webpack · bebraw · Aug 28, 2016 · Aug 27, 2016 · Aug 27, 2016 · Aug 28, 2016
diff --git a/content/how-to/develop-using-vagrant.md b/content/how-to/develop-using-vagrant.md
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+---
+title: How to Develop using Vagrant
+---
+
+If you have a more advanced project and use [Vagrant](https://www.vagrantup.com/) to run your development environment in a Virtual Machine, you'll often want to also run webpack in the VM.
+
+## Configuring the Project
+
+To start, make sure that the `Vagrantfile` has a static IP;
+
+```ruby
+Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
+  config.vm.network :private_network, ip: "10.10.10.61"
+end
+```
+
+Next, install webpack and webpack-dev-server in your project;
+
+```shell
+npm install webpack webpack-dev-server --save-dev
+```
+
+Make sure to have a `webpack.config.js` file. If you haven't already, use this as a minimal example to get started:
+
+```js
+module.exports = {
+  context: __dirname,
+  entry: "./app.js"
+}
+```
+
+And create a `index.html` file. The script tag should point to your bundle. If `output.filename` is not specified in the config, this will be `bundle.js`.
+
+```html
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+  <head>
+    <script src="/bundle.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+    <h2>Heey!</h2>
+  </body>
+</html>
+```
+
+Note that you also need to create an `app.js` file.
+
+## Running the Server
+
+Now, let's run the server:
+
+```shell
+webpack-dev-server --host 0.0.0.0 --public 10.10.10.61:8080 --watch-poll
+```
+
+By default the server will only be accessible from localhost. We'll be accessing it from our host PC, so we need to change `--host` to allow this.
+
+webpack-dev-server will include a script in your bundle that connects to a WebSocket to reload when a change in any of your files occurs.
+The `--public` flag makes sure the script knows where to look for the WebSocket. The server will use port `8080` by default, so we should also specify that here.
+
+`--watch-poll` makes sure that webpack can detect changes in your files. By default webpack listens to events triggered by the filesystem, but VirtualBox has many problems with this.
+
+The server should be accessible on `http://10.10.10.61:8080` now! If you make a change in `app.js`, it should live reload.
+
+## Advanced Usage with nginx
+
+To mimick a more production-like environment, it is also possible to proxy the webpack-dev-server with nginx.
+
+In your nginx config file, add the following:
+
+```nginx
+server {
+  location / {
+    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
+    proxy_http_version 1.1;
+    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
+    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
+    error_page 502 @start-webpack-dev-server;
+  }
+
+  location @start-webpack-dev-server {
+    default_type text/plain;
+    return 502 "Please start the webpack-dev-server first.";
+  }
+}
+```
+
+The `proxy_set_header` lines are very important, because they allow the WebSocket to work correctly.
+
+The command to start webpack-dev-server can then be changed to this:
+
+```
+webpack-dev-server --public 10.10.10.61 --watch-poll
+```
+
+This makes the server only accessible on `127.0.0.1`, which is fine, because nginx takes care of making it available on your host PC.
+
+## Conclusion
+
+We made the Vagrant box accessible from a static IP, and then made webpack-dev-server publicly accessible so it is reachable from a browser. We then tackled a common problem that VirtualBox doesn't send out filesystem events, causing the server to not reload on file changes.