Deploy a Hetzner Cloud Server from a GitHub Action.

Hetzner is a zero-carbon infrastructure provider.

See action.yml.

Basic:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: Ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - uses: TimDaub/hetzner-cloud-deploy-server-action@v2
        with:
          server-name: "gh-actions-server"
          server-image: "ubuntu-20.04"
          server-type: "cx11"
          server-location: "nbg1"
          ssh-key-name: "my key name"
          hcloud-token: ${{ secrets.HCLOUD_TOKEN }}

1. Create a Hetzner Account
2. Visit the Hetzner Cloud Console at console.hetzner.cloud, select your project, and create a new Read & Write API token ("Security" => "API Tokens").
3. In the "Security" tab in the Hetzner Cloud Console, you can check your ssh key's name.
4. Add the Hetzner API token to your GitHub repositories secrets ("Settings" => "Secrets") as HCLOUD_TOKEN.
5. To know which server-images and server-types Hetzner provides, check the FAQ.

• server-name MUST NOT contain spaces.
• If you don't want the server to be deleted after the action has run, add delete-server: false as an input in your workflow
• ssh-key-name's value should be the name of the SSH key as recorded in the Hetzner's cloud console (Under Security -> SSH Keys)
• The server's ipv4 is available to subsequent steps by accessing the env variable SERVER_IPV4.
• By default, the action queries the to-be-launched server's port 22 (SSH) for maximally 20 seconds (startup-timeout). Continous steps are only run if the server has responded within this time.
• startup-timeout (milliseconds) can be adjusted manually. For a cx11 instance, I recommend at least 20 seconds bootup time.
• To assign a Floating IP the input floating-ip-id can be set. See FAQ for instruction about how to get a floating IP's id.
• When assigning an instance to a floating IP, the Hetzner recommends configuring a temporary or permanent IPV4 on the machine.
• After a server has been successfully assigned a floating IP, it is exported as an environment variable called SERVER_FLOATING_IPV4.

You can use the Hetzner Cloud API. The following curl command works well with jq:

$ curl \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" \
  'https://api.hetzner.cloud/v1/images' | jq '.images[].name'

"ubuntu-16.04"
"debian-9"
"centos-7"
"ubuntu-18.04"
"debian-10"
"centos-8"
"ubuntu-20.04"
"fedora-32"
"fedora-33"

You can use the Hetzner Cloud API. The following curl command works well with jq:

$ curl \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" \
  'https://api.hetzner.cloud/v1/server_types' | jq '.server_types[].name'

"cx11"
"cx11-ceph"
"cx21"
"cx21-ceph"
"cx31"
"cx31-ceph"
"cx41"
"cx41-ceph"
"cx51"
"cx51-ceph"
"ccx11"
"ccx21"
"ccx31"
"ccx41"
"ccx51"
"cpx11"
"cpx21"
"cpx31"
"cpx41"
"cpx51"

You can use the Hetzner Cloud API. The following curl command works well with jq:

$ curl \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" \
  'https://api.hetzner.cloud/v1/locations' | jq '.locations[].name'

"fsn1"
"nbg1"
"hel1"
"ash"
"hil"

You can use the Hetzner Cloud API. The following curl command works well with jq:

$ curl -s \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" \
  'https://api.hetzner.cloud/v1/floating_ips' | jq '.floating_ips[].id'
1
2
3

In combination with webfactory/ssh-agent you can use it to provision a Hetzner Cloud instance completely from within a GitHub Action. An example:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: Ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - uses: TimDaub/hetzner-cloud-deploy-server-action@v2
        with:
          server-name: "gh-actions-server"
          server-image: "ubuntu-20.04"
          server-type: "cx11"
          server-location: "nbg1"
          ssh-key-name: "my key name"
          hcloud-token: ${{ secrets.HCLOUD_TOKEN }}
      - uses: webfactory/[email protected]
        with:
          ssh-private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}
      - run: mkdir -p ~/.ssh/ && ssh-keyscan -H $SERVER_IPV4 >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
      - run: ssh root@$SERVER_IPV4 touch tim_was_here
      - run: ssh root@$SERVER_IPV4 ls

After all steps have run, your provisioned Hetzner instance gets shutdown by the cleanup script.

All Hetzner servers created with this Action get assigned an arbitrary IP, which can make it difficult to immediately set it as an A-record on a domain you own.

Hetzner, however, provides a feature called Floating IPs, that allows a user to assign a static IP to a server.

By setting your DNS A-record to a floating IP and adding its ID as an input, you can hence make your launched server predictably-addressable.

Be aware that the floating IP needs to be in the same location as the server. To achieve this, use the additional parameter server-location.

Specifically, working with floating IPs can get a bit messy. Here's an example configuration.

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: Ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - uses: TimDaub/hetzner-cloud-deploy-server-action@v2
        with:
          server-name: "server"
          server-image: "ubuntu-20.04"
          server-type: "cx11"
          server-location: "fsn1"
          ssh-key-name: "my key name"
          hcloud-token: ${{ secrets.HCLOUD_TOKEN }}
          startup-timeout: 40000
          floating-ip-id: my-id
          floating-ip-assignment-timeout: 30000
      - uses: webfactory/[email protected]
        with:
          ssh-private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}
      - run: mkdir -p ~/.ssh/ && ssh-keyscan -H $SERVER_IPV4 >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
      - run: ssh root@$SERVER_IPV4 "ip addr add $SERVER_FLOATING_IPV4 dev eth0"
      - run: mkdir -p ~/.ssh/ && ssh-keyscan -H $SERVER_FLOATING_IPV4 >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
      - run: ssh root@$SERVER_FLOATING_IPV4 touch tim_was_here
      - run: ssh root@$SERVER_FLOATING_IPV4 ls

Note how we use ssh-keyscan twice here to configure the GitHub Action server for once with the SERVER_IPV4 but then later also with the SERVER_FLOATING_IPV4. This specific step is optional, but it allows a subsequent step to directly connect to the floating IP.

Yes, you certainly can.

There may be instances where something within my script's cleanup fails and the instance remains online. So if you're planning to run your tests many times or if you're planning to launch huge instances, please make sure to double check if some instances remain running after the action has completed.

Also, please note that Hetzner bills per hours, not minutes. This means that a 30 second run will be billed as a 1 hour run, a 61 minute run will be billed as a 2 hour run, etc. (#14)

If you push very frequently, you might want to ensure that your workflow requires explicit approval before running by using GitHub's Environment approval mechanism.

You have been warned.

• When sending the request to Hetzner's API, an error occurred "Unprocessable Entity"
  • The data you are passing is syntactically correct, but Hetzner could not achieve the task. Make sure all your secrets are set correctly, and that your ssh-key-name is the same as in the Hetzner Cloud interface.

See License.