redbrick/docs

# NixOS

Familiarise yourself with the layout of the following. Bookmarking the page is also a good shout.

[NixOS documentation](https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/)

## Who is NixOS and what Does He Do

NixOS is a distribution of linux that is focused on having a config-first operating system to run services. The advantages of such an approach are the following:

- Files dictate how an installation is set up, and as such, can be versioned and tracked in your favourite VCS.
- New configs can be tested, and safely rolled back.
- Can be used for both physical and virtual machines in the same way.

Further reading on this can be found on the [about page](https://nixos.org/nixos/about.html).

## Being an Admin: NixOS and You

There's a couple of things you'll need to do before you get started with NixOS:

- First and foremost is to get set up to contribute to the [Redbrick nix-configs repo](https://github.com/redbrick/nix-configs).

Depending on the powers that be, some sort of normal pr contribution will be acceptable, if you have access a branch is appropriate, in all other cases make a fork and pr back to Redbrick's repo. This will be case by case for those of you reading.

Here's a quick hit list of stuff that's worthy of book marking also as you work with Nix:

- [NixOS Wiki](https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Main_Page)
- [NixOS Manual](https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/)
- [Nixpkgs index](https://nixos.org/nixos/packages.html?channel=nixpkgs-unstable)
  (unstable means changing, not buggy)
- [Grafana config options](https://nixos.org/nixos/options.html#services.grafana)
  (as an example of how to configure an individual service)

Nix is pretty small as an OS so setting yourself up a node, either as a home server, or as a VM is a solid way to practice how stuff works in an actual environment and lets you work independently of Redbrick. A service you configure at home should be able to run on Redbrick, and vice versa.

### Getting Set up to Start Deploying Stuff

- The first step is to navigate to the ssh service config in the nix-config repo [here](https://github.com/redbrick/nix-configs/blob/master/services/ssh.nix).

- Make a pull request asking to add the **PUBLIC KEY** of your ssh key pait to the config file.
    - The best thing to do is to copy the previous line and modify it to contain your details instead.
    - At time of writing, it is expected for you to generate a `ssh-ed25519` key. This is subject to change with new cryprographic standards.
- Once this is done, contact one of the currently set up users to pull and reload the given machines and you'll have access right away using the accompanying key.