install incus on nixos

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+---
+title: "Install Incus on Nixos"
+date: 2024-02-29T19:14:10+05:30
+lastmod: 2024-02-29T19:14:10+05:30
+draft: false;
+keywords: [incus, nixos]
+description: ""
+tags: [incus, nixos]
+categories: [linux]
+author: ""
+
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+
+---
+Incus, a manager and hypervisor for system containers (LXC) and virtual machines (QEMU), is an excellent tool for managing and orchestrating your applications and services. It is a fork of LXD by the original maintainers.
+<!--more-->
+I found the documentation regarding NixOS lacking and thought I should put it somewhere for future reference. If you have experience with LXD, it will mostly be similar but expect things to get different as time passes.
+
+## Installation
+Incus is already present in `nixpkgs` and can be installed by adding 
+```nix
+virtualisation.incus.enable = true
+``` 
+to your `configuration.nix`. Consider adding yourself to `incus-admin` group to avoid using `sudo` every time. It can be done by
+```nix
+users.user.USER.extraGroups = [ "incus-admin" ];
+```
+Of course, replace `USER` with your username. 
+
+You need IP forwarding for NAT'ing to work
+```nix
+boot.kernel.sysctl = {
+    "net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding" = true;
+    "net.ipv4.default.forwarding" = true;
+};
+```
+
+Enable kernel module for IP forwarding to work
+```nix
+boot.kernelModules = [ "nf_nat_ftp" ];
+```
+
+Set up a bridge
+```nix
+networking.bridges = { incusbr0.interfaces = []; };
+```
+This is used to provide NAT'd internet to the guest. It is manipulated directly by incus, so no need to specify any bridged interfaces here.
+
+Add firewall rules to enable networking in the container
+```nix
+networking.firewall.extraCommands = ''
+    iptables -A INPUT incusbr0 -j ACCEPT
+    iptables -A FORWARD -o incusbr0 -j ACCEPT
+    iptables -A FORWARD -i incusbr0 -j ACCEPT
+    iptables -A OUTPUT -o incusbr0 -j ACCEPT
+'';
+```
+
+Enable lxcfs to use it
+```nix
+virtualisation.lxc.lxcfs.enable = true;
+```
+
+Now switch to the new configuration with
+```nix
+nixos-rebuild switch
+```
+
+## Setting up incus
+Incus requires initial setup for networking and storage. It can be done interactively by running
+```bash
+incus admin init
+```
+List all available images
+```bash
+incus image list images:
+```
+
+Create a new image `alpine` based on Alpine Linux
+```bash
+incus launch images:alpine/3.19 alpine
+```
+
+Interact with the newly created image
+```bash
+incus exec alpine -- ash
+```
+This will drop you in an `ash` shell in the container.
+
+You can copy containers by running
+```bash
+incus copy $CONTAINER1 $CONTAINER2
+```
+
+List containers
+```bash
+incus list
+```
+
+Stop container
+```bash
+incus stop $CONTAINER
+```
+
+Delete container
+```bash
+incus delete $CONTAINER
+```
+
+## Configuration
+Launch a new container with resource constrants
+```bash
+incus launch images:alpine/3.19 alp1 --config limits.cpu=1 --config limits.memory=192MiB
+```
+
+Check configuration
+```bash
+incus config show alp1
+```
+
+Update configuration
+```bash
+incus config set alp1 limits.memory=128MiB
+```
+## Interaction
+Run arbitrary commands
+```bash
+incus exec alpine -- apk update
+```
+
+Pull a file from container
+```bash
+incus file pull alpine/etc/hosts .
+```
+
+Push file back to the container
+```bash
+incus file push hosts alpine/etc/hosts
+```
+
+## Snapshots
+Create a snapshot
+```bash
+incus snapshot create alpine alpine_snapshot
+```
+
+Restore the container to the snapshot
+```bash
+incus snapshot restore alpine alpine_snapshot
+```
+
+Delete the snapshot
+```bash
+incus delete alpine/alpine_snapshot
+```
+
+## References
+1. [Howto setup LXD on NixOS with NixOS guest using unmanaged bridge network interface](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/howto-setup-lxd-on-nixos-with-nixos-guest-using-unmanaged-bridge-network-interface/21591)
+2. [First steps with Incus](https://linuxcontainers.org/incus/docs/main/tutorial/first_steps/)