Hetzner Cloud GitHub action

Usage

Inputs

Name	Description	Action scope	Required?
action	The action to perform (create, delete)	-	yes
server_id	ID of the server	delete	yes
server_name	Name of the server	create	yes
server_type	Server type to set up	create	no (default: cx11)
server_image	Image used to create the server.	create	yes
server_location	Location of your server	create	no (default: nbg1)
server_ssh_key_name	Name of the SSH key you want to use to connect to the server. Requires you to add the public key in your Hetzner project panel.	create	no
wait_for_ssh	If set action will wait for port 22 to be available before finishing. (Set one of these to enable: 1, true, yes)	create	no

Outputs

Name	Description	Action scope
hcloud_server_id	ID of the server affected by the last action	create, remove
hcloud_server_created_ipv4	IPv4 address of the created server	create
hcloud_server_created_ipv6	IPv6 address of the created server	create

Example

jobs:
  startServer:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    # create a new server
    - name: Create new Hetzner server
      id: setup_server # set this to get the output in steps.setup_server.outputs
      uses: saitho/hetzner-cloud-action@master
      with:
        action: create
        server_name: pr-${{ github.run_id }}
        server_image: ubuntu-18.04
        server_location: fsn1
        server_ssh_key_name: github-ci
        wait_for_ssh: 1 # wait until SSH on port 22 is ready for connections
      env:
        API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.HETZNER_TOKEN }}
    # IPv4 address of created server is available in hcloud_server_created_ipv4
    # if CI is provided the private SSH key for the key named "server_ssh_key_name" it can connect via SSH
    - name: Work with the server
      run: echo 'do stuff on ${{ steps.setup_server.outputs.hcloud_server_created_ipv4 }}'
    # remove server
    - name: Remove Hetzner server
      uses: saitho/hetzner-cloud-action@master
      with:
        action: remove
        server_id: ${{ steps.setup_server.outputs.hcloud_server_id }}
      if: always() # make sure server is removed even if steps in between fail
      env:
        API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.HETZNER_TOKEN }}

Server boot time

In some cases the server may need some more time to be ready for connections. Unfortunately GitHub runners can't use ping to check if the server can be reached. You may want to add a sleep step after creating the server in order to make sure it's ready when working with it.

jobs:
  startServer:
    steps:
      # ... create step here ...
      - name: wait for server
        run: sleep 5 # wait for 5 seconds

If you're specifically wait for the SSH port 22 to be available, set wait_for_ssh=1 as input.

SSH keys

You can set up an SSH key which you or your CI can use to connect to the newly created server. Add the public key to your Hetzner project and the private key to your job's secrets.

Make sure to set server_ssh_key_name to the name you specified on your Hetzner project.

Detailed instructions

Create a new SSH key without a passphrase:

ssh-keygen -f ./my-ssh-key -m pem -C gh-actions

This will create two files: my-ssh-key (private key) and my-ssh-key.pub (public key).

Go to your Hetzner project and create a new SSH key entry with the contents of my-ssh-key.pub and choose a name (e.g. github-ci).

Next, go to your GitHub repository and add a new secret with the contents of my-ssh-key and choose a name (e.g. SSH_PRIVATE_KEY)

You can then use any SSH provider GitHub action to use the key within your build, e.g.

- uses: webfactory/ssh-agent@v0.2.0
  with:
    ssh-private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}

Also in the definition for saitho/hetzner-cloud-action make sure to set server_ssh_key_name to the name you chose before (e.g. github-ci). If you can't connect to the server via SSH afterwards, you may want to set wait_for_ssh to make sure saitho/hetzner-cloud-action only continues when port 22 is available.