= Plover, the general-purpose server

This is Plover, a configuration meant to be used in a low-powered general-purpose machine.
It isn't much of an instance to be seriously used yet but hopefully it is getting there.

This configuration is expected to be deployed in a Google Compute instance.

It has a reasonable set of assumptions to keep in mind when modifying this configuration:

- Most of the defaults are left to the link:https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/tree/f92201f46109aabbbf41b8dc24bb9d342eb93a35/nixos/modules/virtualisation[image profiles from nixpkgs] including networking options and filesystems.
- No additional storage drives.
- At least 32 GB of space is assumed.

Some of the self-hosted services from this server:

* An nginx server which will make tie all of the self-hosted services together.
* A link:https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden[Vaultwarden] instance for a little password management.
* A link:https://gitea.io/[Gitea] instance for my personal projects.




== Deploying it as a Google Compute instance

Some documented guidelines to deploy this instance in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) so you won't have to re-read those documentation like a stuck rat the next time you visit them.

* A GCP Compute Instance image of the configuration is available to be stored at your storage buckets.
You can simply build it at `packages.plover-gce` and store it there.
+
You can take it further automating it by running link:../../scripts/generate-and-upload-gce-image[`../../scripts/generate-and-upload-gce-image`] which is just a modified version of the link:https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/ebdafd7244832f1f52cacd3eda39f2156988957e/nixos/maintainers/scripts/gce/create-gce.sh[`create-gce.sh` script from nixpkgs].

* If you already have access to at least one GCP KMS key, then skip this part.
Add a key to be used for deployment to wherever relevant file in the link:./secrets[secrets directory]. footnote:[Of course, you need previous keys which you're likely using the private age key for this system.]
For this, you'll have to create a GCP keyring on their key management system (KMS) and generate a key there.

* Enable link:https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/oslogin/set-up-oslogin[OS Login] for your Compute Engine instance.

* Don't forget to set the appropriate scopes for the instance.
For example, since we're using a GCP KMS key, we may want to set the scope only to KMS API like in the following command.
+
--
[source, shell]
----
gcloud compute instances create "instance-1" \
    --zone "us-east1-b" \
    --scopes "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloudkms"
----
--

* Reserve a static IP address, pls.
Just don't forget to immediately assign it to the instance since it will charge higher if you just leave it alone.

* Creating a dedicated link:https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/service-accounts[service account] for the VM is recommended.
Just make sure to set the least amount of privileges for that account.