Home / homelab / nixos-server-laptop-migration.md

🖥️ NixOS Server & Laptop Workstation Migration

🎯 Executive Summary

Transition the current physical machine (desktop) into a dedicated, headless, 24/7 homelab production server (server). Transfer all GUI workflows, desktop environments, and active development workspaces to the laptop.

🏗️ Architectural Topology

graph LR
    subgraph "Workstation (Laptop)"
        A[NixOS Laptop]
        A1[Niri / Hyprland / Wayland GUI]
        A2[Alacritty / Foot / Browser]
        A3[Active Code & Dev Workspaces]
    end

    subgraph "Production (Server / Ex-Desktop)"
        B[NixOS Headless Server 24/7]
        B1[Docker & Traefik Core]
        B2[Appctl / Service Orchestration]
        B3[Databases, Media & Homelab Services]
    end

    A -- "SSH / WireGuard / Git" --> B

📋 Phased Execution Roadmap

Phase 1: Laptop NixOS Baseline & Graphical Parity

  • [ ] Install NixOS on the target laptop.
  • [ ] Pull and configure hosts/laptop/ from nixos-config.
  • [ ] Move graphical stack definitions (Niri, Hyprland, Waybar, Mako, Rofi/Fuzzel, audio tools) to be enabled on hosts/laptop/.
  • [ ] Verify GPU hardware acceleration (Intel/AMD/Nvidia drivers on laptop).
  • [ ] Test user applications and shell environments on the laptop.

Phase 2: Workspaces & Project Data Transfer

  • [ ] Migrate local development repositories from desktop to laptop:
  • Working trees in Projects/, Learn/, Experiments/.
  • [ ] Configure SSH keys, GPG keys, and GitHub/Gitea credentials on the laptop.
  • [ ] Verify that all ongoing development compiles and runs natively on the laptop.

Phase 3: Server Configuration & Headless Conversion

  • [ ] Refactor NixOS configuration repository:
  • Rename/refactor hosts/desktop into hosts/server (or enforce pure headless specialization as default).
  • Remove graphical packages, desktop managers, display managers (greetd), and desktop-only daemons from the server host.
  • Keep homelab modules: homeserver.nix, traefik-deployments.nix, dynu.nix, Docker daemon, SOPS secrets.
  • [ ] Set up robust unattended boot, power management (disable sleep/suspend on idle), and wake-on-LAN/systemd watchdog if applicable.
  • [ ] Dry-build and validate server configuration (nix build .#nixosConfigurations.server.config.system.build.toplevel --no-link).

Phase 4: Production Hygiene & Decommissioning

  • [ ] Clean up redundant folders on the server (e.g. personal browser profiles, desktop scratchpads, non-production experiments).
  • [ ] Verify 24/7 stability, monitoring, and auto-restart of all Docker containers on boot.