Provisioning Ubuntu OS on Hetzner via Terraform

Overview

This repo contains configurations for provisioning cloud resources in Hetzner using Terraform. Specifically, the following resources will be provisioned:

• A Hetzner server running Linux Ubuntu OS 24.04 LTS
  • Both root user and a custom-specified non-root user present on provisioning
  • Reference/starter bash profile present on provisioning
• A Hetzner volume, attached to the server
• Docker Engine preinstalled on the server

Configurations are given in main.tf. Furthermore, user-specified values are listed in reference file sample.terraform.tfvars. Also, reference/starter bash aliases are provided in file .bash_aliases.

Instructions

Note

These instructions assume a Unix-like terminal and executable (i.e., terraform, paths /path/to/file, etc.). For Windows host systems, make corresponding adjustments (e.g., executable terraform.exe rather than Unix-like terraform, Windows-style paths, etc.) and/or use an appropriate Unix-based terminal application for Windows (e.g., Git Bash).

1. Clone this repo locally as follows and change into it:

git clone https://github.com/awpala/terraform-for-hetzner-ubuntu-vm.git

cd terraform-for-hetzner-ubuntu-vm

2. Create an account in Hetzner, and set up billing for this account.

3. Download the Terraform executable for the corresponding host system of choice. Extract the executable from the downloaded .zip file into the locally cloned repository (i.e., .../terraform-for-hetzner-ubuntu-vm/, now containing corresponding executable .../terraform-for-hetzner-ubuntu-vm/terraform).

4. If not present already, create a new SSH public/private key pair on the host system (see here for reference). This setup assumes an ed25519 key. Otherwise, if using a different key (e.g., rsa, ecdsa, etc.), make corresponding changes in main.tf before proceeding (i.e., change values from id_ed25519 to appropriate key types). Furthermore, copy these keys (i.e., id_ed25519 and id_ed25519.pub, or equivalent) into the locally cloned repository (i.e., from ~/.ssh/ to .../terraform-for-hetzner-ubuntu-vm/).

5. In the Hetzner Cloud Console, create a new project. Additionally, add a public key to the SSH keys under Security settings for this project (use the same public key as in the previous step), and additionally create a new API token under API tokens (save/retain this value for reference on its creation).

6. Create a new file terraform.tfvars (i.e., .../terraform-for-hetzner-ubuntu-vm/terraform.tfvars) and populate values accordingly as specified in reference file sample.terraform.tfvars (user-specified values denoted by <...>, replaced with corresponding string/number types as defined in main.tf). All non-default values must be specified, otherwise defaults (cf. main.tf) are pre-specified as follows (these can additionally be overridden accordingly, if so desired):

Variable Name	Default Value	Unit of Measure	Reference
"server_image"	"ubuntu-24.04"	(N/A)	https://docs.hetzner.com/robot/dedicated-server/operating-systems/standard-images/
"server_location"	"ash"	(N/A)	https://docs.hetzner.com/cloud/general/locations/
"server_type"	"cpx11"	(N/A)	https://docs.hetzner.com/cloud/servers/overview/
"volume_size"	10	GB	https://docs.hetzner.com/cloud/volumes/overview/

7. Run the following command to update dependencies (this will correspondingly modify lockfile .terraform.lock.hcl if necessary via flag --upgrade, as well as generate dependencies in local directory /.terraform/):

./terraform init --upgrade

8. Run the following command to provision the resources in the Hetzner project (supply affirmative response yes in the terminal when prompted):

./terraform apply

9. Once the terminal prompt completes, the server should now be provisioned, along with the attached volume. This can be verified in the Hetzner Cloud Console for the corresponding project. To access the provisioned server, simply SSH from the host machine (using the same machine from which the public key was generated/derived). Furthermore, note that the volume is mounted in the server at location /mnt/<volume_name> (with <volume_name> as specified in terraform.tfvars).

10. To destroy/deprovision the resources, simply run the following command (supply affirmative response yes in the terminal when prompted):

./terraform destroy