[HN Gopher] Show HN: NixOS Web Hosting for Everyone
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Show HN: NixOS Web Hosting for Everyone
Author : ghuntley
Score : 51 points
Date : 2022-12-13 19:20 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (shipnix.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (shipnix.io)
| quyse wrote:
| What does it actually do?
|
| From the front page I expected maybe some web interface for doing
| various tasks, such as Nix package management or setting up Let's
| Encrypt, etc, but judging from the docs, everything should be
| done via standard Nix/NixOS commands in command line. So, I'm
| sorry, what service Shipnix actually provides, apart from initial
| setup of the server with NixOS and SSH keys, that would justify
| paying monthly? At least it's not clear from the docs.
| kodefant wrote:
| Hi! The main strengths of Shipnix right now is ease of
| provisoning and deployment. And I will continue to add
| convenient starters that gives you a readily bootstrapped
| server in several technologies.
|
| Most of what you would need to do is either in the UI or in the
| source code. They complement eachother. And I think it's a
| great way to learn Nix.
|
| The NixOS configuration lets you set up LetsEncrypt and domain
| names declaratively through code. That's one of the strengths
| in my opinion, but taste might vary.
|
| This also means no vendor lock-in. That being said, it might be
| that not everyone gets value of it.
|
| I created this because I wanted something that organizes my
| servers nicely, saves build logs for debugging, lets me easily
| rollback if a build fails and is easy to managee and deploy.
|
| Thanks for the feedback. I will work further on communicating
| this in the docs
| pbronez wrote:
| Looks like Digital Ocean doesn't support NixOS as a Base OS.
| Seems this just adds that?
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/images/custom-images/
|
| Does this not cover it?
| pmarreck wrote:
| Can it handle Elixir/Phoenix projects with a working
| default.nix/flake.nix file that have underlying NIF dependencies?
| kodefant wrote:
| Hi :) This should be possible, but I have not done it yet
| myself. For the time being, you would have to create a
| barebones NixOS project and build on that based on own
| research.
|
| I have plans for making a dedicated starter to provision
| Elixir/Phoenix projects as a "1-click" starter
| pmarreck wrote:
| Will you be adding other possible cloud providers (some
| people already have a relationship with google cloud/amazon,
| for example)
| kodefant wrote:
| Yes, I have plans on adding more providers in the future. I
| am especially interested in priotitizing a provider with
| GPU instances like Vultr. AWS/Google are also on the
| agenda.
| chem83 wrote:
| I know a feature is 'no funny abstractions', but would
| something like devenv.sh help achieve more or less easy
| support to multiple languages quickly?
| kodefant wrote:
| Yes! I look very much forward to experimenting with
| implementing Devenv on some upcoming starters :)
| kodefant wrote:
| BTW, I just published the "Migration" starter a couple of
| seconds ago.
|
| It's meant to help you with loading your current project that
| will be compliant with Shipnix.
|
| The documentation is slightly outdated, but it's mainly a
| guided flow.
|
| https://docs.shipnix.io/starters/migration/
|
| You could run the generated "shipnixifier" script in a
| temporary folder and manually merge it to your project, and
| then provision it.
|
| Feel free to reach out through the support if there is
| something I could help you with.
| autarrch wrote:
| culanuchachamim wrote:
| Whats the added value of NixOS over go strait to Digital Ocean
| and make your deployments there? Digital Ocean have a very neat
| and intuitive UI and their CLI is also very straight forward...
| kodefant wrote:
| Hi! This is just my very biased opinion, but in very short
| terms:
|
| It's quicker, less work and you get servers running on a Nix
| flakes server config from the start with everything working
| just by filling out a form.
|
| Especially in the freelance and startup sector, I think this
| brings value in terms of saving time.
|
| That said, nothing wrong with the approach you are describing.
|
| My target audience is a typical web developer that do not have
| time or energy to learn everything with NixOS from scratch, but
| wants to get a working Nix configuration and learn Nix a bit
| more softly with working code that works from the start.
| smcleod wrote:
| Hey, could be interesting. I really like that you have a free
| trial without requiring CC details.
|
| Two small login related comments:
|
| - I would have suggested launching with MFA not just being
| available - but enforced for all users.
|
| - The Login with Github option requires that you provide full
| write access to all your public and private repositories, I think
| this is a bit much and would put off a lot of people.
|
| "This application will be able to read and write all public and
| private repository data. This includes the following:"
| Code Issues Pull requests Wikis
| Settings Webhooks and services Deploy keys
| Collaboration invites
| kodefant wrote:
| Hi!
|
| MFA is top priority to implement next. I won't remove the
| "beta" flag on my service before this is implemented. I also
| think it makes sense to have it enforced.
|
| Yes, agreed about the Github scope, and I already had another
| one commenting this on Twitter. I am looking into this :)
| smcleod wrote:
| Good stuff, thanks for the response!
| jljljl wrote:
| This is really interesting! Do you need a full NixOS
| configuration to deploy? Or is it possible to deploy projects
| that just use Nixpkgs?
|
| If it requires some migration, would love to see a guide on how
| to wrap a Nixpkgs project in a barebones NixOS config
| kodefant wrote:
| Hi! Thanks :) Yes, it requires a Nix flake with NixOS
| configuration to run the server itself, but the Barebones
| starter configuration is very minimal.
|
| If I understand you correctly, I think the "Migration" starter
| should work with a "Barebones" preset. Then you could
| "shipnixify" the project so it can be hosted on Shipnix. Then
| it would only require the work of figuring out how to migrate
| the project away from the nixpks paradigm.
|
| If you know of any code examples of nixpkgs code out in the
| open that I could look at for making a guide on how to
| implement it on Shipnix, let me know :) I would very much like
| to make a guide like this!
| ngcc_hk wrote:
| Unlimited server for 29 per month. How can that be possible? A
| bad business model is not a good business to work with you know.
| Wonder?!?
| kodefant wrote:
| Hi!
|
| Shipnix does not provide the hardware itself, but uses a third-
| party server provider like DigitalOcean. So the server costs
| are extra.
|
| Thanks for the feedback. I meant to add a line on the pricing
| page to clarify this, but it slipped. Will add this withing a
| few minutes!
| pbronez wrote:
| Pricing link on the home page gives a 502 error
| kodefant wrote:
| That's weird! Seems to work here. Will add it to UptimeRobot to
| monitor.
|
| Thanks for letting me know!
| kodefant wrote:
| Hi! I am the creator of Shipnix and just saw this post on the
| front page :)
|
| Hope you find it interesting!
|
| I'm reading comments coming in and will try to answer your
| questions as best I can!
| aidenn0 wrote:
| What does this do that nixops doesn't? I manage a couple of
| droplets on DO with nixops just fine...
| kodefant wrote:
| Hi! I think it solves many of the same problems, just
| differently.
|
| I would think it's more of a beginner-friendly choice for those
| who are new to NixOS and find NixOps a bit difficult to learn.
|
| Select a starter, have it all deployed and configured for you,
| do some coding, push to git and click deploy.
|
| One of the goals of Shipnix is to have a good selection of
| starters to just get started quickly with building and shipping
| products. And I hope it can be a gateway drug for increased
| adoption of NixOS in the bootstrapper, freelancer and digital
| agency space.
|
| For a veteran in NixOS and NixOps that already likes that flow,
| it might not be that interesting
| turboponyy wrote:
| If I'm already using Nix, wouldn't I also want to specify my
| deployments declaritively in Nix?
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