hcloud-upload-image/README.md

hcloud-upload-image

Quickly upload any raw disk images into your Hetzner Cloud projects!

About

The Hetzner Cloud API does not support uploading disk images directly and only provides a limited set of default images. The only option for custom disk images is to take a snapshot of an existing server’s root disk. These snapshots can then be used to create new servers.

To create a completely custom disk image, users need to follow these steps:

1. Create a server with the correct server type
2. Enable the rescue system for the server
3. Boot the server
4. Download the disk image from within the rescue system
5. Write the disk image to the server’s root disk
6. Shut down the server
7. Take a snapshot of the server’s root disk
8. Delete the server

This is a frustratingly long process. Many users have automated it with Packer and packer-plugin-hcloud, but Packer introduces additional complexity that can be difficult to manage.

This repository provides a simple CLI tool and Go library to streamline the process.

Getting Started

CLI

Binary

We provide pre-built deb, rpm and apk packages. Alternatively we also provide the binaries directly.

Check out the GitHub release artifacts for all of these files and archives.

Arch Linux

You can get hcloud-upload-image-bin from the AUR.

Use your preferred wrapper to install:

yay -S hcloud-upload-image-bin

go install

If you already have a recent Go toolchain installed, you can build & install the binary from source:

go install github.com/apricote/hcloud-upload-image@latest

Nix/NixOS

To run directly without installing (assumes flakes are enabled):

# Run the application directly
nix run github:apricote/hcloud-upload-image

# Start a shell with `hcloud-upload-image` in $PATH
nix shell github:apricote/hcloud-upload-image

To install on your system (assumes flakes are enabled):

# flake.nix
{
  inputs.nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
  inputs.hcloud-upload-image.url = "github:apricote/hcloud-upload-image";
  inputs.hcloud-upload-image.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, hcloud-upload-image }: {
    nixosConfigurations.my-system = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      system = "x86_64-linux";
      modules = [
        ./configuration.nix
        {
          environment.systemPackages = [
            hcloud-upload-image.packages.x86_64-linux.default
          ];
        }
      ];
    };
  };
}

To install on your system (using a non-flake version manager):

# Using npins
npins add github apricote hcloud-upload-image

# Using niv
niv add apricote/hcloud-upload-image

Then in your Nix expressions:

let
  sources = import ./npins;             # For npins
  # sources = import ./nix/sources.nix; # For niv
in
(pkgs.callPackage sources.hcloud-upload-image {})

Docker

There is a docker image published at ghcr.io/apricote/hcloud-upload-image.

docker run --rm -e HCLOUD_TOKEN="<your token>" ghcr.io/apricote/hcloud-upload-image:latest <command>

Usage

export HCLOUD_TOKEN="<your token>"
hcloud-upload-image upload \
  --image-url "https://example.com/disk-image-x86.raw.bz2" \
  --architecture x86 \
  --compression bz2 \
  --location nbg1  # Optional: defaults to fsn1

To learn more, you can use the embedded help output or check out the CLI help pages in this repository.:

hcloud-upload-image --help
hcloud-upload-image upload --help
hcloud-upload-image cleanup --help

Go Library

The functionality to upload images is also exposed in the library hcloudimages! Check out the reference documentation for more details.

Install

go get github.com/apricote/hcloud-upload-image/hcloudimages

Usages

package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"net/url"

	"github.com/hetznercloud/hcloud-go/v2/hcloud"

	"github.com/apricote/hcloud-upload-image/hcloudimages"
)

func main() {
	client := hcloudimages.NewClient(
		hcloud.NewClient(hcloud.WithToken("<your token>")),
	)

	imageURL, err := url.Parse("https://example.com/disk-image-x86.raw.bz2")
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	image, err := client.Upload(context.TODO(), hcloudimages.UploadOptions{
		ImageURL:         imageURL,
		ImageCompression: hcloudimages.CompressionBZ2,
		Architecture:     hcloud.ArchitectureX86,
		Location:         &hcloud.Location{Name: "nbg1"}, // Optional: defaults to fsn1
	})
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	fmt.Printf("Uploaded Image: %d", image.ID)
}

Contributing

If you have any questions, feedback or ideas, feel free to open an issue or pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license, unless the file explicitly specifies another license.

Support Disclaimer

This is not an official Hetzner Cloud product in any way and Hetzner Cloud does not provide support for this.