Rootconf Mini 2024

We software developers work on big scalable complex distributed systems in our day job. But some of us also like to run small personal servers to run some software for personal use, and we’d like this setup to be simple, yet reliable. Enter Nix, which lets us do this declaratively.

Nix is a system configuration language and package manager that is used to configure systems running on NixOS, an operating system based on Nix. NixOS also boasts of having the largest package repository of any OSes, the NixPkgs.

In this session, we’ll do a quick overview of:

• What are Nix, NixOS and NixPkgs.
• How to write system configurations in Nix, and deploy them to a server.
• How to maintain a server running NixOS.
• The good and bad sides of Nix.
• Some tips and tricks.

Alongside, we’ll also see a live demo of creating and deploying a personal server from scratch, running a Go service behind an HTTP proxy, and a periodic job running using Systemd, all configured in Nix.

This session is for all of those who run personal servers, or would like to do so, with minimal hassle and maximum reliability.