Amazon Linux to Vagrant box

I did it.

I can now run up Chef tests against an Amazon Linux image via Vagrant (both VMware Fusion or Workstation, and Virtualbox instances) without having to wait, and pay for, EC2 instances to launch and be destroyed.

Initial work took about 3 hours to get an image that would boot to a log in prompt.


It took another ~15 hours getting it to reliably boot while not take 5 minutes to get past the DHCP phase (Amazon specific scripting), cloud-init (and friends – more AWS customization), and get it into a format that Vagrant can accept for further testing.

But now I’m finished! I have working Vagrant boxes for Virtualbox and VMware Fusion or Workstation.

I need to get this documented for others; it is fulfilling to share back to the community.

I figure this will take at least 4 different posts:

One friend said I should make sure and put a Bitcoin address up for donations, you just need to click to the left and away you go!

Want to download my Vagrant box images now instead of when I complete the series?