A small helper script to manage nixOS deployments via SSH and git. This doesn't rely on nix-instantiate or nix-copy-closure, instead building the config is done completely on the deployment target.
Start a VM running the NixOS live iso, set a root password, note the IP.
cd my-deployment
git init
nixos-simple-deploy 192.168.x.y bootstrap deployment-hostname -p the-password -P desired-root-password -f
nixos-simple-deploy 192.168.x.y store-key
nixos-simple-deploy 192.168.x.y create
vim flake.nix # place your desired server config
git commit -am'Initial deployment'
nixos-simple-deploy 192.168.x.y deploy