Developer Shares Guide to Installing NixOS on Jetorbit VPS via nixos-anywhere

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A developer documented the process of installing NixOS on a Jetorbit VPS using the nixos-anywhere tool, with all configurations managed from a macOS laptop running nix-darwin. The setup relies on SSH key-based root access and a one-time nixos-anywhere deployment, with subsequent updates handled via nixos-rebuild. Three critical pre-installation checks are highlighted: confirming the VPS uses legacy BIOS rather than UEFI, noting that Jetorbit assigns static IPs instead of DHCP, and ensuring the root SSH public key is registered on the server. The nixos-anywhere tool works by sending a small installer image to the running server and using kexec to boot into it without a full reinstall, then partitioning the disk via disko and building the NixOS system closure remotely. This approach eliminates configuration drift and keeps the server state fully reproducible from a git repository.

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