Install NixOS on Amazon EC2

Amazon EC2 is a widely used cloud deployment platform that is part of Amazon Web Services (AWS). NixOS largely supports the platform through AMIs and the nixos-generators project.

Public NixOS AMIs

A list of NixOS AMI's available on AWS is located here and for a more up to date list: here (cf. this discourse thread).

The default user for these AMI's is root. There isn't a default password, instead authentication is done by using the SSH key selected during the EC2 creation process.

Creating a NixOS AMI

The nixos-generators project is currently the best method to create your own NixOS AMI. Follow the directions provided by nixos-generators & then follow the instructions provided by AWS.

Additional Resources

Building and Importing NixOS AMIs on EC2 by Jack Kelly

SSH Asks For Password

When connecting to a newly launched EC2 instance via SSH, it may ask for a password. This seems to be because the amazon-init systemd service is still reading user data. Back out of the current SSH attempt and try again in a few minutes.