Building Ubuntu VM setup locally

[elshize]

Hi, I found instructions on how to build a VM on Azure but I'd like to set it up locally so that I can easily test all my config before pushing to the repository. Would you mind helping out with that? Ideally, it would be nice if there was a docker image one can download, or at least some kind of script setting up the environment, installing packages, etc. Without that, it's rather difficult to guess what will or will not work, and I end up making changes, pushing, then fixing, then pushing... you get the idea.

I would very much appreciate some help with setting it up or finding other resources that could help me.

[Darleev]

Hello @elshize,
There was a separate project in the past, where it was possible to build separate agent in docker image for local testing, but it was deprecated. Currently, in order to build local machine with pre-installed software on your own, I see only one way:

• Take installation scripts for windows/linux
• Perform commands one by one, according to configuration files:
  Ubuntu 16
  Ubuntu 18
  Windows 2019
  Windows 2016
  Also, it is possible to build your own image using Packer and script for image generation and how you have already mentioned, you can use separate virtual machine with pre-installed software and perform all required tests in it.

[elshize]

Thanks @Darleev, this helps a lot. Just to clarify, since I'm not familiar with Packer, this can be used to set up a VM outside of cloud, as in my local desktop for instance?

[Darleev]

@elshize for local testing, you can use the following approaches:
VMware
Hyper-V
VirtualBox
In other words, need to build image using Packer for one of these virtual environments and deploy as virtual machine locally.

[elshize]

Thanks, sounds good. I should be able to take it from here. I appreciate you taking the time to help, thanks a bunch!

[Darleev]

@elshize I'm going to close the issue.
In case of any questions, please let us know.

[elshize]

@Darleev Thanks again for your help!