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