Vagrant environment:
```
vagrant up
```
1. We can SSH into the guest container to see that the sync worked:
```
vagrant ssh
ls /opt/wanderer/
exit
```
Challenge

Test the Auto-Syncing Process
1. Since we are using rsync, auto-synced must be turned on:
```
vagrant rsync-auto &
```
1. Take note of the process ID output.
2. Update the application; here changing Do This! to To-Do:
```
vim app/views/index.ejs

    To-Do
```
1. Save and exit; notice the output from Vagrant.
2. Kill the auto-sync process:
```
pkill PID_OUTPUT
```
1. Stop the container:
```
vagrant halt
```

Author

A Cloud Guru

The Cloud Content team comprises subject matter experts hyper focused on services offered by the leading cloud vendors (AWS, GCP, and Azure), as well as cloud-related technologies such as Linux and DevOps. The team is thrilled to share their knowledge to help you build modern tech solutions from the ground up, secure and optimize your environments, and so much more!

What's a lab?

Hands-on Labs are real environments created by industry experts to help you learn. These environments help you gain knowledge and experience, practice without compromising your system, test without risk, destroy without fear, and let you learn from your mistakes. Hands-on Labs: practice your skills before delivering in the real world.