Spin up a WolfStack cluster on any cloud — in 90 seconds

One bash script per cloud. Provisions N VMs, installs WolfStack via cloud-init, wires up firewall rules + SSH keys + tags, and prints next steps. Single command to tear it all down.

Hetzner · AWS EC2 · Google Compute Engine · Microsoft Azure · DigitalOcean · Vultr · Linode · Scaleway

How this works

Each script is a thin layer over your provider’s own CLI (hcloud, aws, gcloud, az, doctl, vultr-cli, linode-cli, scw). It calls the provider’s API to provision N VMs in parallel with a cloud-init payload that installs WolfStack, then SSHes into each VM to wire them into a working cluster. Tags everything with your chosen prefix so --destroy can find it again.

No orchestration daemon on our side, no hosted bootstrap service, no credential storage we control. Your cloud credentials live where they already do (~/.aws/credentials, HCLOUD_TOKEN, gcloud auth, etc.) and the script just calls the provider CLI on your behalf. Read the source before you run it — that’s the whole pitch.

The cluster auto-forms: a shared cluster secret is generated locally and distributed via cloud-init, then after all VMs are reachable the script SSHes into each, builds a unified nodes.json with every peer, pushes it back, and restarts WolfStack. No token-pasting, no manual Add-Node clicks. End-to-end it’s ~90 seconds from ./bootstrap.sh to a working cluster.

Sizing — small / medium / large

Every script supports --size small|medium|large (default: medium). 4 GB RAM is too tight for real Docker / LXC / VM workloads — that’s why medium is the default. Pass --type with an explicit provider instance type if you need something outside this range.

3-node cluster on medium ranges from €28/mo (Hetzner) to ~$180/mo (Azure). Pricing is May 2026 list price, ex-VAT/tax. Each script prints a live cost estimate from the provider’s API before provisioning.

Quick start

Clone the repo, pick your cloud, run the script.

git clone https://github.com/wolfsoftwaresystemsltd/wolfstack-cloud-bootstrap.git
cd wolfstack-cloud-bootstrap/<cloud>
./bootstrap.sh

Default for every cloud: 3 nodes, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, the cheapest sensible plan, cluster prefix wolfstack. Override with --nodes N, --type STR, --region STR, --prefix STR. Run any script with --help for the full menu.

Pick your cloud

Costs are May 2026 list-price for a continuously-running 3-node cluster on the default plan. Each script prints a live cost estimate from the provider’s pricing API before it provisions anything.

brew install hcloud  # or apt/dnf
export HCLOUD_TOKEN="..."  # console.hetzner.cloud → Security → API Tokens

cd wolfstack-cloud-bootstrap/hetzner && ./bootstrap.sh

brew install doctl
doctl auth init  # paste API token

cd wolfstack-cloud-bootstrap/digitalocean && ./bootstrap.sh

brew install scw
scw init  # paste access + secret keys

cd wolfstack-cloud-bootstrap/scaleway && ./bootstrap.sh

brew install vultr/vultr-cli/vultr-cli
export VULTR_API_KEY="..."  # my.vultr.com → Settings → API

cd wolfstack-cloud-bootstrap/vultr && ./bootstrap.sh

pip install linode-cli  # or brew install linode-cli
linode-cli configure  # paste personal access token

cd wolfstack-cloud-bootstrap/linode && ./bootstrap.sh

brew install awscli
aws configure  # or aws configure sso

cd wolfstack-cloud-bootstrap/aws && ./bootstrap.sh

brew install --cask google-cloud-sdk
gcloud auth login
gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID

cd wolfstack-cloud-bootstrap/gcp && ./bootstrap.sh

brew install azure-cli
az login

cd wolfstack-cloud-bootstrap/azure && ./bootstrap.sh

After bootstrap — the cluster is already formed

The script auto-forms the cluster end-to-end. By the time it exits, every node is in nodes.json on every other node, the shared cluster secret is in place, and WolfStack’s 10-second polling loop has reconciled state. Open https://<any-node-ip>:8553, log in, and the dashboard shows all three nodes online and federated.

Login uses the system user’s password — root on most cloud images, ubuntu on AWS, azureuser on Azure. Cloud images don’t ship with a default password (SSH-key only); set one via SSH if you want to log in to the dashboard:

ssh user@<ip> 'sudo passwd $USER'

If a node hasn’t auto-joined within ~30 seconds (rare but possible if cloud-init was unusually slow), the manual fallback still works: SSH in, grab /etc/wolfstack/join-token, paste into the master’s Cluster → Add Node form. Each node generates its own token at install time regardless of whether auto-join succeeded.

Tear-down

Every script supports --destroy. It deletes the VMs, security groups / firewall rules / NSGs, SSH keys, and (on Azure) the entire resource group. Nothing is retained — you stop being billed for the cluster as soon as the script reports success.

./bootstrap.sh --destroy --prefix wolfstack

Lists what it’s about to delete and asks for confirmation. Pass --yes to skip the prompt for scripted use (CI, batch teardowns, etc.).

Security notes

• Credentials never leave your machine. The scripts call your provider’s CLI directly. Wolf Software Systems Ltd never sees, stores, or proxies your cloud credentials.
• Default firewall rules open ports 22, 8553, 8554 (TCP) and 9600, 9601 (UDP) to 0.0.0.0/0. Lock these down to your office IP or via the WireGuard bridge once the cluster’s live.
• Self-signed TLS on the dashboard by default; the bootstrap health-check ignores cert errors. Switch to Let’s Encrypt via the Certificates page once nodes are reachable on a real domain.
• SSH keys are uploaded to the provider’s IAM/SSH-key service and reused. Generate a fresh key for cluster bootstrapping if you don’t want your existing key associated with the cluster: ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/wolfstack-cluster -C wolfstack
• Cleanup-on-failure. If the third VM fails to launch, the first two are deleted automatically — no orphan billing.

Read the source

Every script is ~250-400 lines of bash, fully shellcheck-clean, with set -euo pipefail and consistent error handling. We expect operators to read it before running it.

View on GitHub See pricing

A note on commercial use

The bootstrap scripts and WolfStack itself are dual-licensed — free for personal & non-commercial use under PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0; commercial use requires an active subscription to Homelab, Team, MSP, or Enterprise. Spinning up a cloud cluster for a company or for paying customers is commercial use — pick a tier on the pricing page.