SkaraboxOS - opinionated NixOS installer

SkaraboxOS provides a flake template which combines:

  • Creating a bootable ISO, installable on an USB key.
  • nixos-anywhere to install NixOS headlessly.
  • disko to format the drives.
  • sops-nix to handle secrets.
  • deploy-rs to deploy updates.

SkaraboxOS expects a particular hardware layout:

  • 1 SSD or NVMe drive for the OS.
  • 2 Hard drives that will store data. Capacity depends on the amount of data that will be stored. They will be formatted in Raid 1 (mirror) so each hard drive should have the same size.

WARNING: The 3 disks will be formatted and completely wiped out of data.

At the end of the process, the server will:

  • Have an encrypted ZFS root partition using the NVMe drive, unlockable remotely through ssh.
  • Have an encrypted ZFS data hard drives.
  • Be accessible through ssh for administration and updates.
5 Likes

seems like a cool tool, i will be sure to try it out when i install NixOS on a new machine.

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Obligatory “zfs native encryption is iffy”: How good is ZFS on root on NixOS? - #9 by ElvishJerricco

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You picked all the libraries I’ve been looking at recently! Thank you so much for putting this together.

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