Deploy on Google Cloud Compute Engine

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 Google Cloud Compute Engine. 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 VM with 2 vCPU and 4 GB of memory (the e2-medium shape has 2 vCPU and 4 GB; check its current specification in the console) with an Ubuntu 24.04 (or 22.04) LTS x86_64 boot disk, in the Mumbai (asia-south1) region. That is the bundle’s stated size for about ten shops. See Compute Engine 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. Make the server

1. In the Google Cloud console go to Compute Engine, then VM instances, then Create instance.
2. Region: asia-south1 (Mumbai), any zone. Machine type: 2 vCPU, 4 GB.
3. OS and storage: change the boot disk to Ubuntu, version 24.04 LTS (or 22.04), x86/64.
4. Networking: if you will use a static address, pick it under External IPv4 address (see below). Open the ports as described below.
5. Choose Create. You log in with SSH from the VM’s row in the console, or with gcloud compute ssh.

This guide uses the install command over SSH. (Compute Engine can also run a startup script from VM metadata; this guide does not cover it.)

3. Open the ports

Create a VPC firewall rule (VPC network, then Firewall, then Create firewall rule) that allows ingress on TCP 80 and 443 from 0.0.0.0/0, aimed at the VM by a network tag you also give the VM. Check that SSH (TCP 22) is allowed too: the default network normally has a rule for it, but your project’s network may differ. The console’s create-VM form can also offer Allow HTTP traffic and Allow HTTPS traffic boxes that add such rules; if you see them, they do the same. See VPC firewall rules.

The address: Reserve a static external IPv4 address in the same region as the VM (asia-south1; VPC network, then IP addresses) and attach it: when you create the VM, under Networking, Network interfaces, choose it in External IPv4 address; or on an existing VM, Edit, Network interfaces, External IPv4 address, Save. A VM’s ordinary external address is ephemeral and can change.

4. 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. Do this before the install so the certificate can be issued; the install keeps trying until the record points at the server.

5. Run the install

Log in over SSH as a normal user with sudo (not root), and run the two lines the account page shows after you choose Add a server (the second one already carries your pairing code), with the release tag Geometer gave you in place of <release tag>:

git clone --branch <release tag> https://github.com/GeometerLabs/agents.git ~/geometer/agents
bash ~/geometer/agents/install.sh --pairing-code-file <(printf '%s\n' '<your pairing code>')

It asks for your domain, says what it will do and asks before it changes anything. It takes about ten minutes. (The account page’s lines already carry your pairing code, so it is not asked for again.)

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.

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 VM instance
• Reserve a static external IP address
• VPC firewall rules
• Connect to Linux VMs
• Compute Engine pricing