Hetzner Server Management

Create and manage Hetzner Cloud servers using the hcloud CLI.

Prerequisites

• hcloud CLI installed (via mise: hcloud = "latest")
• Authenticated: hcloud context create <name> with API token from https://console.hetzner.cloud

Cloud Firewalls

Reusable firewall profiles applied at server creation. Firewalls can be swapped on running servers — use apply-to-resource / remove-from-resource.

Swapping firewalls on a running server

hcloud firewall remove-from-resource ts-ssh --type server --server dev
hcloud firewall apply-to-resource ts-only --type server --server dev

Quick Reference

Create a server

# Prefer ARM (best value)
hcloud server create \
  --name dev \
  --type cax21 \
  --image ubuntu-24.04 \
  --location nbg1 \
  --ssh-key connorads \
  --ssh-key connor@penguin \
  --firewall ts-ssh

# x86 fallback
hcloud server create \
  --name dev \
  --type cpx21 \
  --image ubuntu-24.04 \
  --location nbg1 \
  --ssh-key connorads \
  --ssh-key connor@penguin \
  --firewall ts-ssh

# IPv6-only (saves ~$0.60/month on IPv4)
hcloud server create \
  --name dev \
  --type cax21 \
  --image ubuntu-24.04 \
  --location nbg1 \
  --ssh-key connorads \
  --ssh-key connor@penguin \
  --firewall ts-ssh \
  --without-ipv4

With user-data (auto-run install script)

# Use heredoc - process substitution <(echo '...') escapes the shebang incorrectly
hcloud server create \
  --name dev \
  --type cax21 \
  --image ubuntu-24.04 \
  --location nbg1 \
  --ssh-key connorads \
  --ssh-key connor@penguin \
  --firewall ts-ssh \
  --user-data-from-file - <<'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/connorads/dotfiles/master/install.sh | bash
EOF

The dotfiles installation takes ~5 minutes. To monitor progress:

# Quick status check
ssh connor@$(hcloud server ip dev) "cloud-init status"

# View recent installation logs
ssh connor@$(hcloud server ip dev) "sudo journalctl -u cloud-final -n 50 --no-pager"

# Follow installation in real-time
ssh connor@$(hcloud server ip dev) "sudo journalctl -u cloud-final -f"

# Check if tools are installed
ssh connor@$(hcloud server ip dev) "which zsh mise && echo \$SHELL"

With swap (recommended for production)

Ubuntu cloud images don't include swap by default. Add swap via cloud-init at creation:

# Create server with 16GB swap (1:1 ratio for 16GB RAM server)
hcloud server create \
  --name dev \
  --type cax33 \
  --image ubuntu-24.04 \
  --location nbg1 \
  --ssh-key connorads \
  --ssh-key connor@penguin \
  --firewall ts-ssh \
  --user-data-from-file - <<'EOF'
#cloud-config
swap:
  filename: /swapfile
  size: 16G
  maxsize: 16G
EOF

Recommended swap sizes:

• 4GB RAM → 4-8GB swap
• 8GB RAM → 8GB swap
• 16GB+ RAM → 16GB swap (1:1 ratio)

Add swap to existing server:

# Create 16GB swap file
ssh connor@$(hcloud server ip dev) "sudo fallocate -l 16G /swapfile && \
  sudo chmod 600 /swapfile && \
  sudo mkswap /swapfile && \
  sudo swapon /swapfile && \
  echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab"

# Verify swap is active
ssh connor@$(hcloud server ip dev) "free -h"

Common commands

# List servers
hcloud server list

# Get server IP
hcloud server ip dev

# SSH to server
ssh connor@$(hcloud server ip dev)

# Delete server
hcloud server delete dev

# Power operations
hcloud server poweroff dev
hcloud server poweron dev
hcloud server reboot dev

# Rebuild (reinstall OS, keeps IP)
hcloud server rebuild dev --image ubuntu-24.04

Server types (commonly used)

Prices in USD for EU regions (US regions ~20% higher):

Full list: hcloud server-type list

Locations

SSH keys

# List keys
hcloud ssh-key list

# Add a key
hcloud ssh-key create --name mykey --public-key-from-file ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Images

# List system images
hcloud image list --type system

# ARM images
hcloud image list --type system --architecture arm

Cloning GitHub repos (SSH agent forwarding)

Use the <name>-agent SSH host (which has agent forwarding enabled) to clone private repos without copying keys to the server. If you hit host key errors, add GitHub's host key first.

# First time only: add GitHub's host key
ssh dev "ssh-keyscan github.com >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts 2>/dev/null"

# Confirm forwarded agent is visible
ssh dev-agent "ssh-add -l"

# Clone with agent forwarding (use -agent suffix)
ssh dev-agent "mkdir -p ~/git && cd ~/git && git clone [email protected]:you/repo.git"

# Clone specific branch
ssh dev-agent "mkdir -p ~/git && cd ~/git && git clone [email protected]:you/repo.git && cd repo && git checkout branch-name"

# Push/pull with agent forwarding
ssh dev-agent "cd repo && git push"

For interactive sessions (e.g., lazygit):

ssh dev-agent
# Then on server: git clone/push/pull works with forwarded agent

Post-creation setup

After creating a server, always clear any old host keys for that IP (Hetzner reuses IPs):

ssh-keygen -R $(hcloud server ip dev) 2>/dev/null
ssh-keyscan $(hcloud server ip dev) >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts 2>/dev/null

Then generate/update SSH config entries:

hcssh              # update ~/.ssh/config with all Hetzner servers
hcssh --dry-run    # preview without writing

This creates two Host entries per server inside a managed block (# BEGIN/END hetzner-managed):

• <name> — no agent forwarding (safe for AI agents)
• <name>-agent — with agent forwarding (for git push/pull to GitHub)

Run hcssh again after creating/deleting servers to keep SSH config in sync. This enables VS Code Remote-SSH to show the server in the dropdown.

Optional: Restrict SSH to Tailscale only

After ts up and confirming SSH works via Tailscale (ts ssh connor@dev), run tsonlyssh on the server to remove public port 22 from UFW. This leaves SSH accessible only via the Tailscale interface.

Fallback: Hetzner Cloud Console VNC if locked out.

Notes

• ARM (cax*) servers are best value for dev work
• IPv6-only saves money but requires Tailscale/cloudflared for access from IPv4 networks
• User-data runs as root on first boot
• The dotfiles install.sh handles creating user connor, installing Nix, home-manager, and mise tools