railiance-infra/docs/provisioning.md

🚀 Provisioning Servers with RailianceHosts

This guide explains where you declare servers, how Terraform uses that declaration, and how to provision (and later destroy) machines on Hetzner.

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🚀 Fast Path: Using the Helper Script

Instead of manually editing inventory/servers.yaml and running make tf-apply, you can use the convenience script scripts/hcloud_new_server.sh.
This script will:

1. Add the new host entry to inventory/servers.yaml
2. Decrypt your Hetzner API token with SOPS
3. Run Terraform (init/plan/apply) to provision the server
4. Print the IPv4 address and a ready-to-use SSH command

Example:

scripts/hcloud_new_server.sh core-01 --type cpx11 --region nbg1 --role core

This will create a small cpx11 instance in the Nuremberg (nbg1) region, tagged with the role core. You can then connect directly:

ssh admin@<printed-ip>

👉 The script is optional. You can always manage servers by editing inventory/servers.yaml and running make tf-apply instead.

1) Where you define servers

All desired hosts live in inventory/servers.yaml. Each entry is a simple YAML object with the required attributes:

servers:
  - name: core-01
    labels: [core, wireguard, git]
    role: "core"
    region: "nbg1"           # Hetzner location (e.g., nbg1, fsn1, hel1)
    type: "cpx21"            # Hetzner server type/flavor
    image: "ubuntu-24.04"    # OS image slug
    ssh_user: "admin"        # bootstrap user (cloud-init creates this)

Tip: Keep names stable. Renaming a server in this file makes Terraform think the old one was destroyed and a new one should be created.

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2) Two ways to add a server

A) Edit YAML by hand (simple)

Open inventory/servers.yaml, add a new entry, save, commit.

B) Use the helper script (safe & quick)

# requires scripts/new_host.py
make new-host NAME=web-01 TYPE=cpx21 REGION=nbg1 ROLE=web
# or directly:
python3 scripts/new_host.py --name web-01 --type cpx21 --region nbg1 --role web

You can also do add + provision in one step:

scripts/hcloud_new_server.sh web-01 --type cpx21 --region nbg1 --role web

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3) How Terraform uses your declaration

The module at terraform/hetzner/:

• Reads inventory/servers.yaml (for_each over servers)
• Registers your SSH key from keys/admin_ssh.pub
• Injects cloud-init that sets up the admin user and basic hardening
• Creates/updates/destroys servers to match the YAML

Outputs include a map of server names → IPv4 addresses.

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4) Provision (create/update)

Make sure your Hetzner API token is present and SOPS-decryptable in inventory/group_vars/secrets.sops.yaml under ops.hcloud_token.

Then run either:

# plan and apply in separate steps
make tf-plan
make tf-apply

or the end-to-end convenience:

make apply    # terraform apply + ansible bootstrap

If you used the one-shot script:

scripts/hcloud_new_server.sh web-01 --type cpx21 --region nbg1 --role web

Terraform will print the new servers’ IPv4 addresses at the end.

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5) Connect & converge

Connect via SSH:

ssh admin@<server-ip>

Run Ansible base bootstrap (if not using make apply):

make ansible-bootstrap

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6) Destroy (tear down)

To remove all servers managed by this repo:

make tf-destroy

To remove just one server, delete its entry from inventory/servers.yaml, commit, then:

make tf-apply

Terraform will destroy the missing server and leave others intact.

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7) Notes & conventions

• Idempotent: You can run make apply repeatedly; Terraform converges infra, Ansible converges config.
• SSH keys: Ensure keys/admin_ssh.pub exists before provisioning.
• Secret token: The Hetzner API token must be in inventory/group_vars/secrets.sops.yaml (encrypted with SOPS).
• Cloud-init delay: Allow ~30–60s after creation for first-boot tasks before first SSH.
• Labels & role: labels are freeform tags; role can drive Ansible plays as you grow.