My Services on Oracle Cloud Free Tier
Oracle cloud gives a pretty generous free tier. 4 vCPU, 24gb ram, and 200gb of block storage which can be broken down and used however you like. I chose to split this up into 3 instances: 1-2 vCPU with 12gb of ram for my VPN 2-1 vCPU with 6gb ram for my emails 3-1 vCPU with 6gm ram for some services like my uptime monitor, stack monitoring (grafana), and personal file backup
The free tier forces you to use an Oracle-modified image, of which I had no interest in running, therefore I ran their image and “infected it” with NixOS, meaning I was able to install NixOS on top of their running linux without having to have access to pre-boot installation method. If you are interested in learning about this, it is the “kexec” method, and there are a few examples of tools that try and automate this process and althouh I did it manually, searching for “nixos-anywhere” or “nix-infect” might get you going in the right direction if you are interested in trying this. The main thing about doing this on Oracle, is to pay attention to the networking settings as your instance is attributed a fixed internal IP address and there is no DHCP so without that, your NixOS installation will not get network connection and you will not be able to SSH into your instance once installed, so it might take some figuring out on your end to get the right IP information in your nix config to get it going.
vpn with AmneziaWG:
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{ config, pkgs, lib, ... }:
let
NM_DOMAIN = "ymrtech.com";
in
{
imports =
[ # Include the results of the hardware scan.
./hardware-configuration.nix
];
boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;
boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;
boot.kernel.sysctl."net.ipv4.ip_forward" = 1;
fileSystems = {
"/".options = [ "compress=zstd" "noatime" "nodiratime" "discard" ];
"/home".options = [ "compress=zstd" ];
"/nix".options = [ "compress=zstd" ];
};
time.timeZone = "America/Toronto";
nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;
networking = {
hostName = "vpn";
defaultGateway = {
interface = "eth0";
address = "10.0.0.1";
};
useDHCP = false;
networkmanager = {
enable = true;
};
enableIPv6 = false;
nat = {
enable = true;
enableIPv6 = false;
externalInterface = "eth0";
internalInterfaces = [ "wg0" "wg1" ];
# internalIPs = [ "11.0.0.1/24" ];
externalIP = "10.0.0.175";
};
interfaces.eth0.ipv4.addresses = [
{
address = "10.0.0.175";
prefixLength = 24;
}];
interfaces.eth1.ipv4.addresses = [
{
address = "10.0.0.169";
prefixLength = 24;
}];
# Open ports in the firewall
firewall = {
allowedUDPPorts = [ 41020 41021 ];
extraCommands = ''
iptables -A nixos-fw -p tcp --source 11.0.0.0/24 -j nixos-fw-accept
iptables -A nixos-fw -p udp --source 11.0.0.0/24 -j nixos-fw-accept
'';
};
wg-quick.interfaces = {
#personal VPN
wg0 = {
type = "amneziawg";
extraOptions = {
Jc = 6;
Jmin = 48;
Jmax = 144;
S1 = 16;
S2 = 32;
H1 = 1;
H2 = 2;
H3 = 3;
H4 = 4;
};
address = [ "11.0.0.1/24" ];
listenPort = 41020;
privateKeyFile = "/home/truva/wireguard-keys/private";
postUp = ''
${pkgs.iptables}/bin/iptables -A FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT
${pkgs.iptables}/bin/iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 11.0.0.1/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
'';
preDown = ''
${pkgs.iptables}/bin/iptables -D FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT
${pkgs.iptables}/bin/iptables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -s 11.0.0.1/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
'';
peers = [
{ # captain
publicKey = "sSp6r/JEFjXkYVOzaoECbvpZFPOQNmMbT3EYSv5ykl8=";
presharedKeyFile = "/home/truva/wireguard-keys/captain.psk";
allowedIPs = [ "11.0.0.2/32" ];
}
{ # command
publicKey = "Gz81fsh4ExB7nYbD80a6GZByxWLV8ywItVBjaf07Myg=";
presharedKeyFile = "/home/truva/wireguard-keys/command.psk";
allowedIPs = [ "11.0.0.3/32" ];
}
{ # pixel
publicKey = "M2VIiUXg42Idennf+wd+h4DIX4bwFVP1+jSjK+Kdr14=";
allowedIPs = [ "11.0.0.4/32" ];
}
{ # giga
publicKey = "xP82Jap3FYyD9wO6m0gDhT+kLibsbt158ABbhNuIDH8=";
presharedKeyFile = "/home/truva/wireguard-keys/giga.psk";
allowedIPs = [ "11.0.0.5/32" ];
}
{ # public
publicKey = "5BKRJEGUMC7ZTZ8Gnd/UH8EPWICC6kbClICA1m+zExw=";
presharedKeyFile = "/home/truva/wireguard-keys/public.psk";
allowedIPs = [ "11.0.0.7/32" ];
}
# More peers can be added here.
];
};
#parents
wg1 = {
address = [ "12.0.0.1/24" ];
listenPort = 41021;
privateKeyFile = "/home/truva/wireguard-keys/private";
postUp = ''
${pkgs.iptables}/bin/iptables -A FORWARD -i wg1 -j ACCEPT
${pkgs.iptables}/bin/iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 12.0.0.1/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
'';
preDown = ''
${pkgs.iptables}/bin/iptables -D FORWARD -i wg1 -j ACCEPT
${pkgs.iptables}/bin/iptables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -s 12.0.0.1/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
'';
peers = [
{ # mom
publicKey = "ro8MqMAo/lV2Q+Z1HgMP/ADCJDilcNSS/bRRHuLnRxQ=";
allowedIPs = [ "12.0.0.2/32" ];
}
{ # dad
publicKey = "lnR8OUlxTksqIXCKImiML3GlYC9Yb8ddRYwOK+MeoXE=";
allowedIPs = [ "12.0.0.3/32" ];
}
# More peers can be added here.
];
};
# More wireguard interfaces can be added here.
};
};
i18n.defaultLocale = "en_US.UTF-8";
programs.wireshark.enable = true;
users.users.truva = {
isNormalUser = true;
extraGroups = [ "wheel" "wireshark" ]; # Enable ‘sudo’ for the user.
openssh.authorizedKeys.keyFiles = [
./key.pub
];
};
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
dig
fish
dnsutils
wireshark
];
services = {
adguardhome = {
enable = true;
settings = {
http = {
address = "127.0.0.1:3000";
};
dns = {
upstream_dns = [ "127.0.0.1:5353" ];
};
filtering = {
protection_enabled = true;
filtering_enabled = true;
parental_enabled = false;
safe_search = {
enabled = false;
};
};
filters = map(url: { enabled = true; url = url; }) [
"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ppfeufer/adguard-filter-list/refs/heads/master/blocklist"
];
};
};
btrfs.autoScrub = {
enable = true;
interval = "weekly";
fileSystems = [ "/" ];
};
openssh = {
enable = true;
settings = {
PasswordAuthentication = false;
PermitRootLogin = "no";
};
};
unbound = {
enable = true;
settings = {
server = {
access-control = "11.0.0.0/24 allow";
do-ip6 = "no";
aggressive-nsec = "yes";
hide-identity = "yes";
hide-version = "yes";
prefetch = "yes";
interface = [ "0.0.0.0" ];
port = "5353";
rrset-roundrobin = "yes";
so-reuseport = "yes";
# do-tcp = "no";
use-caps-for-id = "yes";
private-address = "11.0.0.0/24";
num-threads = "4";
msg-cache-slabs = "8";
rrset-cache-slabs = "8";
infra-cache-slabs = "8";
key-cache-slabs = "8";
msg-cache-size = "512M";
rrset-cache-size = "1024M";
outgoing-range = "8192";
# so-rcvbuf = "4m";
num-queries-per-thread = "4096";
private-domain = "ymr";
local-zone = ''"ymr." static'';
local-data = [
''"vpn.ymr. IN A 11.0.0.1"''
''"captain.ymr. IN A 11.0.0.2"''
''"command.ymr. IN A 11.0.0.3"''
''"public.ymr. IN A 11.0.0.7"''
''"mail.ymr. IN A 168.138.71.187"''
];
};
forward-zone = [
{
name = ".";
forward-tls-upstream = "yes";
forward-addr = [
"149.112.112.112@853#dns.quad9.net"
"1.0.0.1@853#one.one.one.one"
];
}
];
};
};
};
system.stateVersion = "23.05"; # Did you read the comment?
}
Email server:
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{ config, pkgs, ... }: {
imports = [
./hardware-configuration.nix
(builtins.fetchTarball {
# Pick a release version you are interested in and set its hash, e.g.
url = "https://gitlab.com/simple-nixos-mailserver/nixos-mailserver/-/archive/master/nixos-mailserver-master.tar.gz";
# To get the sha256 of the nixos-mailserver tarball, we can use the nix-prefetch-url command:
# release="nixos-24.11"; nix-prefetch-url "https://gitlab.com/simple-nixos-mailserver/nixos-mailserver/-/archive/${release}/nixos-mailserver-${release}.tar.gz" --unpack
sha256 = "1b9aw2sn7imcziqdaqf6q3zq7c3pji0h3dgf6dgjwz8gn6zrhdbm";
})
];
# Use the systemd-boot EFI boot loader.
boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;
boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;
nix.settings.auto-optimise-store = true;
fileSystems = {
"/".options = [ "compress=zstd" "noatime" "nodiratime" "discard" ];
"/home".options = [ "compress=zstd" ];
"/nix".options = [ "compress=zstd" ];
"/srv/emails" = {
device = "/dev/disk/by-uuid/57cab892-dfa1-497a-9580-6fb13c5fcd9f";
fsType = "btrfs";
options = [ "subvol=emails" "compress=zstd" "noatime" "nodiratime" "discard" ];
};
};
time.timeZone = "America/Toronto";
nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;
networking = {
hostName = "mail";
defaultGateway = {
interface = "eth0";
address = "10.0.0.1";
};
useDHCP = false;
nameservers = [ "1.1.1.1" "9.9.9.9" ];
networkmanager = {
enable = true;
dns = "systemd-resolved";
};
enableIPv6 = false;
interfaces.eth0.ipv4.addresses = [
{
address = "10.0.0.184";
prefixLength = 24;
}];
# Open ports in the firewall
firewall = {
allowedTCPPorts = [ 80 443 ];
};
};
i18n.defaultLocale = "en_US.UTF-8";
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
dig
ncdu
fish
dnsutils
];
users.users.truva = {
isNormalUser = true;
extraGroups = [ "wheel" ]; # Enable ‘sudo’ for the user.
openssh.authorizedKeys.keyFiles = [
./key.pub
];
};
security.acme = {
defaults.email = "info@ymrtech.com";
acceptTerms = true;
};
services = {
btrfs.autoScrub = {
enable = true;
interval = "weekly";
fileSystems = [ "/" ];
};
openssh = {
enable = true;
settings = {
PasswordAuthentication = false;
PermitRootLogin = "no";
};
};
nginx = {
enable = true;
recommendedProxySettings = true;
recommendedTlsSettings = true;
recommendedGzipSettings = true;
recommendedOptimisation = true;
sslCiphers = "AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH:!aNULL";
sslProtocols = "TLSv1.3";
virtualHosts."mail.ymrtech.com" = {
enableACME = true;
forceSSL = true;
locations."/" = {
return = "301 http://www.ymrtech.com/";
};
};
};
vsftpd = {
enable = false;
userlistDeny = false;
localUsers = true;
userlist = ["truva"];
};
fail2ban = {
enable = false;
ignoreIP = [
"168.138.92.78"
"168.138.71.187"
"168.138.75.142"
"localhost"
];
maxretry = 2;
bantime-increment = {
enable = true;
maxtime = "7d";
};
jails = {
dovecot = ''
enabled = true
filter = dovecot[mode=aggressive]
'';
postfix = ''
enabled = true
port = smtp,465,submission
filter = postfix[mode=aggressive]
'';
};
};
};
mailserver = {
enable = true;
localDnsResolver = false;
fqdn = "mail.ymrtech.com";
domains = [ "ymrtech.com" ];
mailDirectory = "/srv/emails";
fullTextSearch = {
enable = true;
autoIndex = true; #index new email as they arrive
autoIndexExclude = [ "Junk" ];
enforced = "body";
};
# A list of all login accounts. To create the password hashes, use
# nix-shell -p mkpasswd --run 'mkpasswd -sm bcrypt'
loginAccounts = {
"yannick@ymrtech.com" = {
hashedPasswordFile = "/etc/nixos/ymrtechemail";
aliases = ["info@ymrtech.com"];
};
"nextcloud@ymrtech.com" = {
hashedPasswordFile = "/etc/nixos/nextcloudemail";
#aliases = ["info@ymrtech.com"];
};
};
certificateScheme = "acme";
virusScanning = false;
enableSubmission = false;
enableSubmissionSsl = false;
rebootAfterKernelUpgrade.enable = true;
monitoring.alertAddress = "yannick@ymrtech.com";
monitoring.enable = true;
dmarcReporting.domain = "ymrtech.com";
dmarcReporting.enable = true;
dmarcReporting.organizationName = "YMR Technologies";
stateVersion = 3;
};
system.stateVersion = "24.05"; # Did you read the comment?
}
Public services & backup:
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{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
{
imports = [
./hardware-configuration.nix
];
boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;
boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;
nix.settings.auto-optimise-store = true;
fileSystems = {
"/".options = [ "compress=zstd" "noatime" "nodiratime" "discard" ];
"/home".options = [ "compress=zstd" ];
"/nix".options = [ "compress=zstd" ];
};
time.timeZone = "America/Toronto";
nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;
networking = {
hostName = "public";
defaultGateway = {
interface = "eth0";
address = "10.0.0.1";
};
useDHCP = false;
nameservers = [ "1.1.1.1" "9.9.9.9" ];
networkmanager = {
enable = true;
# dns = "default"
# dns = "systemd-resolved";
};
enableIPv6 = false;
interfaces.eth0.ipv4.addresses = [
{
address = "10.0.0.220";
prefixLength = 24;
}];
# Open ports in the firewall
firewall = {
allowedTCPPorts = [ 80 443 ];
## allowedUDPPorts = [ 41020 ];
extraCommands = ''
iptables -A nixos-fw -p tcp --source 11.0.0.0/24 -j nixos-fw-accept
iptables -A nixos-fw -p udp --source 11.0.0.0/24 -j nixos-fw-accept
'';
};
wg-quick.interfaces = {
wg0 = {
type = "amneziawg";
extraOptions = {
Jc = 5;
Jmax = 48;
Jmin = 16;
S1 = 16;
S2 = 32;
H1 = 1;
H2 = 2;
H3 = 3;
H4 = 4;
};
address = [ "11.0.0.7/32" ];
dns = [ "11.0.0.1" ];
privateKeyFile = "/home/truva/wireguard-keys/private";
peers = [
{
publicKey = "j3fM602CdZVuGJBACyR8nB7SKmB7T4zZGkA9SHjnjHg=";
presharedKeyFile = "/home/truva/wireguard-keys/public.psk";
allowedIPs = [ "11.0.0.0/16" ];
endpoint = "168.138.92.78:41020";
}
];
};
};
};
i18n.defaultLocale = "en_US.UTF-8";
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
dig
dnsutils
fish
cryptsetup
];
users.users.truva = {
isNormalUser = true;
extraGroups = [ "wheel" ]; # Enable ‘sudo’ for the user.
openssh.authorizedKeys.keyFiles = [
./key.pub
];
};
security.acme = {
defaults.email = "info@ymrtech.com";
acceptTerms = true;
certs = {
"ghost.ymrtech.com".email = "yannick@ymrtech.com";
"uptime.ymrtech.com".email = "yannick@ymrtech.com";
"nextcloud.ymrtech.com".email = "yannick@ymrtech.com";
};
};
services = {
btrfs.autoScrub = {
enable = true;
interval = "weekly";
fileSystems = [ "/" ];
};
openssh = {
enable = true;
settings = {
PasswordAuthentication = false;
PermitRootLogin = "no";
};
};
syncthing = {
enable = true;
user = "truva";
dataDir = "/home/truva/Documents";
guiAddress = "0.0.0.0:8384";
configDir = "/home/truva/.config/syncthing";
overrideDevices = true; # overrides any devices added or deleted through the WebUI
overrideFolders = true; # overrides any folders added or deleted through the WebUI
settings = {
devices = {
"Pixel8" = {
id = "***********";
};
"captain" = {
id = "***********";
};
"giga" = {
id = "***********";
};
};
folders = {
"pixel_8_pro_y9u9-photos" = { # Name of folder in Syncthing, also the folder ID
path = "/mnt/Camera"; # Which folder to add to Syncthing
devices = [ "Pixel8" ]; # Which devices to share the folder with
};
"backup" = {
path = "/mnt/backup";
devices = [ "captain" "giga" ];
# ignorePerms = false; # By default, Syncthing doesn't sync file permissions. This line enables it for this folder.
};
};
};
};
nginx = {
enable = true;
recommendedProxySettings = true;
recommendedTlsSettings = true;
recommendedGzipSettings = true;
recommendedOptimisation = true;
sslCiphers = "AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH:!aNULL";
sslProtocols = "TLSv1.3";
virtualHosts."nextcloud.ymrtech.com" = {
enableACME = true;
forceSSL = true;
locations."/" = {
proxyPass = "http://11.0.0.2/";
};
};
virtualHosts."ghost.ymrtech.com" = {
enableACME = true;
forceSSL = true;
locations."/" = {
proxyPass = "http://11.0.0.2:2368";
};
};
virtualHosts."uptime.ymrtech.com" = {
enableACME = true;
forceSSL = true;
locations."/" = {
proxyPass = "http://localhost:3001/";
proxyWebsockets = true;
};
};
};
uptime-kuma = {
enable = true;
settings.port = "3001";
};
};
system.stateVersion = "24.05"; # Did you read the comment?
}
```
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