160 lines
8.1 KiB
Markdown
160 lines
8.1 KiB
Markdown
# Self Host Blocks
|
|
|
|
*Modular server management based on NixOS modules and focused on best practices.*
|
|
|
|
[](https://github.com/ibizaman/selfhostblocks/actions/workflows/pages.yml)
|
|
[](https://garnix.io) (using Garnix)
|
|
[](https://github.com/ibizaman/selfhostblocks/actions/workflows/demo.yml)
|
|
|
|
SHB's (Self Host Blocks) is yet another server management tool whose goal is to provide better
|
|
building blocks for self-hosting. Indeed, SHB provides opinionated [building
|
|
blocks](#available-blocks) fitting together to self-host any service you'd want. Some [common
|
|
services](#provided-services) are provided out of the box.
|
|
|
|
SHB's goal is to make these building blocks plug-and-play. To achieve this, SHB pioneers
|
|
[contracts](https://shb.skarabox.com/contracts.html) which allows you, the final user, to be more in
|
|
control of which pieces go where. The promise here is to let you choose, for example, any reverse
|
|
proxy you want or any database you want, without requiring work from maintainers of the services you
|
|
want to self host.
|
|
|
|
To achieve all this, SHB is using the full power of NixOS modules and NixOS VM tests. Indeed, each
|
|
building block and each service is a NixOS module using modules defined in
|
|
[Nixpkgs](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/) and they are tested using full VMs on every commit.
|
|
|
|
## TOC
|
|
|
|
<!--toc:start-->
|
|
- [Usage](#usage)
|
|
- [Manual](#manual)
|
|
- [Roadmap](#roadmap)
|
|
- [Available Blocks](#available-blocks)
|
|
- [Provided Services](#provided-services)
|
|
- [Demos](#demos)
|
|
- [Community](#community)
|
|
- [License](#license)
|
|
<!--toc:end-->
|
|
|
|
## Usage
|
|
|
|
> **Caution:** You should know that although I am using everything in this repo for my personal
|
|
> production server, this is really just a one person effort for now and there are most certainly
|
|
> bugs that I didn't discover yet.
|
|
|
|
Self Host Blocks is available as a flake. To use it in your project, add the following flake input:
|
|
|
|
```nix
|
|
inputs.selfhostblocks.url = "github:ibizaman/selfhostblocks";
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
This is not quite enough though and more information is provided in [the
|
|
manual](https://shb.skarabox.com/usage.html).
|
|
|
|
- You are new to self hosting and want pre-configured services to deploy easily. Look at the
|
|
[services section](https://shb.skarabox.com/services.html).
|
|
- You are a seasoned self-hoster but want to enhance some services you deploy already. Go to the
|
|
[blocks section](https://shb.skarabox.com/blocks.html).
|
|
- You are a user of Self Host Blocks but would like to use your own implementation for a block. Go
|
|
to the [contracts section](https://shb.skarabox.com/contracts.html).
|
|
|
|
Head over to the [matrix channel](https://matrix.to/#/#selfhostblocks:matrix.org) for any remaining
|
|
question, or just to say hi :)
|
|
|
|
## Why yet another self hosting tool?
|
|
|
|
By using Self Host Blocks, you get all the benefits of NixOS which are, for self hosted applications
|
|
specifically:
|
|
|
|
- declarative configuration;
|
|
- atomic configuration rollbacks;
|
|
- real programming language to define configurations;
|
|
- user-defined abstractions (create your own functions or NixOS modules on top of SHB!);
|
|
- integration with the rest of nixpkgs;
|
|
- much fewer "works on my machine" type of issues.
|
|
|
|
In no particular order, here are some aspects of SHB which I find interesting and differentiates it
|
|
from other server management projects:
|
|
|
|
- SHB intends to be a library, not a framework. You can either go all in and use SHB provided
|
|
services directly or use just one block in your existing infrastructure.
|
|
- SHB introduces [contracts](https://shb.skarabox.com/contracts.html) to allow you to swap
|
|
implementation for each self-hosting need. For example, you should be able to use the reverse
|
|
proxy you want without modifying any services depending on it.
|
|
- SHB contracts also allows you to use your own custom implementation instead of the provided one,
|
|
as long as it follows the contract and passes the tests.
|
|
- SHB provides at least one implementation for each contract like backups, SSL certificates, reverse
|
|
proxy, VPN, etc. Those are called blocks here and are documented in [the
|
|
manual](https://shb.skarabox.com/blocks.html).
|
|
- SHB provides several services out of the box fully using the blocks provided. Those can also be
|
|
found in [the manual](https://shb.skarabox.com/services.html).
|
|
- SHB follows nixpkgs unstable branch closely. There is a GitHub action running daily that updates
|
|
the `nixpkgs` input in the root `flakes.nix`, runs the tests and merges a PR with the new input if
|
|
the tests pass.
|
|
|
|
## Manual
|
|
|
|
The manual can be found at [shb.skarabox.com](https://shb.skarabox.com/).
|
|
|
|
Work is in progress to document everything in the manual but I'm not there yet. For what's not yet
|
|
documented, unfortunately the source code is the best place to read about them.
|
|
[Here](./modules/services) for services and [here](./modules/blocks) for blocks.
|
|
|
|
## Roadmap
|
|
|
|
Currently, the Nextcloud service and SSL block are the most advanced and most documented.
|
|
|
|
Documenting all services and blocks will be done as I make all blocks and services use the
|
|
contracts.
|
|
|
|
Upstreaming changes is also on the roadmap.
|
|
|
|
Check [the issues](https://github.com/ibizaman/selfhostblocks/issues) to see planned works. Feel
|
|
free to add more!
|
|
|
|
That being said, I am personally using all the blocks and services in this project, so they do work
|
|
to some extent.
|
|
|
|
## Available Blocks
|
|
|
|
- [`authelia.nix`](./modules/blocks/authelia.nix) for Single Sign On.
|
|
- [`backup.nix`](./modules/blocks/backup.nix).
|
|
- [`ldap.nix`](./modules/blocks/ldap.nix) for user management.
|
|
- [`monitoring.nix`](./modules/blocks/monitoring.nix) for dashboards, logs and alerts.
|
|
- [`nginx.nix`](./modules/blocks/nginx.nix) for reverse proxy with SSL termination.
|
|
- [`postgresql.nix`](./modules/blocks/postgresql.nix) for database setup.
|
|
- [`ssl.nix`](./modules/blocks/ssl.nix) for maintaining self-signed SSL certificates or certificates provided by Let's Encrypt.
|
|
- [`tinyproxy.nix`](./modules/blocks/tinyproxy.nix) to forward traffic to a VPN tunnel.
|
|
- [`vpn.nix`](./modules/blocks/vpn.nix) to setup a VPN tunnel.
|
|
|
|
## Provided Services
|
|
|
|
- [`arr.nix`](./modules/services/arr.nix) for finding media https://wiki.servarr.com/.
|
|
- [`deluge.nix`](./modules/services/deluge.nix) for downloading linux isos https://deluge-torrent.org/.
|
|
- [`hledger.nix`](./modules/services/hledger.nix) for managing finances https://hledger.org/.
|
|
- [`home-assistant.nix`](./modules/services/home-assistant.nix) for private IoT https://www.home-assistant.io/.
|
|
- [`jellyfin.nix`](./modules/services/jellyfin.nix) for watching media https://jellyfin.org/.
|
|
- [Nextcloud Server](https://shb.skarabox.com/services-nextcloud.html) for private documents, contacts, calendar, etc https://nextcloud.com.
|
|
- [`vaultwarden.nix`](./modules/services/vaultwarden.nix) for passwords https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden.
|
|
- [`audiobookshelf.nix`](./modules/services/audiobookshelf.nix) for hosting podcasts and audio books https://www.audiobookshelf.org/.
|
|
|
|
## Demos
|
|
|
|
Demos that start and deploy a service on a Virtual Machine on your computer are located under the
|
|
[demo](./demo/) folder. These show the onboarding experience you would get if you deployed one of
|
|
the services on your own server.
|
|
|
|
## Community
|
|
|
|
All issues and PRs are welcome. For PRs, if they are substantial changes, please open an issue to
|
|
discuss the details first. More details in [here](https://shb.skarabox.com/contributing.html).
|
|
|
|
Come hang out in the [Matrix channel](https://matrix.to/#/%23selfhostblocks%3Amatrix.org). :)
|
|
|
|
One aspect that's close to my heart is I intent to make SHB the lightest layer on top of nixpkgs as
|
|
possible. I want to upstream as much as possible. I will still take some time to experiment here but
|
|
when I'm satisfied with how things look, I'll upstream changes.
|
|
|
|
## License
|
|
|
|
I'm following the [Nextcloud](https://github.com/nextcloud/server) license which is AGPLv3. See
|
|
[this article](https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2021/fall/the-fundamentals-of-the-agplv3) from the FSF that explains what this license adds to the GPL
|
|
one.
|