Employees should use nodeiwest as the supported provisioning interface
New machines are installed with nixos-anywhere
Ongoing changes are deployed with colmena
Hosts authenticate to OpenBao as clients
Tailscale auth keys are fetched from OpenBao namespace it, KV mount kv, path tailscale, field auth_key
Public SSH must work independently of Tailscale for first access and recovery

Repo Layout

flake.nix
hosts/
  vps[X]/
    configuration.nix
    disko.nix
    hardware-configuration.nix
modules/
  home.nix
  helpers/
    home.nix
  nixos/
    common.nix
    tailscale-init.nix
pkgs/
  helpers/
    cli.py
    templates/

Recommended Workflow

The supported employee path is the nodeiwest CLI.

It is exported from the root flake as .#nodeiwest-helper and installed by the shared Home Manager profile. You can also run it ad hoc with:

nix run .#nodeiwest-helper -- --help

Recommended sequence for a new VPS:

1. Probe The Live Host

nodeiwest host probe --ip <ip>

This validates SSH reachability and derives the boot mode, root device, primary disk candidate, and swap facts from the live machine.

2. Scaffold The Host Files

Dry-run first:

nodeiwest host init --name <name> --ip <ip>

Write after reviewing the plan:

nodeiwest host init --name <name> --ip <ip> --apply

This command:

probes the host unless you override disk or boot mode
creates or updates hosts/<name>/configuration.nix
creates or updates hosts/<name>/disko.nix
creates hosts/<name>/hardware-configuration.nix as a placeholder if needed
prints the exact flake.nix snippets still required for nixosConfigurations and colmena

3. Create The OpenBao Bootstrap Material

Dry-run first:

nodeiwest openbao init-host --name <name>

Apply after reviewing the policy and AppRole plan:

nodeiwest openbao init-host --name <name> --apply

This verifies your existing bao login, creates the host policy and AppRole, and writes:

bootstrap/var/lib/nodeiwest/openbao-approle-role-id
bootstrap/var/lib/nodeiwest/openbao-approle-secret-id

4. Plan Or Run The Install

nodeiwest install plan --name <name>
nodeiwest install run --name <name> --apply

install plan validates the generated host files and bootstrap files, then prints the exact nixos-anywhere command. install run re-validates, asks for confirmation, and executes that command.

5. Verify First Boot And Colmena Readiness

nodeiwest verify host --name <name> --ip <ip>
nodeiwest colmena plan --name <name>

verify host summarizes the first-boot OpenBao and Tailscale services over SSH. colmena plan confirms the deploy target or prints the exact missing host stanza.

Manual Flow (Fallback / Advanced)

This is the underlying sequence that nodeiwest automates. Keep it as the fallback path for unsupported host layouts or when you intentionally want to run the raw commands yourself.

1. Prepare The Host Entry

Create a new directory under hosts/<name>/ with:

configuration.nix
disko.nix
hardware-configuration.nix

configuration.nix should import both disko.nix and hardware-configuration.nix.

Example:

{ lib, ... }:
{
  imports = [
    ./disko.nix
    ./hardware-configuration.nix
  ];

  networking.hostName = "vps1";
  networking.useDHCP = lib.mkDefault true;

  time.timeZone = "UTC";

  boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;
  boot.loader.grub = {
    enable = true;
    efiSupport = true;
    device = "nodev";
  };

  nodeiwest.ssh.userCAPublicKeys = [
    "ssh-ed25519 AAAA... openbao-user-ca"
  ];

  nodeiwest.tailscale.openbao.enable = true;

  system.stateVersion = "25.05";
}

2. Add The Host To `flake.nix`

Add the host to:

nixosConfigurations
colmena

For colmena, set:

deployment.targetHost
deployment.targetUser = "root"
tags as needed

Discover Disk And Boot Facts

Before writing disko.nix, inspect the current VPS over SSH:

ssh root@<ip> 'lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MODEL,FSTYPE,PTTYPE,MOUNTPOINTS'
ssh root@<ip> 'test -d /sys/firmware/efi && echo UEFI || echo BIOS'
ssh root@<ip> 'findmnt -no SOURCE /'
ssh root@<ip> 'cat /proc/swaps'

Use that output to decide:

disk device name: /dev/sda, /dev/vda, /dev/nvme0n1, etc.
boot mode: UEFI or BIOS
partition layout you want disko to create

hosts/vps1/disko.nix currently assumes:

GPT
/dev/sda
UEFI
ext4 root
swap partition

Do not install blindly if those assumptions are wrong.

Generate `hardware-configuration.nix`

hardware-configuration.nix is generated during install with nixos-anywhere.

The repo path is passed directly to the install command:

--generate-hardware-config nixos-generate-config ./hosts/<name>/hardware-configuration.nix

That generated file should remain tracked in Git after install.

OpenBao Setup For Tailscale

Each host gets its own AppRole.

The host uses:

OpenBao address: https://secrets.api.nodeiwest.se
namespace: it
KV mount: kv
auth mount: auth/approle
secret path: tailscale
field: auth_key

The host stores:

/var/lib/nodeiwest/openbao-approle-role-id
/var/lib/nodeiwest/openbao-approle-secret-id

The rendered Tailscale auth key lives at:

/run/nodeiwest/tailscale-auth-key

Create A Policy

Create a minimal read-only policy for the Tailscale secret.

If the secret is accessible as:

BAO_NAMESPACE=it bao kv get -mount=kv tailscale

then create the matching read policy for that mount.

Example shape for the KV v2 mount kv:

path "kv/data/tailscale" {
  capabilities = ["read"]
}

Write it from your machine:

export BAO_ADDR=https://secrets.api.nodeiwest.se
export BAO_NAMESPACE=it

bao policy write tailscale-vps1 ./tailscale-vps1-policy.hcl

Adjust the path to match your actual OpenBao KV mount.

Create The AppRole

Create one AppRole per host.

Example for vps1:

bao write auth/approle/role/tailscale-vps1 \
  token_policies=tailscale-vps1 \
  token_ttl=1h \
  token_max_ttl=24h \
  token_num_uses=0 \
  secret_id_num_uses=0

Generate Bootstrap Credentials

Create a temporary bootstrap directory on your machine:

mkdir -p bootstrap/var/lib/nodeiwest

Write the AppRole credentials into it:

bao read -field=role_id auth/approle/role/tailscale-vps1/role-id \
  > bootstrap/var/lib/nodeiwest/openbao-approle-role-id

bao write -f -field=secret_id auth/approle/role/tailscale-vps1/secret-id \
  > bootstrap/var/lib/nodeiwest/openbao-approle-secret-id

chmod 0400 bootstrap/var/lib/nodeiwest/openbao-approle-role-id
chmod 0400 bootstrap/var/lib/nodeiwest/openbao-approle-secret-id

These files are install-time bootstrap material. They are not stored in Git.

Install With `nixos-anywhere`

Install from your machine:

nix run github:nix-community/nixos-anywhere -- \
  --extra-files ./bootstrap \
  --copy-host-keys \
  --generate-hardware-config nixos-generate-config ./hosts/vps1/hardware-configuration.nix \
  --flake .#vps1 \
  root@100.101.167.118

What this does:

wipes the target disk according to hosts/vps1/disko.nix
installs NixOS with .#vps1
copies the AppRole bootstrap files into /var/lib/nodeiwest
generates hosts/vps1/hardware-configuration.nix

Important:

this destroys the existing OS on the target
take provider snapshots and application backups first
the target SSH host keys may change after install

First Boot Behavior

On first boot:

vault-agent-tailscale.service starts using pkgs.openbao
it authenticates to OpenBao with AppRole
it renders auth_key from namespace it, KV mount kv, path tailscale to /run/nodeiwest/tailscale-auth-key
nodeiwest-tailscale-authkey-ready.service waits until that file exists
tailscaled-autoconnect.service uses that file and runs tailscale up --ssh

Public SSH remains the recovery path if OpenBao or Tailscale bootstrap fails.

Verify After Install

SSH to the host over the public IP first.

Check:

systemctl status vault-agent-tailscale
systemctl status nodeiwest-tailscale-authkey-ready
systemctl status tailscaled-autoconnect

ls -l /var/lib/nodeiwest
ls -l /run/nodeiwest/tailscale-auth-key

tailscale status

If Tailscale bootstrap fails, inspect logs:

journalctl -u vault-agent-tailscale -b
journalctl -u nodeiwest-tailscale-authkey-ready -b
journalctl -u tailscaled-autoconnect -b

Typical causes:

wrong AppRole credentials
wrong OpenBao policy
wrong secret path
wrong KV mount path
auth_key field missing in the secret

Deploy Changes After Install

Once the host is installed and reachable, use Colmena:

nix run .#colmena -- apply --on vps1

Rotating The AppRole SecretID

To rotate the machine credential:

generate a new secret_id from your machine
replace /var/lib/nodeiwest/openbao-approle-secret-id on the host
restart the agent