nix-server

My personal NixOS server configuration, managed entirely with Nix Flakes and Home Manager.

This is a fully declarative, reproducible setup running on a repurposed laptop (Intel Core i3 6th Gen · 12 GB RAM · 1 TB HDD) as a 24/7 home server.

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What this is

Instead of manually configuring a server and hoping it stays consistent, this repo is the server. Every package, service, user setting, and system option is declared in Nix. Rebuilding from scratch produces an identical result every time.

The entire system — from kernel parameters to shell aliases to editor plugins — is version-controlled here.

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Structure

.
├── flake.nix                 # Entry point — inputs and system definition
├── configuration.nix         # Root config, imports all modules
├── hardware-configuration.nix
├── modules/
│   ├── boot.nix              # systemd-boot, EFI
│   ├── networking.nix        # Static IP, firewall, network tools
│   ├── users.nix             # User accounts and groups
│   ├── packages.nix          # System-wide packages
│   ├── services.nix          # SSH, Tailscale, Samba, Avahi, cron
│   ├── security.nix          # SSH hardening, fail2ban, sudo policy
│   ├── power.nix             # CPU governor, ASPM power management
│   ├── virtualization.nix    # Docker with auto-prune
│   ├── monitoring.nix        # Netdata dashboard, btop, smartmontools
│   ├── maintenance.nix       # Nix GC, auto-upgrades, binary caches
│   ├── fonts.nix             # Nerd Fonts (MesloLGS, FiraCode, JetBrains)
│   └── shell.nix             # ZSH system config, Oh-My-Zsh, Powerlevel10k
└── home/
    ├── default.nix           # Home Manager root
    ├── packages.nix          # User-level packages (gh, glow, yazi, asciinema)
    ├── shell.nix             # ZSH + Bash — aliases, functions, fzf, zoxide
    ├── git.nix               # Git config, delta diffs, gh CLI
    ├── tools.nix             # bat, fzf, zoxide, eza, direnv, yazi
    ├── tmux.nix              # tmux with resurrect, continuum, catppuccin theme
    └── ssh.nix               # SSH client config, connection persistence

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Services running on this machine

These are all managed as Docker containers (via docker-compose) on top of the NixOS host:

| Service | Purpose |

|---|---| | Immich | Self-hosted photo backup with ML-based face recognition and scene classification | | Home Assistant | Home automation hub | | n8n | Workflow automation (with Postgres backend) | | Pi-hole | Network-wide DNS filtering and ad blocking | | Homepage | Self-hosted dashboard for all services | | qBittorrent | Torrent client | | Portainer | Docker container management UI |

Network access: all services are behind Tailscale for secure remote access, with Avahi mDNS for local LAN discovery (nix-server.local).

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Key system features

Declarative everything. Packages, services, fonts, shell config — all in Nix. sudo nixos-rebuild switch applies the full desired state.

Flakes with pinned inputs. nixpkgs and home-manager are locked via flake.lock, so builds are reproducible across time.

Home Manager integration. User environment (shell, editor config, git, tools) is managed alongside the system config in the same flake, using useGlobalPkgs and useUserPackages.

Power management. Running on laptop hardware means ASPM (Active State Power Management) tuning and schedutil CPU governor to keep idle power consumption low.

Netdata monitoring. Real-time system metrics available at http://nix-server.local:19999 on the local network.

Automatic maintenance. Weekly garbage collection (removes generations older than 14 days), weekly system upgrades at 3 AM Monday, automatic Docker image pruning.

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Shell environment

The ZSH setup (home/shell.nix) includes:

• Powerlevel10k prompt
• zoxide (z) for smart directory jumping
• fzf with Catppuccin Mocha colours and fd/bat integration
• eza replacing ls (icons, git status, tree view)
• bat replacing cat (Nord theme, syntax highlighting, man page rendering)
• lazygit and lazydocker for TUI git and container management
• NixOS-specific aliases (nrs, nrt, nixclean, nixgen, etc.)
• Docker aliases (dkps, dsh for fuzzy container shell entry)
• Shell functions: mkcd, extract, ff (fuzzy file open), fcd, fco, serve, sysinfo

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Hardware

Component	Spec
CPU	Intel Core i3 (6th Gen)
RAM	12 GB
Storage	1 TB HDD
Form factor	Repurposed laptop (lid closed, server mode)
Network	Wired Ethernet, static IP 192.168.1.34

The services.logind config ignores lid switch events so the machine runs headless continuously.

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Contribution to nixpkgs

While working with this setup I made a small upstream contribution: migrated the vegur package to use the installFonts setup hook instead of a manual install phase (PR #498949).

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Usage

# Apply configuration
sudo nixos-rebuild switch

# Test without activating
sudo nixos-rebuild test

# Upgrade and switch
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --upgrade

# Clean old generations
sudo nix-collect-garbage -d && sudo nix-store --optimise

Note: hardware-configuration.nix is machine-specific and won't work on different hardware without regenerating via nixos-generate-config.