# Nixops deployments makes machines unreachable
**URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixops-deployments-makes-machines-unreachable/15216
**Category:** Uncategorized
**Created:** [September 26, 2021, 2:54am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixops-deployments-makes-machines-unreachable/15216 "2021-09-26T02:54:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@savannidgerinel](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/savannidgerinel)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2021, 2:54am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixops-deployments-makes-machines-unreachable/15216/1 "2021-09-26T02:54:48Z")
I’m experimenting with Nixops here on Digital Ocean, and I keep having troubles with my Nixops machines becoming unreachable.
To start with, I’m standing up the machine with Terraform, and I run a nixos-infect using Digital Ocean’s userdata. It takes a while, but it does work.
```auto
runcmd:
- curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elitak/nixos-infect/master/nixos-infect | PROVIDER=digitalocean NIX_CHANNEL=nixos-21.05 bash 2>&1 | tee /tmp/infect.log
```
So, after this is done, I try to deploy to the machine with nixops. My deployment script looks like this:
```auto
{
matrix =
{ config, pkgs, modulesPath, lib, ... }:
{
deployment.targetHost = "matrix.luminescent-dreams.com";
services.openssh.enable = true;
users.users.root.openssh.authorizedKeys.keys = [
"ssh-rsa ..."
];
imports = [(modulesPath + "/profiles/qemu-guest.nix")];
boot.loader.grub.device = "/dev/vda";
boot.initrd.kernelModules = ["nvme"];
fileSystems."/" = { device = "/dev/vda1"; fsType = "ext4"; };
};
}
```
So, I run this with nixops deploy, and it runs for a while, but then I see this block and the host becomes permanently unreachable.
```auto
matrix> stopping the following units: audit.service, kmod-static-nodes.service, mount-pstore.service, network-addresses-eth0.service, network-local-commands.service, network-setup.service, nix-daemon.service, nix-daemon.socket, nscd.service, resolvconf.service, systemd-journal-catalog-update.service, systemd-modules-load.service, systemd-sysctl.service, systemd-timesyncd.service, systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer, systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service, systemd-udev-trigger.service, systemd-udevd-control.socket, systemd-udevd-kernel.socket, systemd-udevd.service, systemd-update-done.service
matrix> error: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/nix/store/diswxhqf2hwylsxpvdz6wmr5z1qyj299-nixops-1.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nixops/deployment.py", line 743, in worker
raise Exception("unable to activate new configuration (exit code {})".format(res))
Exception: unable to activate new configuration (exit code 255)
```
So far as I can tell, `nixos-infect` hard-codes the IP address of the machine in the networking code. Do I need to copy that into the configuration that I deploy every time? Or is there something else involved here that I’m missing?
---
### Author:  [@nixinator](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/nixinator)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2021, 7:54pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixops-deployments-makes-machines-unreachable/15216/2 "2021-09-26T19:54:36Z")
what is a floating IP?
---
### Author:  [@ilkecan](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/ilkecan)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2021, 8:30pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixops-deployments-makes-machines-unreachable/15216/3 "2021-09-26T20:30:50Z")
Normally, when you create a server in the cloud a random IP address is assigned. So if you destroy and recreate the same infrastructure you would normally get different public IPs. But floating IPs allow you to reuse the same public IP. Basically you lease it.
Hetzner seems to charge extra for this but DigitalOcean only charges if you lease but don’t currently use it.
[https://docs.hetzner.com/cloud/floating-ips/faq/](https://docs.hetzner.com/cloud/floating-ips/faq/)
> **[Floating IPs](https://www.digitalocean.com/blog/floating-ips-start-architecting-your-applications-for-high-availability)**
>
> Helping millions of developers easily build, test, manage, and scale applications of any size - faster than ever before.
---
### Author:  [@nixinator](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/nixinator)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2021, 8:37pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixops-deployments-makes-machines-unreachable/15216/4 "2021-09-26T20:37:07Z")
ah, a static ip address assignment.
---
### Author:  [@savannidgerinel](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/savannidgerinel)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2021, 8:47pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixops-deployments-makes-machines-unreachable/15216/5 "2021-09-26T20:47:29Z")
Also, I severely mistyped. When I was originally writing this, I had a floating IP. I removed it in order remove a possible complication, but I’m still getting the same behavior. I’ll correct what I wrote above to reflect it.
---
### Author:  [@nixinator](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/nixinator)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2021, 8:03am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixops-deployments-makes-machines-unreachable/15216/6 "2021-09-27T08:03:45Z")
not a solution, but i’ve never liked nixos-infect, it’s a hack. a beautiful beautiful hack , but a hack non the less.
Have you consider a using a full nixos vps provider such as vpsfree or other providers that provide out of the box bare mental nixos images.
however, it’s probably not the issues here (perhaps) but if you remove ‘hacks’ and only pure nix remains, you got better chance of getting to the root cause.
> **[Virtual Private Servers free as in speech vpsFree.cz](https://vpsfree.org/)**
>
> vpsFree.cz is a nonprofit association, which runs virtual servers for its members. We provide a VPS for 12 euro/month.
rather than give digital ocean your hard earned cash who don’t give a monkies about nix, , give your money to where the nix rebels lurk, so they can eat and do more commits. :-).
---
### Author:  [@savannidgerinel](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/savannidgerinel)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2021, 12:45pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixops-deployments-makes-machines-unreachable/15216/7 "2021-09-27T12:45:47Z")
I haven’t ruled it out, but it’s not really what I want to do right now. Since DigitalOcean does seem to allow custom images, that may just be the next step that I take.
---
### Author:  [@nixinator](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/nixinator)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2021, 1:37pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixops-deployments-makes-machines-unreachable/15216/8 "2021-09-27T13:37:46Z")
email sent to digital ocean.
Dear Digital Ocean…
Please supply nixos images for you VM’s
Cheers,
Arch Linux User.
---
### Author:  [@savannidgerinel](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/savannidgerinel)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2021, 1:52pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixops-deployments-makes-machines-unreachable/15216/9 "2021-11-10T13:52:35Z")
I don’t remember who now, but somebody pointed me to a DigitalOcean image builder already present in nixpkgs. And pointed me to where to find the UI for uploading an image. So, I made an image with
```auto
{ pkgs ? import {} }:
let config = {
imports = [];
};
in (pkgs.nixos config).digitalOceanImage
```
And that is so far pretty successful, but only if I use `morph` instead of `nixops`. And then my machines seem to go into emergency mode when I try to attach a volume.
So, some success, but I’m certainly not where I want to be yet.