Vagrant Windows Boxes and Puppet

Prerequisites

• Vagrant 1.5.4 - I'm pretty sure you'll need the latest version - I'm using Vagrant 1.6.5 now.
• VirtualBox 4.2.16 or VMWare Fusion 5
  • If you want to use VMWare Fusion you will also need the vagrant-vmware-fusion plugin for vagrant (which is not free). You also want the latest version (at least 2.1.0). If you already have this installed, you can upgrade simply by calling vagrant plugin install vagrant-vmware-fusion.
• Vagrant 1.5.4 (and below) - Vagrant-Windows 1.6.0 - vagrant plugin install vagrant-windows.
• At least 20GB free on the host box.
• NOTE: If you file any issues on this repository, please note that I'll ask if you what you have installed and what versions. If it doesn't match the above, I will close your issue until you can reproduce it with the above installed.
• TROUBLESHOOTING: If you are on less than 1.6, you will need to make sure config.vm.communicator = "winrm" is commented out. If you are on greater than 1.6, you need to ensure that it is there. Many of the boxes (but not all) use boxes/VagrantWindows.rb to share Windows settings.

Setup

1. Install/upgrade Vagrant to 1.5.4+.
2. Install/upgrade VirtualBox/VMWare to versions listed above.
3. Install/upgrade required plugins for vagrant (if using VMWare you will need the non-free vagrant-vmware-fusion or equivalent).
4. Vagrant 1.5.4 (and below) - Install/upgrade vagrant-windows vagrant plugin. Open terminal/command line and type vagrant plugin install vagrant-windows
5. Take a look at this gist that might be helpful in determining commands to call for setup: Install Vagrant Windows Environment

Boxes Folder

1. Create the puppet/modules and puppet/box_modules directories in each boxes directory that you want to use vagrant in (if it doesn't already exist).
2. In each folder if you are running VirtualBox, you can just vagrant up. If you are running VMWare, you will want to vagrant up --provider=vmware_fusion.

License Requirements for Windows

The boxes provided in the url explicitly state that they need a license for valid use. After downloading the base box you should provide a license.

Building Windows Boxes for Vagrant

Base Box Requirements

You must have git installed at a minimum.

What I would recommend to have installed are the following:

• git (adding the bin directory to the PATH - it's an option during install)
  • this adds all kinds of fun tools to the path, like curl and ls.
• BitVise SSH Server - configured with vagrant public key
  • This has the best SSHD and works well with PowerShell REPL
  • Import the vagrant insecure public key for the vagrant user.
  • This allows you to still use vagrant ssh
  • Ensure that Public Key authentication for this user is Allowed
• WinRM and other items configured as noted at Vagrant-Windows