NOTE: The Hashicorp VMware vagrant provider is now open source. See https://github.com/hashicorp/vagrant-vmware-desktop
Update 2021-06-09 - I'm not sure there will be a need for this tool any longer due to vagrant being free.
Feel free to fork this project.
Please test and provide any feedback/issues.
Newly added virtualbox functionality. By default, the provider will be vmware. Tested on Ubuntu (using VMware Workstation and VirtualBox) and Mac (using VirtualBox and VMware Fusion).
Did you know you can now provision using pyinfra? See mech provision --help for more info or look at one of the integration tests for how to specify pyinfra provisioning from a remote file. You can also have local files for provisioning.
Newly added mech cloud capability. See mech cloud --help for more info. Ever want to start a VM on another desktop/laptop? With 'mech cloud' you can do just that. 'mech cloud' is similar to the the docker context option. (Note: 'mech cloud' was written before discovering 'docker context', otherwise would have borrowed some of docker's interface/terms.)
There is --help on every operation.
Usage: mech [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...
Mech is a command line utility for virtual machine automation.
Create, start, stop, destroy virtual machines (aka instances) with ease.
VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation, and/or Oracle VirtualBox can be used.
Mech is similar to Hashicorp's vagrant utility.
Options:
--debug
--cloud TEXT
--version Show the version and exit.
-h, --help Show this message and exit.
Commands:
add Add instance to the Mechfile.
box Box operations.
cloud Cloud operations.
destroy Stops and deletes all traces of the instances.
down Stops the instance(s).
global-status Outputs info about all instances running on this host and...
init Initialize Mechfile.
ip Outputs the IP address of the instance.
list Lists all available instances (using Mechfile)
pause Pauses the instance(s).
port Displays guest port mappings.
provision Provision the instance(s).
ps List running processes in Guest OS.
remove Remove instance from the Mechfile.
resume Resume paused/suspended instance(s).
scp Copies files to and from the instance using SCP.
snapshot Snapshot operations.
ssh Connects to an instance via SSH or runs a command (if...
ssh-config Output OpenSSH configuration to connect to the instance.
support Show support info.
suspend Suspends the instance(s).
up Starts and provisions instance(s).
upgrade Upgrade the VM and virtual hardware for the instance(s).
winrm Winrm operations.
For help on any individual command run mech <command> -h
All "state" will be saved in .mech directory. (boxes and instances)
Examples:
Initializing and using a box from HashiCorp's Vagrant Cloud:
mech init bento/ubuntu-18.04
mech up
mech ssh
If having a problem with a command, add the "--debug" option like this:
mech --debug up
% mech up --help
Usage: mech up [OPTIONS] [INSTANCE]
Starts and provisions instance(s).
Notes:
If no instance is specified, all instances will be started.
The options ('memsize', 'numvcpus', and 'no-nat') will only be applied
upon first run of the 'up' command.
The 'no-nat' option will only be applied if there is no network interface
supplied in the box file for 'vmware'. For 'virtualbox', if you need
internet access from the vm, then you will want to use 'no-nat'. Interface
'en0' will be used for bridge.
Unless 'disable-shared-folders' is used, a default read/write share called
'mech' will be mounted from the current directory. '/mnt/hgfs/mech' on
'vmware' and '/mnt/mech' on 'virtualbox' To add/change shared folders,
modify the Mechfile directly, then stop/start the VM.
The 'remove-vagrant' option will remove the vagrant account from the guest
VM which is what 'mech' uses to communicate with the VM. Be sure you can
connect/admin the instance before using this option. Be sure to check that
root cannot ssh, or change the root password.
Options:
--disable-provisioning Do not provision.
--disable-shared-folders Do not share folders.
--gui Start GUI, otherwise starts headless.
--memsize MEMORY Specify memory size in MB.
--no-cache Do not save the downloaded box.
--no-nat Do not use NAT networking (i.e., use bridged).
--numvcpus VCPUS Specify number of vcpus.
-r, --remove-vagrant Remove vagrant user.
-h, --help Show this message and exit.
Initializing and using a machine from HashiCorp's Vagrant Cloud:
mech init bento/ubuntu-18.04
mech up
mech ssh
mech init can be used to pull a box file which will be installed and
generate a Mechfile in the current directory. You can also pull boxes
from Vagrant Cloud with mech init freebsd/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE.
See the mech up -h page for more information.
Can have multiple instances of the same box. The default instance name is 'first'.
Here is the help info for adding a new instance:
% mech add -h
Usage: mech add [OPTIONS] NAME LOCATION
Add instance to the Mechfile.
Notes:
The 'add-me' option will add the currently logged in user to the guest,
add the same user to sudoers, and add the id_rsa.pub key to the
authorized_hosts file for that user.
Options:
-a, --add-me Add the current user/pubkey to guest.
--box BOXNAME Name of the box (ex: bento/ubuntu-10.04).
--box-version VERSION Constrain to specific box version.
--provider PROVIDER Provider (`vmware` or `virtualbox`)
-u, --use-me Use the current user for mech interactions.
-w, --windows Windows instance
-h, --help Show this message and exit.
Here is what it would look like having multiple instance with different providers:
% mech list
NAME ADDRESS BOX VERSION PROVIDER STATE
first 192.168.3.134 bento/ubuntu-18.04 201912.04.0 vmware started
second 192.168.56.194 bento/ubuntu-18.04 202002.04.0 virtualbox running
third notcreated mrlesmithjr/alpine311 1578437753 virtualbox notcreated
To install:
pip install -U mikemech
or for the latest:
pip install -U git+https://github.com/mkinney/mech.git
If the box you init was created properly, you will be able to access
the host's current working directory in /mnt/hgfs/mech. If you are
having trouble with an Ubuntu guest, try running:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) open-vm-toolsfollowed by
sudo vmware-config-tools.plor
vmhgfs-fuse .host:/mech /mnt/hgfs- add these lines to ~/.zshrc
# folder of all of your autocomplete functions
fpath=($HOME/.zsh-completions $fpath)
# enable autocomplete function
autoload -U compinit
compinit- Copy script to something in fpath (Note: Run
echo $fpathto show value.)
cp _mech ~/.zsh-completions/- Reload zsh
exec zsh- Try it out by typing
mech <tab>. It should show the options available.
- add these lines to ~/.bash_profile
[ -f /usr/local/etc/bash_completion ] && . /usr/local/etc/bash_completion- Copy script to path above
cp mech_completion.sh /usr/local/etc/bash_completion/- Reload .bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile- Try it out by typing
mech <tab>. It should show the options available.
One of the authors made this because they don't like VirtualBox and wanted to use vagrant with VMmare Fusion but was too cheap to buy the Vagrant plugin.
https://blog.kchung.co/mech-vagrant-with-vmware-integration-for-free/