(Update 07-08-2018) Noticed this nice write up of hashicorp by redmonk.
(Original Oct 2016) The following is mostly notes for myself, when I followed the Consul get started guide (by Hashi corp).
Pre-requisite: vagrant
How I created a Vagrant instance on mac (or be more precise, Vagrant Cluster (github)). Note I installed the Virtual Box, and created the vagrantfile (the file is from the github as shown above) under a separate folder. In the folder where I have the vagrantfile, just type “vagrant up”, that brings up the vagrant (linux virtual) servers. This is a more convenient way compared to launch them from the Virual Box GUI (btw, the default user name and password are vagrant / vagrant, refer to the official Vagrant doc, go to “Default User Settings”).
Shutdown: I found neither “vagrant shutdown” nor “vagrant destroy” works for me. The only way worked is the GUI of the VirtualBox (show running instance, close the window, it will prompt).
Here is another slightly more advanced tutorial for Vagrant set up, in the end it mentioned how to set up Ph.P., Postgres etc.
I am interested in the Vault also. Since I am not familiar with Docker, I think this time around I would just do the Vault GSG on Vagrant or on Mac (last time around I was attempting to run before I can walk). I am interested in the security aspects of Vault.
An unrelated topic, also interesting to me, is the real time notification.