TODO:

• setup beesd for deduplication
• setup system & services monitoring
• Optimize power consumption

Installation Guide

1. initial install using USB with nixos installer

   • set password for target machine to be able to reach it whith SSH passwd
   • use nixos-anywhere to deploy nix run github:numtide/nixos-anywhere -- --flake '.#svr' nixos@target_server_ip
   • format disk with sudo nix --extra-experimental-features nix-command --extra-experimental-features flakes run github:nix-community/disko -- --mode zap_create_mount ./hosts/svr/disko.nix --arg disks '[ "/dev/sda" ]'
   • clone repo -- sudo scp ../.sops/secrets/AGE_SECRET_KEY nixos@10.10.0.102:age.key -- nix-shell -p git -- git clone https://gitlab.com/cliarena_dotfiles/nixos -- add age.key to secrets folder

2. Disable Consul TLS encryption by commenting TLS block and rebuild

   • Because it needs agent certs from vault which needs to be configured using terranix which itself uses consul as its backend
   • sometimes rebuild fails because of vaul_initializer. don't worry just rebuild again and it will work

3. install it sudo nixos-install --flake .#host

   • subsequent installs sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#

4. unseal VAULT using sops keys

   • Vault is auto initialized by vaul_initializer
   • the keys are saved in /srv/vault/init.keys
   • create sops secrets out of them
   • unseal with:
     • nushell: for $x in 1..3 { cat $"../.sops/secrets/VAULT_UNSEAL_KEY_($x)" | xargs vault operator unseal }
   • be aware xargs do put its aguments into the process table

5. login to VAULT:

   • cat ../.sops/secrets/VAULT_ROOT_TOKEN | xargs vault login

6. Creat AppRole token for terranix

   • vault policy write terranix ./modules/hashi_stack/vault/policies/terranix.hcl
   • check if it's created: vault policy list, vault policy read terranix
   • vault auth enable approle
   • vault write auth/approle/role/terranix token_ttl=20m policies="default,terranix"
   • vault read auth/approle/role/terranix/role-id
   • save it in terranix default.nix vault.terraform_approle_id
   • Constrain role-id to only be usable by specefic machine so you don't need secret-id --- Constrained role-id > using secret-id --- vault write auth/approle/role/terranix bind_secret_id=false secret_id_bound_cidrs=127.0.0.1/24 change secret_id_bound_cidrs to the source address shown when running nix run .#apply but append /8 ---- most of the time this is enough from personal experience 172.0.0.1/8,168.0.0.1/8,188.0.0.1/8 ---- it fails some time because source address changes --- otherwise vault write -f auth/approle/role/terranix/secret-id save it somewhre safe -- set or adjust policies with vault write auth/approle/role/terranix/policies policies="default,terranix,..."
   • Check if terranix approle is set correctly vault read auth/approle/role/terranix

7. Creat AppRole token for Consul connect

   • vault policy write consul ./modules/hashi_stack/vault/policies/consul.hcl
   • check if it's created: vault policy list, vault policy read consul
   • vault write auth/approle/role/consul policies="consul"
   • vault read auth/approle/role/consul/role-id
   • save it as sops secret CONSUL_VAULT_ROLE_ID
   • vault write -f auth/approle/role/consul/secret-id save it somewhre safe
   • save it as sops secret CONSUL_VAULT_SECRET_ID
   • set or adjust policies with vault write auth/approle/role/consul/policies policies="default,consul,..."
   • Check if consul approle is set correctly vault read auth/approle/role/consul

8. apply terranix config nix run .#apply

9. run consul reload for ACLs to take effect

10. enable TLS. and rebuild

11. run nix run .#apply to finish basic setup of consul and vault