home-lab/documentation/DEPLOY_RS_INTEGRATION.md

# Deploy-rs Integration Summary

## Overview
Successfully integrated deploy-rs into the Home Lab infrastructure as a modern, production-ready deployment method alongside the existing shell script approach.

## Completed Tasks ✅

### Task 1: Add deploy-rs input to flake.nix ✅
- Added `deploy-rs.url = "github:serokell/deploy-rs"` to flake inputs
- Exposed deploy-rs in outputs function parameters
- Validated with `nix flake check`

### Task 2: Create basic deploy-rs configuration ✅
- Configured all 4 machines in `deploy.nodes` section
- Used Tailscale hostnames for reliable connectivity
- Set up proper SSH users and activation paths

### Task 3: Add deploy-rs health checks ✅
- Configured activation timeouts: 180s (local), 240s (VPS)
- Set confirm timeouts: 30s for all machines
- Enabled autoRollback and magicRollback for safety

### Task 4: Test deploy-rs on sleeper-service ✅
**Status**: Successfully completed on June 15, 2025

**Results**:
- ✅ Dry-run deployment successful
- ✅ Actual deployment successful  
- ✅ Service management (transmission.service restart)
- ✅ Automatic health checks passed
- ✅ Magic rollback protection enabled
- ✅ New NixOS generation created (192)
- ✅ Tailscale connectivity working perfectly

### Task 5: Integrate deploy-rs with lab tool ✅
**Status**: Successfully completed on June 15, 2025

**New Commands Added**:
- `lab deploy-rs <machine> [--dry-run]` - Modern deployment with automatic rollback
- `lab update-flake` - Update package versions and validate configuration  
- `lab hybrid-update [target] [--dry-run]` - Combined flake update + deploy-rs deployment

**Features**:
- Hybrid approach combining package updates with deployment safety
- Maintains existing legacy deployment commands for compatibility
- Comprehensive help documentation with examples
- Error handling and validation

## Deployment Methods Comparison

| Feature | Legacy (SSH + rsync) | Deploy-rs | Hybrid Update |
|---------|---------------------|-----------|---------------|
| **Speed** | Moderate | Fast | Fast |
| **Safety** | Manual rollback | Automatic rollback | Automatic rollback |
| **Package Updates** | Manual | No | Automatic |
| **Health Checks** | None | Automatic | Automatic |
| **Parallel Deployment** | No | Yes | Yes |
| **Learning Curve** | Low | Medium | Medium |

## Usage Examples

### Basic Deploy-rs Usage
```bash
# Deploy with automatic rollback protection
lab deploy-rs sleeper-service

# Test deployment without applying
lab deploy-rs sleeper-service --dry-run
```

### Hybrid Update Usage (Recommended)
```bash
# Update packages and deploy to specific machine
lab hybrid-update sleeper-service

# Update all machines with latest packages
lab hybrid-update all --dry-run  # Test first
lab hybrid-update all            # Apply updates

# Just update flake inputs
lab update-flake
```

### Legacy Usage (Still Available)
```bash
# Traditional deployment method
lab deploy sleeper-service boot
lab update boot
```

## Technical Implementation

### Deploy-rs Configuration
```nix
deploy.nodes = {
  sleeper-service = {
    hostname = "sleeper-service.tail807ea.ts.net";
    profiles.system = {
      user = "root";
      path = deploy-rs.lib.x86_64-linux.activate.nixos 
        self.nixosConfigurations.sleeper-service;
      sshUser = "sma";
      sudo = "sudo -u";
      autoRollback = true;
      magicRollback = true;
      activationTimeout = 180;
      confirmTimeout = 30;
    };
  };
  # ... other machines
};
```

### Lab Tool Integration
The lab tool now provides three deployment approaches:
1. **Legacy**: Reliable SSH + rsync method (existing workflow)
2. **Modern**: Direct deploy-rs usage with safety features
3. **Hybrid**: Automated package updates + deploy-rs deployment

## Pending Tasks

### Completed Tasks ✅
- ✅ **Task 6**: Test deploy-rs on all machines (grey-area, reverse-proxy, congenital-optimist) - **COMPLETED**

**Results:**
- **grey-area**: ✅ Deploy-rs deployment successful (both dry-run and actual)
- **reverse-proxy**: ✅ Deploy-rs deployment successful (dry-run completed) 
- **congenital-optimist**: ✅ Deploy-rs deployment successful (both dry-run and actual)
- **Infrastructure improvements**: Added `sma` user to local machine, created shared shell aliases module
- **User management**: Resolved shell alias conflicts with user-specific aliases

### Remaining Tasks
- **Task 7**: Add deploy-rs status monitoring to lab tool
- **Task 8**: Create deployment workflow documentation
- **Task 9**: Optimize deploy-rs for home lab network
- **Task 10**: Implement emergency rollback procedures

### Recommendations
1. Use **hybrid-update** for regular maintenance (combines updates + safety)
2. Use **deploy-rs** for quick configuration changes
3. Keep **legacy deploy** as fallback method
4. Test **parallel deployment** to multiple machines

## Benefits Achieved

- ✅ **Automatic Rollback**: Failed deployments revert automatically
- ✅ **Health Checks**: Validates deployment success before committing
- ✅ **Package Updates**: Streamlined update process with safety
- ✅ **Parallel Deployment**: Can deploy to multiple machines simultaneously
- ✅ **Generation Management**: Proper NixOS generation tracking
- ✅ **Network Resilience**: Robust SSH connection handling

The deploy-rs integration successfully modernizes the Home Lab deployment infrastructure while maintaining compatibility with existing workflows.