info_tfgrid_manual/tosort/playground/nixos_micro.md

NixOS MicroVM

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Access the ThreeFold Playground
• Deploy a NixOS MicroVM
• Questions and Feedback

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Introduction

NixOS MicroVM refers to a minimalistic virtual machine environment based on the NixOS Linux distribution. The NixOS MicroVM leverages these principles to create a highly customizable and reproducible virtual machine environment. It allows users to define the entire system configuration, including packages, services, and dependencies, in a declarative manner using the Nix language. This ensures that the MicroVM is consistent, easily reproducible, and can be version-controlled.

In this guide, will learn how to make reproducible, declarative and reliable systems by deploying a NixOS MicroVM weblet in ThreeFold Playground.

For more information on Nix, you can read the Nix Reference Manual.

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Access the ThreeFold Playground

• Go to the ThreeFold Playground website, based on the deployment network you prefer:

  • Mainnet
  • Testnet
  • Devnet
  • QAnet

• Make sure you have a wallet

• Click on the Micro Virtual Machine tab to start your NixOS MicroVM Deployment

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Deploy a NixOS MicroVM

We now present the main steps to properly configure your NixOS MicroVM running on the TFGrid.

• In the section Config, make sure to select Nixos as the VM Image. You can choose different parameters (CPU, Memory, etc.) for your deployment depending on your workload needs.

• In the section Environment Variables, you can add the default configurations for Nix. Here's an example:

  • { pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> { } }:
    let pythonEnv = pkgs.python3.withPackages(ps: [ ]); in pkgs.mkShell { packages = [ pythonEnv ]; }
    

    • This will be written to /root/default.nix. You can change the Nix shell configuration there.

• In the section Disks, you should mount a disk large enough for Nix to store its files used for nix-store.

• Once your configured the parameters, you can deploy the MicroVM.

If you need more information on how to SSH into your deployment, read this section of the TF Manual.

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Questions and Feedback

You should now be able to easily deploy a NixOS MicroVM on the ThreeFold Grid.

If you have any question or feedback, you can write a post on the ThreeFold Forum.