Deployment Prerequisites

Essential requirements before deploying your homelab infrastructure

Before deploying any component of your homelab infrastructure, ensure you have the necessary tools and environment configured.

Required Software

Nix Package Manager

You must have Nix installed with Flakes support enabled.

1. Install Nix

   Follow the official installation guide at nixos.org or use the Determinate Systems installer:

   curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install
   
2. Verify Flakes are enabled

   Check that flakes are enabled in your Nix configuration:

   nix flake --version
   

   If flakes are not enabled, add the following to ~/.config/nix/nix.conf:

   experimental-features = nix-command flakes
   

Development Tools

The repository includes a development shell with all necessary tools. You can access it in two ways:

direnv (Recommended)

# Install direnv first if not already installed
nix profile install nixpkgs#direnv

# Navigate to repository and allow direnv
cd /path/to/homelab
direnv allow

The development shell includes:

• nil - Nix language server
• alejandra - Nix code formatter
• vulnix - Security vulnerability scanner
• age & agenix - Secrets management
• sops - Secrets operations
• ssh-to-age - SSH key conversion for age
• disko - Disk partitioning (Linux only)
• nixos-facter - Hardware detection (Linux only)

System Requirements

For NixOS Deployments

• Target system must be running NixOS or have NixOS installer available
• SSH access to remote systems (if deploying remotely)
• Sufficient disk space for Nix store (recommended: 20GB minimum)

For Home Manager Deployments

• Any Linux system with Nix installed
• Write permissions to user home directory
• Shell access (bash or zsh recommended)

For Nix-on-Droid Deployments

• Android device (ARM64 architecture)
• Termux or similar terminal emulator
• Storage permissions granted
• Stable internet connection for initial setup

Repository Structure

Familiarize yourself with the repository layout:

Directory	Purpose
systems/	NixOS host configurations
homes/	Home Manager user configurations
droids/	Nix-on-Droid Android configurations
modules/	Reusable modules (nixos/, home/, droid/)
pkgs/	Custom packages and overrides
lib/	Utility functions

Network Requirements

Initial deployments require internet access to download packages from Nix binary caches. Plan accordingly for large deployments.

• Access to cache.nixos.org (or configured substituters)
• GitHub access for flake inputs (if not using offline mode)
• SSH access for remote deployments

Secrets Management

If your configuration uses encrypted secrets:

• Ensure you have the appropriate age keys or SSH keys
• Secrets are managed using agenix
• Keys must be available before deployment on target systems

Next Steps

Once prerequisites are met, proceed to:

• Validating Changes - Always validate before deploying
• Deploying NixOS Systems
• Deploying Home Manager
• Deploying to Android