Disnixos
DisnixOS: A Disnix extension providing complementary infrastructure deployment using NixOS
Install / Use
/learn @svanderburg/DisnixosREADME
DisnixOS
DisnixOS is a distributed infrastructure deployment extension for Disnix. Disnix's responsibility is to deploy distributable components (i.e. services) into a network of machines. However, the underlying system configurations of these machines (the infrastructure) also need to be deployed and upgraded.
DisnixOS provides complementary infrastructure deployment using NixOS, a Linux distribution that allows entire system configurations to be deployed with the Nix package manager from a single declarative specification.
Optionally, it can use NixOps, a NixOS-based cloud deployment tool to perform infrastructure deployment. NixOps supports automatic instantiation and provision of VM instances.
Prerequisites
In order to build Disnix from source code, the following packages are required:
When building directly from a Git clone, you also need:
These dependencies can be acquired with the Nix package manager, your host system's package manager or be compiled from sources. Consult the documentation of your distribution or the corresponding packages for more information.
Installation
DisnixOS is a typical autotools based package which can be compiled and installed by running the following commands in a shell session:
$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install
When building from the Git repository, you should run the bootstrap script first:
$ ./bootstrap
For more information about using the autotools setup or for customizing the
configuration, take a look at the ./INSTALL file.
Usage
DisnixOS supports various deployment operations.
Deploying infrastructure
In order to deploy infrastructure (i.e. a network of NixOS machines), one must create on or more NixOS network models that define a network of NixOS configurations.
By running the following command-line instruction with at least one network model as a parameter, the system configuration will be deployed through Disnix:
$ disnixos-deploy-network network.nix
Deploying services and infrastructure at the same time
Besides infrastructure only, we can also deploy services and infrastructure at the same time. For example:
$ disnixos-env -s services.nix -n network.nix -d distribution.nix
The above command-line instruction first deploys the infrastructure and then the services using Disnix. The infrastructure model is generated automatically from the NixOS network model.
Deploying services and infrastructure in a network of QEMU VMs
We can also spawn a network of efficiently instantiated QEMU VMs in which a service-oriented system is deployed through Disnix:
$ disnixos-vm-env -s services.nix -n network.nix -d distribution.nix
The above command uses NixOS' test driver to quickly set up VMs and is paricularly useful to quickly test a deployment.
Deploying infrastructure through NixOps and services through Disnix
We can also use NixOps to instantiate and deploy infrastructure, and use Disnix to deploy the services to the corresponding VM instances.
The following command instantiates and deploys a network of VirtualBox machines:
$ nixops create ./network.nix ./network-virtualbox.nix -d test
$ nixops deploy -d test
The following environment variable specifies that we want to deploy in a network
called test that is deployed by NixOps:
$ export NIXOPS_DEPLOYMENT=test
The following command deploys the services into the network deployed by NixOps:
$ disnixos-env -s services.nix -n network.nix -n network-virtualbox.nix -d distribution.nix --use-nixops
Automated testing of Disnix deployments
Another feature of this package are function abstractions that can be used to non-interactively test a Disnix deployment from within a Nix build for testing purposes. Consult the manual for more details on this.
Manual
DisnixOS has a nice Docbook manual that can be compiled yourself. However, it is also available online.
License
DisnixOS is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. Disnix is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
