A puppet pro decides to learn nix

Configuration management is nothing new for Michael Stahnke. In this talk, he’ll be looking at Nix, the functional package manager (and a bit of NixOS) from a foundational point of view and contrasting it from the theory and foundations coming from Puppet (with a few other tool comparisons thrown in).

While configuration management’s role in delivering applications has changed over the years, the time is ripe to take what we’ve learned in the last 15 years - through containers, cloud native architectures and massively distributed systems - and develop a continually evolving approach.

This will have some humor, some information, and some ideas about where we could head in the configuration management space given our cumulative knowledge.

Video: https://youtu.be/ECafEosi5Lo?t=27750

Transcript

1. A puppet pro decides to learn nix Michael Stahnke VP Engineering at Flox (flox.dev) @stahnma
2. 2 Obsessed with Automation @stahnma
3. 3 Speed @stahnma
4. 4 Consistency @stahnma
5. 5 Variance is the Enemy @stahnma
6. Edu Career 6 9 Years 8 Years 4 Years About a Year @stahnma
7. 7 @stahnma
8. 8 @stahnma
9. 9 @stahnma
10. 10 Founded Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux, largely to ensure Puppet was available @stahnma
11. 11 Ported Ruby AIX @stahnma
12. 12 Packaged Passenger for usage by Caterpillar (and eventually Reductive Labs) @stahnma
13. 13 Things I love(d) about Puppet @stahnma
14. 14 Nouns not Verbs @stahnma
15. 15 State not Action @stahnma
16. 16 Abstraction of OS differences @stahnma
17. 17 Several great integration points (facter, hiera, ldap schema, more) @stahnma
18. 18 I had done a lot of packaging @stahnma
19. 19 Somebody told me to check out nix @stahnma
21. 21 @stahnma
22. 22 First impressions with nix: This seems very grounded in academics. Why do I want n versions of a library on a system? Holy cow, the complete disregard for FHS is a crime against all things unix. @stahnma
24. 24 Result: Didn’t touch it again for years. @stahnma
25. 25 I went to Puppet @stahnma
26. 26 Packaging All the Things @stahnma
27. 27 Wrote our own tooling @stahnma
28. 28 Built our own CI system from the ground up @stahnma
29. 29 We were packaging for more than 100 OS/architecture combinations @stahnma
31. 31 Upgrades: Difficult to test Feared by customers @stahnma
32. 32 People smarter than me were using nix to solve local development problems @stahnma
33. 33 I <3 packaging I <3 developer productivity Let’s do this. @stahnma
34. 34 The next time, Nix wasn’t even 1 thing. @stahnma
35. 35 It’s an OS, a package manager, a programming language @stahnma
36. 36 It’s slices, it dices, it purees
37. 37 A skit from the first season of Saturday Night Live in 1975. @stahnma
38. 38 I <3 packaging I <3 developer productivity Let’s do this. @stahnma
39. 39 Why is this so complicated? @stahnma
40. 40 Why is this so complicated? This is Avril Lavigne. She was kind of a big deal in like 2002. She had a history song titled “Complicated” @stahnma
41. 41 WTFs/Min @stahnma
42. 42 There are debates about what “install” means… @stahnma
43. 43 People smarter than me were using nix to solve local development problems @stahnma
46. Customer Viewpoints 46
47. 47 @stahnma
48. 48 @stahnma
49. 49 Back to our regular program @stahnma
50. 50 Intimidating @stahnma
51. 51 Expression Profile Derivation Purity Shell Flakes Closure (not Clojure) Storepath Inputs @stahnma
52. 52 Other problems Can’t find headers Can’t find libraries Shell vs develop Experimental Features Is this a package manager, a package repository, an OS, or a tool? @stahnma
53. 53 So, let’s take a step back @stahnma
54. 54 Recommended learning via NixOS @stahnma
55. 55 NixOS @stahnma
57. @stahnma
58. 58 NixOS
59. 59 Enter the second machine problem @stahnma
60. 60 Ok, so there’s a catalog, but I can’t load variables into it. Nix @stahnma
61. 61 NixOS So, like a puppet apply… without facter sending over info. @stahnma
62. 62 Purity @stahnma
63. 63 What’s nix awesome at? @stahnma
64. 64 Same package, different distro Nix @stahnma
65. 65 Reproducibility @stahnma
66. 66 Cross Platform @stahnma
67. 67 Trying out new software @stahnma
68. 68 Less time in CI @stahnma
69. 69 Giant Package Repository @stahnma
70. 70 People smarter than me were using nix to solve local development problems @stahnma
71. 71 Expression Profile Derivation Purity Shell Flakes Closure (not Clojure) Storepath Inputs @stahnma
72. 72 External Node Classifier Compiler Indirector Catalog Clojure (not Closure) Type Provider RAL Facts @stahnma
73. @stahnma
75. From the US Version of the “The Office.” But, I only know it from the internet. @stahnma
76. 76 There are debates about what “install” means… @stahnma
77. Pedantic 77 @stahnma
78. 78 Desire for Cross Platform Work @stahnma
79. 79 Declarative @stahnma
80. 80 Automation @stahnma
81. 81 Idealogical Purity @stahnma
82. 82 A little bit of a superiority complex @stahnma
83. 83 Community…fun @stahnma
84. Lessons 84 @stahnma
85. NixOS Fun 85 It’s a rolling release @stahnma
86. NixOS Fun 86 I can debug with strace @stahnma
87. NixOS Fun 87 I can learn about new tech pretty easily @stahnma
88. NixOS Fun 88 Using SystemD more than most other distros @stahnma
89. Nix 89 Package across platforms @stahnma
90. Nix 90 Rollbacks/upgrades @stahnma
91. Nix 91 Appliance Construction @stahnma
93. 93 Ron Popeil, basically the inventor of the Infomercial in the United States @stahnma
94. 94 Developer Workflows @stahnma
95. 95 So much power here @stahnma
96. Nix 96 CI normalization @stahnma
97. 97 A little finicky @stahnma
98. 98 @stahnma
100. 100 @stahnma
101. NixOS 101 • Awesome at single system management • Fleets take a bit more planning for secret distribution, variable needs, etc. @stahnma
102. Nix 102 • Cross platform packaging needs • Trying out software • Reproducibility @stahnma
103. Puppet 103 • Better when you have existing systems to manage • Enforce state if you have manual drift @stahnma
104. Least Favorite Things 104 • The complexity of the server stack. (JDK, Ruby, 13 configuration grammars, etc) • SSL…fun • Company…changes @stahnma
105. Least Favorite Things 105 • Nixpkgs naming of packages • Docs for some things non-existent (read the source) • Version not really being a first-class piece of metadata • Experimental features @stahnma
106. Should you change? 106 @stahnma
107. Only if you’ve declared your intention ahead of time 107 @stahnma
108. flox.dev