Introduction
In this how-to you will learn to use the hcloud Ansible modules. This includes how to create and delete resources and how to do more complex scenarios like attaching a volume to a server.
Prerequisites
- Hetzner Cloud API Token
- Visit Hetzner Cloud Console at https://console.hetzner.cloud, select your project, and create a new API Token.
- Basic knowledge about the Hetzner Cloud
- knowing what a server, an image, a server type and a volume is
- Ansible 2.8 is installed and you have basic knowledge about it
hcloud-pythoninstalled (pip install hcloud)
Step 1 - Basic Usage
In Ansible you can control your infrastructure with yaml files. They describe the state of your infrastructure. These files are called "Roles". Every role can have tasks. A task is something like "create a server", "run a command on the server" or something else. You can control ansible with the ansible command.
To use the module, a task like the following is needed:
hcloud_server:
api_token: "YOUR_API_TOKEN"
name: my-server
server_type: cx11
image: ubuntu-18.04
state: presentAll Hetzner Cloud modules are built into Ansible 2.8!
Step 2 - Create a server
You have learned something about the basic usage of Ansible. Now we will show you, how you can create a new server with the hcloud-server module. First of all, you should save the following YAML as hcloud-server.yml.
---
- name: Create Basic Server
hosts: localhost
connection: local
gather_facts: False
user: root
vars:
hcloud_token: YOUR_API_TOKEN
tasks:
- name: Create a basic server
hcloud_server:
api_token: "{{ hcloud_token }}"
name: my-server
server_type: cx11
image: ubuntu-18.04
state: present
register: serverThe snippet will create a new server called my-server with the server type cx11 and the image ubuntu-18.04, the state is present so the module will create the server.
When you run ansible-playbook -v hcloud-server.yml you should get an output similar to this below:
PLAY [Create a Basic Server] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Create a basic server] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [localhost] => {"changed": true, "hcloud_server": {"backup_window": "None", "datacenter": "nbg1-dc3", "id": "2505729", "image": "ubuntu-18.04", "ipv4_address": "<10.0.0.1>", "ipv6": "<2001:db8:1234::/64>", "labels": {}, "location": "nbg1", "name": "my-server", "rescue_enabled": false, "server_type": "cx11", "status": "running"}, "root_password": "xrLvkKwXTxNnECACdCEf"}
PLAY RECAP **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=1 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0 Congratulations! You have created your first Hetzner Cloud server with the hcloud_server- Ansible module!
You should now see a server in your Hetzner Cloud Console.
Step 3 - Create a volume and attach it to a server
Now we create a server and a attach a volume to it. The following snippet creates a server (the server from Step 2!) and create a new volume wich will be attached to the server. Save the following snippet as hcloud-server-volume.yml.
---
- name: Create a Server and a Volume with server
hosts: localhost
connection: local
gather_facts: False
user: root
vars:
hcloud_token: YOUR_API_TOKEN
tasks:
- name: Create a basic server
hcloud_server:
api_token: "{{ hcloud_token }}"
name: my-server
server_type: cx11
image: ubuntu-18.04
state: present
register: server
- name: Create a volume
hcloud_volume:
api_token: "{{ hcloud_token }}"
name: my-volume
size: 10
server: "{{ server.hcloud_server.name }}"
state: presentWhen you now run ansible-playbook -v hcloud-server-volume.yml you will get a similar output like this:
PLAY [Create a Server and a Volume with server] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Create a basic server] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [localhost] => {"changed": true, "hcloud_server": {"backup_window": "None", "datacenter": "nbg1-dc3", "id": "2505729", "image": "ubuntu-18.04", "ipv4_address": "<10.0.0.1>", "ipv6": "<2001:db8:1234::/64>", "labels": {}, "location": "nbg1", "name": "my-server", "rescue_enabled": false, "server_type": "cx11", "status": "running"}, "root_password": "xrLvkKwXTxNnECACdCEf"}
TASK [Create a volume] **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [localhost] => {"changed": true, "hcloud_volume": {"id": "2489399", "labels": {}, "location": "nbg1", "name": "my-volume", "server": "my-server", "size": 10}}
PLAY RECAP **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=2 changed=2 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0 You have created a server and an attached volume!
Conclusion
You now have a basic overview of the Hetzner Cloud Ansible modules. We covered how you can create and delete resources and how to do more complex scenarios like attaching a volume to a server. You can find more help on the official documentation. If you need further help, just open an issue on our Github Repository.