How to specify provisioner defaults in Vagrant for multi-machine environments?

Question

I'm wondering if there is a way to specify defaults for provisioners when creating a multi-machine environment with Vagrant?

I was trying to do something like the following:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "andyshinn/ubuntu-precise64"

  config.vm.provision :chef_client do |chef|
    chef.chef_server_url = "https://api.opscode.com/organizations/myorg"
    chef.validation_key_path = "~/.chef/myorg-validator.pem"
    chef.delete_node = true
    chef.delete_client = true
    chef.validation_client_name = "myorg-validator"
  end

  config.vm.define :app do |app|
    app.vm.network "private_network", ip: "172.16.64.61"
    app.vm.host_name = "vagrant-app-#{ENV['USER']}"

    app.vm.provision :chef_client do |chef|
      chef.add_recipe "myrecipe1"
      chef.add_recipe "myrecipe2"
      chef.add_recipe "sudo"
    end
  end

  config.vm.define :web do |web|
    web.vm.network "private_network", ip: "172.16.64.62"
    web.vm.host_name = "vagrant-web-#{ENV['USER']}"

    web.vm.provision :chef_client do |chef|
      chef.add_recipe "myrecipe3"
      chef.add_recipe "myrecipe4"
      chef.add_recipe "sudo"
    end
  end
end

But each VM block does not appear to pick up any of the main config block settings. I get this error:

There are errors in the configuration of this machine. Please fix
the following errors and try again:

chef client provisioner:
* Chef server URL must be populated.
* Validation key path must be valid path to your chef server validation key.

Possible via another method?

Answer 1

Your issue is one of scope. The variable chef has block scope in the config.vm.provision do block.

once this block exits your changes disappear. You should follow the example in the multi-machine docs on the vagrant site.

config.vm.provision "shell", inline: "echo Hello"

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "andyshinn/ubuntu-precise64"


  config.vm.provision "chef_client", chef_server_url: "https://api.opscode.com/organizations/myorg"
  config.vm.provision "chef_client", validation_key_path:  "~/.chef/myorg-validator.pem                
  config.vm.provision "chef_client", delete_node: true
  config.vm.provision "chef_client", delete_client: true
  config.vm.provision "chef_client", validation_client_name: "myorg-validator"


  config.vm.define :app do |app|
    app.vm.network "private_network", ip: "172.16.64.61"
    app.vm.host_name = "vagrant-app-#{ENV['USER']}"

    app.vm.provision :chef_client do |chef|
      chef.add_recipe "myrecipe1"
      chef.add_recipe "myrecipe2"
      chef.add_recipe "sudo"
    end
  end

Should do the trick