Crafting Systems on NixOS: Part 2
In this live series, I’m rebuilding my entire NixOS system configuration from the ground up. This setup powers my daily driver laptop, backup machine, and a network of self-hosted servers I've used every day for a few years now. I’ll walk through how everything fits together, what I’ve learned so far, and how I plan to evolve it over time.
In this session, I'm going to first invest some time and implement what Andi suggested in the previous part and use `build vm` for testing my setup (instead of the VPS, which I was using). Then I'll continue solving the issue of requiring the secret files to be shared within the repository for age-nix to work.
Timestamps
00:00:00 Stream warm up
00:01:00 Intro; plan for a longer working session
00:02:13 Today’s goals: test VM instead of VPS; fix agenix
00:04:11 SOPS vs agenix; choosing file-based agenix
00:05:01 Build-VM approach from gist; plan of attack
00:07:14 VM builds and boots successfully
00:09:19 Networking confusion; no DHCP in the VM
00:16:02 Create test-machine config; user, locale, basics
00:27:29 Forward SSH port via virtualization.forwardPorts
00:33:03 SSH into the VM confirmed
00:41:08 Secrets as submodule runs into flake constraints
00:53:06 Switch to private “secrets” flake; clean build
01:16:24 Finalize agenix wiring via flake inputs; simpler flow
01:20:23 Pass module options correctly; Pi-hole domain works
01:32:46 Postgres backups enabled and verified
01:49:13 Decision: prefer microVM over build-VM for stable identity
#nixos #home-manager #devops #linux #homelab