Install VM Provider

Make sure that VirtualBox, Docker, VMWare or Hyper-V is available.

VirtualBox is the default provider,
but VMWare is recommended as it provides better performance and stability.
I have never had any issues with VirtualBox stability, can't comment on performance.

Service providers such as
Rackspace, AWS (EC2 and VPC), Google & Linode
have custom providers.

Install Provisioning System

You may use shell scripts (I.E.: BASH), Ansible, Chef or Puppet

I have had good success using BASH scripts for personal project environments.
In an enterprise environment, a DevOps team might use a configuration management system.

More about this later...

Initial Vagrantfile

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
    # Every Vagrant development environment requires a box. You can search for
    # boxes at https://atlas.hashicorp.com/search.
    config.vm.box = "base"
end

The Vagrantfile will initially have a lot of comments but only 1 line is initially important... "config.vm.box"

Finding a Box

You have to search for a box from the Vagrant website that suits your needs.
(https://app.vagrantup.com/boxes/search)
You will find boxes available for various needs including...
full LAMP stacks, Rudy, Docker, Chef, Puppet.

$ vagrant box add "ubuntu/xenial64"

Popular boxes are "hashicorp/precise32" or "hashicorp/precise64" (Ubuntu 12.04)
Or "laravel/homestead" if you are a Laravel developer, you may have heard of it :P
I prefer "ubuntu/xenial64" (Ubuntu 16.04)

Vagrant Boxes are equivalent to Docker Images.

Update the Vagrantfile

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
    # Every Vagrant development environment requires a box. You can search for
    # boxes at https://atlas.hashicorp.com/search.
    config.vm.box = "ubuntu/xenial64" # Ubuntu 16.04
end

You are now ready to start your Vagrant box with the image selected.

Provisioning the Guest

Inline shell script provisioning

config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL
    apt-get update
    apt-get install -y apache2

    rm -rf /var/www/html
    ln -fs /vagrant /var/www/html

    systemctl restart apache2
SHELL

Associating a provisioning shell script

config.vm.provision "shell", path: "./scripts/update.sh"

Network Configuration

config.vm.hostname = "vagrant-intro-simple"

config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 80, host: 8787

Multiple config.vm.network entries are allowed.

Synced Folders

config.vm.synced_folder "src/", "/srv/website"

By default, the root of your project on the host is shared to the guest at /vagrant.

In Nginx:
sendfile off;

In Apache:
EnableSendfile Off

Provider Specific Configuration

Provider specific configurations can be contained within a conditional section to be only applied appropriately.

config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
    # Overrides the name of the VM in VirtualBox
    v.name = "test-vagrant"
    v.linked_clone = true
end

config.vm.provider "vmware_fusion" do |v|
    v.linked_clone = false
    v.vmx["memsize"] = "1024"
    v.vmx["numvcpus"] = "2"
end

When using linked clones 2 VMs will be created initially, 1 base VM and 1 cloned VM.
Additional cloned VM will only create a single additional VM.
The base VM will not be started, just used as a "data source", do NOT delete the base VM!

Other useful commands

$ vagrant status        # outputs status of the vagrant machine(s)

$ vagrant ssh           # connect to the machine using ssh

$ vagrant rdp           # connects to machine via RDP

$ vagrant provision     # provisions an existing machine

$ vagrant destroy       # remove VM - Danger Will Robertson!

$ vagrant validate      # validates the Vagrantfile

Managing Boxes

$ vagrant box               # manages boxes: installation, removal, etc.

$ vagrant box add           # add box to the local cache

$ vagrant box list          # list boxes in local cache

$ vagrant box outdated      # check if boxes in use are up to date

$ vagrant box prune         # removes old versions of cached boxes

$ vagrant box remove        # remove box from local cache

$ vagrant box repackage     # package a new box to local cache

$ vagrant box update        # update the box to the latest version

Provisioning Scripts - Apache

#!/usr/bin/env bash

echo "Installing Apache, PHP, xDebug & MariaDB client"
apt-get install -y apache2 libapache2-mod-php php php-mcrypt php-curl php-mysql php-xdebug mariadb-client-core-10.0
echo "Creating Apache html folder soft link"
rm -rf /var/www/html
ln -fs /vagrant /var/www/html

echo "Enabling mod_rewrite"
a2enmod rewrite
echo "Disabling sendfile as per vagrant suggestion"
cat <<- EOF >> /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

EnableSendfile Off
EOF

echo "Adding xDebug configuration"
cat <<- EOF >> /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/xdebug.ini
xdebug.remote_enable=1
xdebug.remote_port=9000
xdebug.remote_connect_back=1
xdebug.idekey=PHPSTORM
EOF

echo "Restarting Apache"
systemctl restart apache2

Provisioning Scripts - MySQL/MariaDB

#!/usr/bin/env bash
echo "Installing MariaDB"
apt-get install -y mariadb-server

echo "Creating vagrant user and vagrant_intro database"
mysql -u root -e "CREATE USER 'vagrant'@'10.0.0.10' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON * . * TO 'vagrant'@'10.0.0.10';
CREATE USER 'admin'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON * . * TO 'admin'@'%';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
CREATE DATABASE vagrant_intro;
CREATE TABLE vagrant_intro.users(id int(10) unsigned auto_increment primary key, username varchar(255) not null);"

echo "Updating bind address in /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf to 0.0.0.0 to allow external connections."
sudo sed -i "s/.*bind-address.*/\bind-address = 0.0.0.0/" /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf

echo "Restarting MySQL"
systemctl restart mysql