Nixos vs kubernetes I'll see how it goes. We will start deprecating and garbage collecting images older than 90 days in the future. And lastly, container images, which run on the Kubernetes cluster. We publish AMIs to all AWS regions for both x86_64 and arm64 on a weekly basis. This is a great option if that’s what you need. It looks great. Clusters: A group of nodes managed as a single unit. Linux and macOS put Unix in the hands of almost every developer in the world by providing beautiful user interfaces, but Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie built Unix Jun 1, 2024 · Kubernetes benefits are plenty which make it a popular choice for container orchestration: Automatic Container Scheduling. It will solve all our problems with packaging software. Sep 15, 2023 · Here's what the file looks like. Each package is cryptographically hashed, ensuring package integrity. Issue #39327: kubernetes support is missing some documentation; NixOS Discourse: Using multiple nodes on unstable; Kubernetes docs; NixOS e2e kubernetes tests: Node Joining etc. In this article, we will explore the key differences between Docker and NixOS. nix, or at least I recommend using it. It is also possible to use cross-compilation with NixOps, by setting nixpkgs. NixOS can be deployed to Amazon EC2 using our official AMI. 3 -> 1. The NixOS Wiki has info on the package manager, the Nix language, Nixpkgs, and NixOS itself. Kubernetes can reschedule containers to different nodes if resource demands change to ensure balanced usage. 15. Here is an interesting angle on kubernetes’ complexity via an asessment of its essential vs. Sep 26, 2022 · NixOS has a different approach to solving this problem, and many people (myself included) think it’s a much better way. NixOS is the answer to our Linux administration ways. nix in some empty directory, paste the snippet above and run it with nix develop Sep 8, 2023 · NixOS. Nov 27, 2023 · cross-compiling NixOS packages for RPi from a more powerful machine, and what it looks like to actually roll back to a last-known good configuration with NixOS. Kubernetes implements the author's pattern just fine - any OS state is defined within the container image, and any application state is defined within a Persistent Volume. Think of it like apt. Listen your comparing apples to oranges here. NixOS-containers only run on NixOS, which is a niche usecase. It demonstrates how to use Nix(OS) for all layers of a server stack. I know I’ve seen a few articles about building Docker images with Nix, but I Oct 1, 2024 · NixOS is an open-source Linux distribution based on the Nix package manager. If you're installing NixOS, the nixos-anywhere (formerly known as nixos-remote) tool allows you to pre-configure the whole process. Jan 29, 2021 · Docker and Kubernetes made containerization ubiquitous by simplifying build and orchestration, but modern containers trace their heritage to FreeBSD Jails released 20 years ago. Since getting into NixOS I've been experimenting with using that for Kubernetes, however I probably wont end up using their module. Deploy the Sep 7, 2024 · For those not aware, Nix is an interesting new application (Nix) and operating System (NixOS) that provides a declarative environment definition and atomic operating system. The VM stack, which includes the bits to run Kubernetes. . g. You can always do this manually, but then why not just use NixOS modules or containers? To simplify this, I ended up developing a tool that automatically converts a Compose project into a NixOS config. fcos. 🙂 Let’s make this a thread to Apr 10, 2025 · nixos-ha-kubernetes; References. IRC (2018-09): issues related to DNS; IRC (2019-09): discussion about easyCerts and general setup Nov 19, 2023 · hi there, i’d had this idea and wanted to bounce it off of others to check if it holds water. From there, it can use a tool called disko to erase and repartition an entire disk, and install NixOS. Apr 1, 2024 · Let’s discuss more about docker and NixOS! For more information feel free to visit — 6 Tips on — how to Get Started with NixOS and Nix Packages are your next Docker Desktop Replacement. It's cool to see that Nix can improve the container orchestration experience from "both ends", so to speak. Dec 7, 2023 · Cycle Expands Beyond Kubernetes: Adds VMs, Bare Metal, FaaS May 14th 2025 11:05am, by Charles Humble Why Mobile App Reliability Is So Complicated This article will show you how to setup Kubernetes on your local NixOS machine and perform some common tasks such as starting containers and routing traffic to your running containers. This article assumes you know basic Kubernetes terminology and will focus more on showing you "this is how you do it" and less on "this is how it works". Mar 23, 2024 · Motivation ↗. From bottom to top, the components we need correctly connected together are: A host operating system (OS) running in a VM as a Kubernetes node. During the first talk: the presenter explains how Web Assembly can replace the containerd shim with a wasm shim that runs wasm workloads directly (instead of containers). If you're looking for tech support, /r/Linux4Noobs is a friendly community that can help you. All Nix files have the extension . However, the current Mar 20, 2025 · NixOS in Kubernetes ensures immutable container configurations. space . nix. Virtualbox ) in your local development environment. No global /usr/bin directory, preventing package collisions. Talos tightly integrates with Kubernetes, and is not meant to be a general use Linux distribution. 03 in particular, before we get too close to March 2020. Declarative means that instead of running apt-get install docker, you write down everything you want and it installs everything and removes everything you don’t want. Jan 16, 2019 · Kubernetes might be an excellent choice for many large-scale (really big), complex, and highly dynamic environments, Disnix offers a simpler, more controlled alternative that can be particularly advantageous in scenarios where reproducibility, precise dependency management, and reduced operational overhead are priorities one needs to figure out Mar 1, 2025 · Running Kubernetes with NixOS. But with the following (and maybe more) painpoints resolved: Container images and registry is stateful and hard to maintain. we’ve had some NixOps tools out there, but i was wondering if it could be useful to combine Nix with one of the more mature existing tools out there, Kubernetes. Then you deploy it into production and it crashes. And it casually defines it in a beautifully concise way: It’s useful to separate Kubernetes’ functionality into three distinct responsibilities: a distributed control loop framework, a container orchestrator NixOS AMIs. I'm currently using NixOS for my selfhosting kubernetes nodes on Hetzner Cloud. The prophecy is written. Sep 6, 2023 · Hello! This is Edgar and Robbie, and we’re excited to share with you the public release of nix-snapshotter! nix-snapshotter brings native understanding of Nix packages to containerd, the industry standard container runtime. Sep 7, 2022 · I often hear that kubernetes is complex and that NixOS is simple. Has anyone had any luck installing helm plugins? Here is the shell. 14. ) nixos-up is a super easy NixOS installer that can be used from the installation ISO. NixOS's K3s documentation is available at: Docker is industry standard for containerization, also it is OCI compliant (meaning you can use docker images to run containers on Kubernetes, Podman or any other compatible runtime). Oct 2, 2024 · I think we have all the tools in regular non-docker, non-kubernetes linux to get to a similar outcome, except we won’t need docker or kubernetes or whatever in this new land, thus removing quite a bunch of complexity from the systems we build. Kubernetes discussion, news, support, and link sharing. MacOS users may use a virtual machine with NixOS for this purpose. Again, create a flake. de/v/nixcon-2023-35290-nix-and-kubernetes-deployments-done-rightNix is an amazing build tool not only for applications, but also for the in The tricky part is mapping between your Compose project - and any Compose configs provided by the apps themselves - and your NixOS config. Currently there are no actively developed nix tools for managing cluster state and I think it would be good to either start a new tool or pickup one of the existing ones Jan 15, 2024 · Like I’ve mentioned a hundred times, Nix and NixOS work using config files. AWS Lambda is a proprietary serverless deployment infrastructure. Don’t hesitate to go and read these projects if you need more Mar 31, 2023 · 4. Komplexity / Operational overhead (see registry point) Kubernetes might be an Jul 19, 2022 · Hello, This thread is to gather interest for Kubernetes on Nix. Minikube supports most typical Kubernetes features such as DNS, Dashboards, CNI, NodePorts, Config Maps, etc. dev. In NixOS, you 90 votes, 21 comments. And the blame game starts. In this case, that purpose is Kubernetes. kubernetes. x86_64-linux. We will know of history as before and after NixOS. 6. 11 on a Proxmox VM. (Guess what — my USB keyboard doesn’t work on the boot menu, so I’m really stuck with using NixOS as just another Ansible for now. All of that is configured in the repo’s flake, which amounts to a few dozen lines. Kubernetes optimizes resource utilization by dynamically scheduling containers across nodes. Docker is a popular platform for containerization and NixOS is a Linux distribution that employs a declarative approach to system configuration. now, we have some integration there already, but more specifically, i’d been wondering if it could be useful there to skip Apr 16, 2025 · In a recent talk, Kubernetes expert Kelsey Hightower explored the Docker alternative Nix, recognizing its potential for improved software reproducibility and supply chain security. Oct 26, 2024 · nixos-anywhere is a tool for installing NixOS to a remote machine. , NixOS should be a great pick. This lets you import NixOS modules from other flakes and define your own NixOS modules on the fly. passthru. kubernetes-helm (3. For me Nix (not to be confused with NixOS) is a package manager. And quite frankly, it really does feel this way. https://media. The result is a local Kubernetes endpoint that you can use with the kubectl client. Sep 8, 2019 · Good, I see multiple points here. So far I am aware of a few others who are using either k8s or k3s on nix and I think it would be useful to create a centralized place to discuss issues and ideas. Jun 16, 2020 · Docker vs NixOS: What are the differences? Introduction. Plugins are built into the utility but trying to install them leads to permission errors since the package is installed via nix and the directory is read-only. The container runtime — including extensions for GPU interoperability. I have already figured out how to deploy Kubernetes on NixOS as needed while building the three-node cluster. Jan 18, 2023 · In the demo I will install NixOS 22. Apr 19, 2024 · Here helmfile-wrapped reads kubernetes-helm-wrapped. There’s a million variables in between their not even comparable in terms of speed. Perfect for sandboxed environments and high-security applications. This is one more example that Flatcar is intended to be used outside of just Kubernetes. Control Plane: This is the brain of Kubernetes, responsible for maintaining the desired state of the cluster Jul 5, 2022 · To run a GPU-accelerated application in our Kubernetes (K8s) compute cluster, we employ a sandwich of components. Once More, We are Discussing NixOS! I wanted to show you a powerful way to use NixOS differently since the last time we discussed this heated topic in public. In NixOS, that base image is still immutable and read only, but YOU get to decide what’s in that immutable image. It is not a new rabbit hole I dug. Nodes are the worker machines in a Kubernetes cluster. Fret not, if you do not know about NixOS, you can explore our NixOS series to learn and set it up. 12. 133K subscribers in the kubernetes community. May 25, 2024 · While I have successfully used k8s in the past, the gluttony that shines all over it does not make me the biggest fan. localSystem and nixpkgs. 09. These files are written in a language specific to Nix, though it looks very much like JSON. But since I didn’t mention details in the previous article, bringing up the details here makes sense. Oct 1, 2018 · I was thinking recently about the possibility of a NixOps style tool that would deploy into a Kubernetes cluster. A plain NixOS system will have its main config file at /etc/nixos/configuration. Deploy a Pod Instead of setting up a cluster, writing YAML files and deploying them with kubectl apply, you could write everything in your NixOS Jun 8, 2023 · PlatformCon 2023 is going on. NixOS Anywhere is a tool that let's you install NixoS everywhere via ssh on a target machine running x86_64 Linux with kexec support. Lack of proper dependency isolation/management. Aug 1, 2022 · Hi NixOs community, I have a short and sweet question around getting helm (the Kubernetes package manager) plugins to work. > But doing it on top of NixOS currently feels like a bad path to take. Since Nix is a user space application, you can run it in a container and Nix provides one `nixos/nix`. Instead, Terraform uses an HCL configuration to handle that. Dec 24, 2023 · "It worked on my machine!" Most of us who've worked in IT for any length of time have heard this complaint. But if you want immutability and a bunch of perks like easy recovery, robust package manager, etc. roles = ["master" "node"]; This installs both the master and node components on the local system and therefore creates a nice little working local kubernetes "cluster". They don’t need an OS because Nix captures all dependencies exactly. The idea would be that services be build and pushed as containers, and then K8s deployments created for pods, as described in a Nix expression. 4) A static analysis tool that checks Kubernetes YAML files and Helm charts * legacyPackages. Now it’s time to look ahead and discuss what we want for the future, 20. See full list on nixos. Nov 4, 2024 · Flatcar also comes with Docker pre-installed, but Kubernetes doesn’t use docker as a container runtime. emacsPackages. kube-linter (0. It rethinks what a Linux is and could be. You can imagine Talos as a container image, in that it is immutable and built with a single purpose in mind. Most of this project has been realized using kubernetes the hard way tutorial, and another nixos high availability k8s cluster project also based on this tutorial. Sep 5, 2019 · Since the merge of kubernetes: 1. 1438) * legacyPackages. For example, here Jan 20, 2023 · In fact, the opposition of Red Hat OpenShift vs Kubernetes is somewhat far-fetched since OpenShift is not only compatible with K8s but is, in fact, fueled by it as a container orchestration engine. 3 (with revert of module systemd dependencies) by johanot · Pull Request #67563 · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub we now at least have a stable kubernetes module (and package) for the 19. wiki I can't see running NixOS in production. Containers on the other hand are (usually) utilizing kernel level isolation to run a whole user space starting with PID 1. You develop your software, you test it exhaustively. For the most part, the things I want to install are almost always in NixPkgs and have simple configuration options mapped into NixOS. A mix of remote, emulated and cross builds is also possible; see this writeup on eno. NixOS shines in the same ways the others in this list shine. I love NixOS and Nixpkgs. What I was wondering is if there’s prior art around this. The idea I’ve had for a while but now want to discuss viability publicly: develop a nix shim that works with containerd, replacing runc, that “spins up” Nix workloads without any of the Nov 21, 2022 · To build a Go web service into Docker images that can be deployed on Kubernetes (or most other container orchestration platforms). pluginsDir and picks up the plugins correctly. The ability to configure a whole A recipe for a cluster of virtual machines managed by Terraform, running a highly-available Kubernetes cluster, deployed on NixOS using Colmena. ccc. Since I'm containerizing some services I host myself, this definitely looks like something to check out, thanks! Nov 1, 2018 · Minikube runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster inside a VM (e. It uses kexec to boot into a temporary ram based NixOS system. However docker does fill a different niche as you say, and I continue to use it after transitioning due to microservices projects, multi tenancy between various clients and closer emulation of staging and production environments (even though nixos ceiling Aug 7, 2024 · NixOS documentation and NixOS github repo are usually of great use when it comes to adding features to NixOS host. The hypervisor, which includes network stack configuration along with libvirt, qemu, and kvm. Why does this happen? On the other hand, Talos is detailed as "A modern Linux distribution for Kubernetes". crossSystem . In a way, this blog post has effectively taken four years to write. Comparison: NixOS vs. Aug 27, 2024 · In this post, we'll explore what NixOS is, why you might choose it over other options like Docker, Kubernetes, or OpenShift, and how it can be particularly effective in managing ephemeral environments. net/Articles/922968/ Take a look at Kairos. Installation is pretty straight forward. What Nix doesn’t do here: Stand up any infrastructure. We built this because Nix is a great fit for making efficient containers. Jul 29, 2024 · I’m about a month in to having switched my home server to NixOS and I’d say I’m still damn impressed. These isolation techniques have overhead. Jun 18, 2024 · K3s is a simplified Kubernetes version that bundles Kubernetes cluster components into a few small binaries optimized for Edge and IoT devices. I started to contribute a CRI-O module to NixOS these days, which could be a fist approach to configure something else beside docker as runtime. Package Management: Apr 22, 2018 · On NixOS is is easy to set up Kubernetes by a single line of config: services. Feb 11, 2024 · A community-maintained unofficial NixOS Wiki is available and a Nix development site is located at nix. Edit: Here's a good article on a few diff popular immutable OSes, similar to fcos -> https://lwn. What I need run some oci containers on 1-2 machines run multiple instances per machine roll out a new version when Jul 19, 2024 · I’m trying to summarize from my view In a nutshell: Disnix tries to achieve what kubernetes also does. We're running 100% Kubernetes, including for databases and other stateful workloads. Just the memory consumption of cert-manager (effectively used every 3 months) or the number of lines the prometheus helm chart generates covers me with disbelief. Kubernetes is open source container orchestration. Every NixOS user basically has their own mini immutable distro. One is a paid-for service the other is open source software. Welcome to /r/Linux! This is a community for sharing news about Linux, interesting developments and press. I originally became interested in self-hosting and home servers when the pandemic took hold, and then used every mainstream Linux distribution and configuration management system until I came across NixOS, which incredibly triumphs at being both. Talos Linux is only for Kubernetes and makes some assumptions about what you want to do with the machine. nix file I’ve been working with: let pkgs Jun 15, 2023 · nix search nixpkgs helm package kubernetes -e "plugin" * legacyPackages. kubernetes-helm (20230221. 1) A package manager for kubernetes. Beside the discussion about “kubeadm vs something else“, wen can still add support for different runtimes and networking solutions. This "modules" block has a list of NixOS module filenames or literal expressions. NixOS uses a declarative configuration system (approach) that allows reproducibility and portability. What platform are you running Mar 17, 2025 · Hi all! The NixOS module for k3s has some nice options that allow to configure Kubernetes deployments directly in pure Nix! I would like to share some examples on how to use them and hope they help one or the other to build reproducible k3s nodes. The same can be done for networks, like Cilium as Alternative to flannel. Clusters allow Kubernetes to distribute work across multiple machines, increasing availability and scalability for applications. As Red Hat admits, Kubernetes vs OpenShift correlates as the kernel of distributed systems vs the distribution itself. This project serves as an example of using the NixOS Kubernetes module in an advanced way, setting up a cluster that is highly-available on all levels This guide accompanies my 2023 Kubecon talk, Nix, Kubernetes, and the Pursuit of Reproducibility. You can use the same language to manage packages This is nitpicking, but the similarity doesn't stop at dependency isolation - it is also deterministic provisioning which nixos does better. yaml files / helm charts are painful. I import nixos unstable, and then I create a nixos configuration for a machine named douglas-adams. . helm (k8s package manager) is called kubernetes-helm on Nix. accidental complexity. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Security & Isolation Features. NixOS. NixOS is one of the most advanced Linux distributions available. ojfnksmx wev ktjct tsdm qiue epurkbziy yfhbs mjvyk fkcyelz mvvnza