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nix-bitcoin/docs/install.md
nixbitcoin b0039d68a0
docs: discourage users from ssh'ing into the root user 
Instead recommend using the operator user for all normal system
management tasks.
2021-02-09 12:44:06 +00:00

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Preliminary steps

Get a machine to deploy nix-bitcoin on. This could be a VirtualBox, a machine that is already running NixOS or a cloud provider. Have a look at the options in the NixOps manual.

Tutorials

  1. Install and configure NixOS for nix-bitcoin on VirtualBox
  2. Install and configure NixOS for nix-bitcoin on VirtualBox (macOS host)
  3. Install and configure NixOS for nix-bitcoin on your own hardware

Tutorial: install and configure NixOS for nix-bitcoin on VirtualBox

1. VirtualBox installation

  1. Add virtualbox.list to /etc/apt/sources.list.d (Debian 9 stretch)

    echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian stretch contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list

  2. Add Oracle VirtualBox public key

    wget https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc
gpg2 oracle_vbox_2016.asc

    Proceed only if fingerprint reads B9F8 D658 297A F3EF C18D 5CDF A2F6 83C5 2980 AECF

    sudo apt-key add oracle_vbox_2016.asc

  3. Install virtualbox-5.2

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.2

  4. Create Host Adapter in VirtualBox

    vboxmanage hostonlyif create

2. Nix installation

The following steps are meant to be run on the machine you deploy from, not the machine you deploy to. You can also build Nix from source by following the instructions at https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#ch-installing-source.

  1. Install Dependencies (Debian 9 stretch)

    sudo apt-get install curl git gnupg2 dirmngr

  2. Install latest Nix in "multi-user mode" with GPG Verification according to https://nixos.org/nix/download.html

    curl -o install-nix-2.3.3 https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.3.3/install
curl -o install-nix-2.3.3.asc https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.3.3/install.asc
gpg2 --recv-keys B541D55301270E0BCF15CA5D8170B4726D7198DE
gpg2 --verify ./install-nix-2.3.3.asc
sh ./install-nix-2.3.3 --daemon

    Then follow the instructions. Open a new terminal window when you're done.

    If you get an error similar to

    error: cloning builder process: Operation not permitted
error: unable to start build process
/tmp/nix-binary-tarball-unpack.hqawN4uSPr/unpack/nix-2.2.1-x86_64-linux/install: unable to install Nix into your default profile

    you're likely not installing as multi-user because you forgot to pass the --daemon flag to the install script.

  3. Optional: Disallow substitutes

    You can put substitute = false to your nix.conf usually found in /etc/nix/ to build the packages from source. This eliminates an attack vector where nix's build server or binary cache is compromised.

3. Setup deployment directory

  1. Clone this project

    cd
git clone https://github.com/fort-nix/nix-bitcoin

  2. Obtain the hash of the latest nix-bitcoin release

    cd nix-bitcoin/examples
nix-shell

    This will download the nix-bitcoin dependencies and might take a while without giving an output. Now in the nix-shell run

    fetch-release > nix-bitcoin-release.nix

  3. Create a new directory for your nix-bitcoin deployment and copy initial files from nix-bitcoin

    cd ../../
mkdir nix-bitcoin-node
cd nix-bitcoin-node
cp -r ../nix-bitcoin/examples/{configuration.nix,nixops,shell.nix,nix-bitcoin-release.nix} .

4. Deploy with NixOps

  1. Enter nix-shell, which drops you into an environment with all the project dependencies loaded (docs).

    nix-shell

    Note that a new directory secrets/ appeared which contains the secrets for your node.

  2. Create a nixops deployment in nix-shell.

    nixops create nixops/node.nix nixops/node-vbox.nix -d bitcoin-node

  3. Adjust your configuration by opening the configuration.nix file and enable/disable the modules you want by editing this file. Pay particular attention to lines that are preceded by FIXME comments.

  4. Deploy with nixops in nix-shell

    nixops deploy -d bitcoin-node

    This will now create a nix-bitcoin node on the target machine.

  5. Nixops automatically creates an ssh key for use with nixops ssh. Access bitcoin-node through ssh in nix-shell with

    nixops ssh operator@bitcoin-node

For security reasons, all normal system management tasks can and should be performed with the operator user. Logging in as root should be done as rarely as possible.

See usage.md for usage instructions, such as how to update.

To resize the VM disk image, you can use this helper script from within nix-shell:

../nix-bitcoin/helper/vbox-resize-disk1.sh --help

Tutorial: install and configure NixOS for nix-bitcoin on VirtualBox (macOS host)

1. VirtualBox installation (macOS)

  1. Download and install VirtualBox Use the official Downloads page: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

    Make sure that the installer you download shows a lock icon in the top right corner to make sure it is signed by Oracle.

  2. Create Host Adapter in VirtualBox

    vboxmanage hostonlyif create

2. Nix installation (macOS)

Follow the instructions from Nix installation on debian. You will may need to replace gpg2 with gpg.

3. LinuxKit Nix installation

In order to build binaries for your linux (NixOS) virtual machine on a macOS host machine, you need to use linuxkit-nix. It uses hyperkit to spin up a separate VM on which it builds binaries. An alternative solution is nix-docker-build-slave.

  1. Installation

    nix-env -i /nix/store/jgq3savsyyrpsxvjlrz41nx09z7r0lch-linuxkit-builder
nix-linuxkit-configure

    You may want to use nix-linuxkit-configure -c 4 to give the builder 4 CPUs.

  2. Confirm that nix-linuxkit works

    nix-build ~/.cache/nix-linuxkit-builder/example.nix

    As the installer says, run a nix-build to make sure that you are able to build linux binaries. The example.nix is specifically configured to force a x86_64-linux build. Remove the generated result folder afterwards.

4. Nixops deployment (macOS)

Follow the instructions from Nixops deployment on debian. Add --option system x86_64-linux to the nixops deploy command in step 5 to force your system to use linuxkit-nix.

Tutorial: install and configure NixOS for nix-bitcoin on your own hardware

0. Preparation

  1. Optional: Make sure you have the latest firmware for your system (BIOS, microcode updates).

  2. Optional: Disable Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT) in the BIOS

    Researchers recommend disabling (SMT), also known as Hyper-Threading Technology in the Intel® world to significantly reduce the impact of speculative execution-based attacks (https://mdsattacks.com/).

1. NixOS installation

This is borrowed from the NixOS manual. Look there for more information.

  1. Obtain latest NixOS. For example:

    wget https://releases.nixos.org/nixos/19.09/nixos-19.09.2284.bf7c0f0461e/nixos-minimal-19.09.2284.bf7c0f0461e-x86_64-linux.iso
sha256sum nixos-minimal-19.09.2284.bf7c0f0461e-x86_64-linux.iso
# output: 9768eb945bef410fccfb82cb3d2e7ce7c02c3430aed0f2f1527273cb080fff3e

    Alternatively you can build NixOS from source by following the instructions at https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/index.html#sec-building-cd.

  2. Write NixOS iso to install media (USB/CD). For example:

    cp nixos-minimal-19.09.2284.bf7c0f0461e-x86_64-linux.iso /dev/sdX

    Replace /dev/sdX with the correct device name. You can find this using sudo fdisk -l

  3. Boot the system

    You will have to find out if your hardware uses UEFI or Legacy Boot for the next step.

  4. Option 1: Partition and format for UEFI

    parted /dev/sda -- mklabel gpt
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 512MiB -8GiB
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap -8GiB 100%
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 512MiB
parted /dev/sda -- set 3 boot on
mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/sda1
mkswap -L swap /dev/sda2
mkfs.fat -F 32 -n boot /dev/sda3
mount /dev/disk/by-label/nixos /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/boot
mount /dev/disk/by-label/boot /mnt/boot
swapon /dev/sda2

  5. Option 2: Partition and format for Legacy Boot (MBR)

    parted /dev/sda -- mklabel msdos
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 1MiB -8GiB
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap -8GiB 100%
mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/sda1
mkswap -L swap /dev/sda2
mount /dev/disk/by-label/nixos /mnt
swapon /dev/sda2

  6. Option 3: Set up encrypted partitions:

    Follow the guide at https://gist.github.com/martijnvermaat/76f2e24d0239470dd71050358b4d5134.

  7. Generate NixOS config

    nixos-generate-config --root /mnt
nano /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix

    Option 1: Edit NixOS configuration for UEFI

    { config, pkgs, ... }: {
  imports = [
    # Include the results of the hardware scan.
    ./hardware-configuration.nix
  ];

  boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;

  # Note: setting fileSystems is generally not
  # necessary, since nixos-generate-config figures them out
  # automatically in hardware-configuration.nix.
  #fileSystems."/".device = "/dev/disk/by-label/nixos";

  # Enable the OpenSSH server.
  services.openssh = {
    enable = true;
    permitRootLogin = "yes";
  };
}

    Option 2: Edit NixOS configuration for Legacy Boot (MBR)

    { config, pkgs, ... }: {
  imports = [
    # Include the results of the hardware scan.
    ./hardware-configuration.nix
  ];

  boot.loader.grub.device = "/dev/sda";

  # Note: setting fileSystems is generally not
  # necessary, since nixos-generate-config figures them out
  # automatically in hardware-configuration.nix.
  #fileSystems."/".device = "/dev/disk/by-label/nixos";

  # Enable the OpenSSH server.
  services.openssh = {
    enable = true;
    permitRootLogin = "yes";
  };
}

  8. Do the installation

    nixos-install

    Set root password

    setting root password...
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:

  9. If everything went well

    reboot

2. Nix installation

Follow the Nix installation instructions from the tutorial above (on the machine you are going to deploy from).

3. Setup deployment directory

Follow the Setup deployment directory instructions from the tutorial above (on the machine you are going to deploy from).

4. Deploy with NixOps

  1. Make sure you are in the deployment directory and create a nixops network file as follows

    nano nixops/node-nixos.nix

    {
  bitcoin-node =
    { config, pkgs, ... }:
    { deployment.targetHost = "1.2.3.4";
    };
}

    Replace 1.2.3.4 with NixOS machine's IP address.

  2. Edit configuration.nix

    nano configuration.nix

    Uncomment ./hardware-configuration.nix line by removing #.

  3. Create hardware-configuration.nix.

    nano hardware-configuration.nix

    Copy contents of your NixOS machine's /etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix to this file.

  4. Add boot option to hardware-configuration.nix

    Option 1: Enable systemd boot for UEFI

    boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;

    Option 2: Set grub device for Legacy Boot (MBR)

    boot.loader.grub.device = "/dev/sda";

  5. Enter environment

    nix-shell

    Note that a new directory secrets/ appeared which contains the secrets for your node.

  6. Create nixops deployment in nix-shell.

    nixops create nixops/node.nix nixops/node-nixos.nix -d bitcoin-node

  7. Adjust configuration by opening the configuration.nix file and enable/disable the modules you want by editing this file. Pay particular attention to lines that are preceded by FIXME comments.

  8. Deploy with nixops in nix-shell

    nixops deploy -d bitcoin-node

    This will now create a nix-bitcoin node on the target machine.

  9. Nixops automatically creates an ssh key for use with nixops ssh. Access bitcoin-node through ssh in nix-shell with

    nixops ssh operator@bitcoin-node

For security reasons, all normal system management tasks can and should be performed with the operator user. Logging in as root should be done as rarely as possible.

See usage.md for usage instructions, such as how to update.