Deploy on Hetzner

Not yet tried end to end

Written from the provider’s documentation; not yet tried end to end. If a step differs on your screen, the provider’s own page (linked below) is right, and the Geometer steps after it stay the same.

This guide takes you from nothing to a Geometer server on Hetzner. Geometer charges for assurance (Guard, the signed licence, alerts, the monthly report), not hosting: the server, its bill and your AI key and WhatsApp account are yours. The general steps and what the install does are in Deploy on your server.

What you need

• A Hetzner Cloud server with 2 vCPU and 4 GB of memory running Ubuntu 24.04 (or 22.04). The bundle names the CX22 or CPX21 types; Hetzner renames its types from time to time, so choose the current type with 2 vCPU and 4 GB, on Intel or AMD (x86). Hetzner has no region in India: choose the location closest to your shops’ customers. See Hetzner’s pricing for what it costs; Geometer does not host it or bill for it.
• A domain you control, where you can add an A record.
• A Geometer account with a pairing code (step 1), and the release tag Geometer gave you.
• Per shop and for the model, the keys listed in Deploy on your server.

1. Get your pairing code

Sign in at geometer.dev/account, choose Add a server and copy the one-time code (it starts gfp_). It works once and runs out after two hours, so make the server soon after you copy it. The page shows the code only once.

2. Fill in the cloud-init file

Download the cloud-init file, bundle/cloud-init.yaml, and fill in the four values marked FILL IN: your SSH public key, the release tag Geometer gave you, your domain, and the pairing code. It makes a user builder who logs in with your SSH key and runs the install with no questions.

3. Make the server

1. In the Cloud Console open your project, choose Servers, then Add server.
2. Location: the one closest to your customers. Image: Ubuntu 24.04. Type: 2 vCPU and 4 GB, x86.
3. Networking: keep a public IPv4 address.
4. SSH key: pick yours. The console cannot add a key after the server exists.
5. Firewalls: attach the firewall you make in “Open the ports” below (make it first, or attach it afterwards).
6. Cloud config: paste the filled-in cloud-init file. Hetzner limits this field to 32 KiB; the file is far smaller.
7. Name the server and choose Create & buy now.

The install runs by itself when the server first starts and takes about ten minutes. Log in as builder after that.

The Guard image is a file for now

The Guard image is not in a public registry yet, so Geometer gives it to you as a file. Without it the install still finishes and the panel starts, but no shop can start. Copy the file to the server (scp) and run the install again with --guard-image-file <the file>: it finds what is there, checks the file against the pinned checksum for your server’s CPU and carries on, and the pairing already kept on the server is reused (no new code). Also, until Geometer names a release, the install stops (a copy with no release named is refused); --use-this-checkout is for a trial only.

4. Open the ports

In Firewalls, create a firewall with inbound rules for TCP 22 (SSH), TCP 80 and TCP 443, and apply it to the server. A Hetzner firewall blocks inbound traffic that no rule allows.

The address: The server’s public IPv4 address is on its page in the Cloud Console. It stays with the server.

5. Point your domain at the server

Create an A record for your domain (for example shops.example.com) with the server’s public address, at whoever holds your domain’s DNS. HTTPS gets its certificate by itself once the record points at the server; the install keeps trying until it does. Check it with ping shops.example.com or dig +short shops.example.com.

6. Check that it works

1. Log in to the server as builder (cloud-init path) or your own user, and run geometer status. It lists each shop (none yet), the Guards and the last backup.
2. Run geometer invite builder and open the one-time sign-in link it prints. The panel opens at https://<your domain>.
3. On geometer.dev/account the server appears under your servers once it is paired.
4. Finish the panel’s first run: the model and its key, the backup bucket and its key, and Google if your shops use a calendar. Then add a shop.

If something is wrong: geometer server logs shows the server’s containers, and Deploy on your server has the rest. For a cloud-init install, the install’s own log is /var/log/cloud-init-output.log on the server.

The provider’s own pages

• Create a server in the Cloud Console
• Cloud Firewalls
• Hetzner Cloud pricing