Laravel/Homestead vagrant box disapeared from system

Question

I got a php project which is already done and for starters I have to put it up on a server (planning to use Heroku). I am new to PHP virtual boxes, Laravel, etc. The person who made the project recommended to use Laravel so I started to get things going that way. I am running on Windows 10 and using cmder as my terminal.

1. I downloaded VirtualBox & Vagrant.

2. Then using commander I added the Laravel/Homestead box by doing:

    vagrant box add laravel/homestead 

   in the folder c:\\Users\\Jacky\\vagrant\\ubuntu (At least I think that is where I added it)

3. Afterwards I believe I did vagrant init or vagrant init laravel/homestead
4. whatever I did afterwards I was able to run vagrant ssh and get into the system. There I was able to check and I had php and composer installed.
5. I then followed laravels instructions and created a homestead folder at c:\\Jack\\Homestead
6. ran git checkout for v7.19.2
7. ran init.bat
8. and configured the Homestead.yaml file

I made the following folder map

- map: C:\Jack\myapp\public
      to:  /home/vagrant/myapp

and the following site map

 - map: myapp.test
      to:  /home/vagrant/myapp/public

I am a bit confused with the directory structure of this whole thing and not sure if I was supposed to put the myapp directory inside c:\\Jack\\Homestead\\myapp or if just doing it like i did in c:\\Jack\\myapp is fine.

Anyways that still worked and I could see it in my web browser. So far all was good.

Then the project instructions told me to do the following

1. run composer install
2. There was an env.example file I had to change to .env and change some setting
3. run php artisan key:generate
4. run php artisan migrate --seed
5. run php artisan passport:install
6. run php artisan storage:link

At this point I got an error that the Symlink could not be created, so I googled and found in Stack Overflow to restart as admin. I ran cmder as admin and have been having a heart attack for the last 30 minutes since it told me I had to vagrant up and when I did so it couldnt find my box and even doing vagrant box list

I would get no results and it wanted to redownload which takes over 3 hours. I just restarted without admin and I do find that my Laravel/Homestead box is listed so I assume it was installed for my user and not admin so I guess I cant run cmder as admin.

So now I am trying to connect again, I am not sure in which folder I should be running the vagrant commands but I only seem to have a VagrantFile in my C:\\Jack\\Homestead folder so if I run a vagrant command anywhere else it gives me an error that a vagrant environment is required, etc.

So I tried the following inside my homestead folder:

1. vagrant ssh - I get:

   VM must be running to open SSH connection. Run `vagrant up to start the virtual machine.

   (In my VirtualBox Manager i see my homestead-7 VM running though)

2. vagrant up - I get:

    Bringing machine 'homestead-7' up with 'virtualbox' provider... ==> homestead-7: Importing base box 'laravel/homestead'... ==> homestead-7: Matching MAC address for NAT networking... ==> homestead-7: Checking if box 'laravel/homestead' is up to date... A VirtualBox machine with the name 'homestead-7' already exists. Please use another name or delete the machine with the existing name, and try again. 

3. vagrant ssh 'homestead-7' I also get

   VM must be running to open SSH connection. Run vagrant up to start the virtual machine.

And the problem is once I do connect I assume I will still have the same problem running:

php artisan storage:link

So my questions are as follows:

1. Where should I have my projects myapp folder, should it be where it is at C:\\Jack\\myapp or am I supposed to put it in C:\\Jack\\Homestead\\myapp
2. Is the VagrantFile supposed to be only in my Homestead folder and is that where I should be running all my Vagrant commands from? Like vagrant ssh and vagrant up
3. How do I connect again now that I am getting those errors running vagrant ssh and vagrant up
4. Once I connect I assume I will get the same error running php artisan storage:link since to run as administrator seems to not work what do I do?
5. I Assume that I should run git init and heroku create inside the myapp folder is this correct?

Answer 1

1) I always keep my apps folders outside of the Homestead folder. Your Homestead folder contains a git project, so if you put your apps inside you should include the folder in the .gitignore file. I think it's easier if you just put your apps elsewhere.

2) Vagrantfile is suposed to only be inside of your Homestead folder ( c:\\Jack\\Homestead). You should run all your vagrant commands inside the Homestead folder.

3) I used to get this error when I tried to run 'vagrant up' to a project that used the same box name 'homestead-7'. If you have version control, check if the file c:\\Jack\\Homestead\\.vagrant\\machines\\homestead-7\\virtualbox\\id has been changed. If so, try restoring the old value and running 'vagrant up' again.

4) You are running in a windows environment, right? Windows can be a little temperamental with symlinks inside vagrant. You'll get the same problem if you try to npm install something. What I do to solve this is to run npm (and php artisan storage:link) outside of the virtual machine, in the host pc, inside the root of the app folder. Just a reminder: to do that you will need php installed in your host machine.

5) All commands related to the app (and not the virtual machine) should be run inside the virtual machine, in the folder app (ex: /home/vagrant/code/myapp) or inside the app folder of your host machine. Those two folders are in sync, thanks to vagrant.