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If you haven't already, download the Learning VM.
Get an up-to-date version of your preferred virtualization software. VirtualBox is free and available for Linux, Mac, and Windows systems. VMware has several desktop virtualization applications, including VMware Fusion for Mac and VMware Workstation for Windows.
The Learning VM OVA file must be imported rather than opened directly. Launch your virtualization software and find an Import or Import Appliance option in the File menu. If you cannot locate an Import option, refer to your virtualization software's documentation.
The Learning VM has been preset with 4GB of memory allocation for the virtual machine. This should be sufficient for starting it and Puppet Enterprise running inside it. If available, you can increase the virtual machine memory allocation as needed.
All the packages and modules needed to complete the Quest Guide are hosted locally on the VM itself, but you will need to set up networking to access the VM from your host system.
Your virtualization software provides several options for network configuration. If you are using VirtualBox on a network without a proxy or restrictive firewall rules, you may find it simpler to use the bridged adapter described in the online configuration section below.
If you are on a network that may have a proxy or restrictive firewall rules (ask your network administrator if you're not sure), we strongly suggest running the VM with an offline host-only network. This offline configuration requires more complex initial setup with VirtualBox software, but will help you avoid troubleshooting networking issues between your Puppet server and agent systems.
If you would like to run the Learning VM with internet access, set the Network Adapter to Bridged. Use an Autodetect setting if available, or accept the default Network Adapter name. (If you started the VM before making these changes, you may need to restart the VM before the settings will be applied correctly.)
Note that the Puppet module tool, yum, and RubyGems are configured to use local repositories, so you will not be able to access remote content without manually changing the settings for these tools. While we encourage exploration, we are not currently able to support issues beyond the scope of the Quest Guide.
For VirtualBox:
To use host-only networking on VirtualBox, you will need to create and configure a new network from the VirtualBox preferences panel. Note that this may be called settings on some systems. Be sure that you're looking at the preferences for VirtualBox itself, not the settings configurations for a specific VM.
Open the VirtualBox preferences panel and select the network section. Select Host-only Networks. Create a new network, and click the screwdriver icon to the side of the dialog to edit the network configuration. In the Adapter section, enter the following settings:
IPv4 Address: 192.168.56.1
IPv4 Network Mask: 255.255.255.0
In the DHCP Server section, enter the following settings:
Check the Enable Server box
Server Address: 192.168.56.1
Server Mask: 255.255.255.0
Lower Address Bound: 192.168.56.110
Upper Address Bound: 192.168.56.200
Click OK to accept the adapter configuration changes, and again to exit the preferences dialog. Open the settings section for the Learning VM from the VirtualBox Manager window. Go to the Network section, select Host-only Adapter from the drop-down menu, and select the name of the host-only adapter you created from the Name: drop-down. Click OK to accept the setting change.
For VMWare:
Open the Settings dialog for the Learning VM and select the Network Section. Under the Custom heading, select the private network adapter option.
Start the VM. Rather than logging in directly through the virtual machine console, we suggest using SSH.
On Mac systems, you can use the SSH command-line application inside the default Terminal application or a third-party application like iTerm. For Windows, we suggest the free SSH client PuTTY. Use the credentials provided on the VM console splash page to authenticate.
Once you're logged in, continue on to the Get started section below to access the Quest Guide and begin the interactive lessons.
Once the VM is set up and you have connected, you're ready to get started on
the interactive lessons in the Quest Guide. Access the Quest Guide by opening a
web browser on your host system and entering the Learning VM's IP address in
the address bar: http://<IP-ADDRESS>. (Note that you must use http, as
https will connect you to the PE console interface.)