De Vrije Cloud: Post-Tyranny Tech Multi-Tenant Infrastructure

Infrastructure as Code for our "Vrije Cloud" a scalable multi-tenant VPS platform running Nextcloud (file sync/share) on Hetzner Cloud.

🏗️ Architecture

• Provisioning: OpenTofu (open source Terraform fork)
• Configuration: Ansible with dynamic inventory
• Secrets: SOPS + Age encryption
• Hosting: Hetzner Cloud (EU-based, GDPR-compliant)
• Identity: Authentik (OAuth2/OIDC SSO, MIT license)
• Storage: Nextcloud (German company, AGPL 3.0)

📁 Repository Structure

infrastructure/
├── .claude/agents/          # AI agent definitions for specialized tasks
├── docs/                    # Architecture decisions and runbooks
├── tofu/                    # OpenTofu configurations for Hetzner
├── ansible/                 # Ansible playbooks and roles
├── secrets/                 # SOPS-encrypted secrets (git-safe)
├── docker/                  # Docker Compose configurations
└── scripts/                 # Deployment and management scripts

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• OpenTofu >= 1.6
• Ansible >= 2.15
• SOPS + Age
• Hetzner Cloud account

Automated Deployment (Recommended)

The fastest way to deploy a client:

# 1. Ensure SOPS Age key is available (if not set)
export SOPS_AGE_KEY_FILE="./keys/age-key.txt"

# 2. Add client to terraform.tfvars
# clients = {
#   newclient = {
#     server_type = "cx22"
#     location    = "fsn1"
#     subdomain   = "newclient"
#     apps        = ["authentik", "nextcloud"]
#   }
# }

# 3. Deploy client (fully automated, ~10-15 minutes)
# The script automatically loads the Hetzner API token from SOPS
./scripts/deploy-client.sh newclient

Note: The Hetzner API token is now stored encrypted in secrets/shared.sops.yaml and loaded automatically by all scripts. No need to manually set HCLOUD_TOKEN.

The script will automatically:

• ✅ Generate unique SSH key pair (if missing)
• ✅ Create secrets file from template (if missing, opens in editor)
• ✅ Provision VPS on Hetzner Cloud
• ✅ Deploy Authentik (SSO/identity provider)
• ✅ Deploy Nextcloud (file storage)
• ✅ Configure OAuth2/OIDC integration
• ✅ Set up SSL certificates
• ✅ Create admin accounts

Result: Fully functional system, ready to use immediately!

Management Scripts

# Deploy a fresh client
./scripts/deploy-client.sh <client_name>

# Rebuild existing client (destroy + redeploy)
./scripts/rebuild-client.sh <client_name>

# Destroy client infrastructure
./scripts/destroy-client.sh <client_name>

See scripts/README.md for detailed documentation.

Manual Setup (Advanced)

Click to expand manual setup instructions

1. Clone repository:

   git clone <repo-url>
   cd infrastructure
   

2. Generate Age encryption key:

   age-keygen -o keys/age-key.txt
   # Store securely in password manager!
   

3. Configure OpenTofu variables:

   cp tofu/terraform.tfvars.example tofu/terraform.tfvars
   # Edit with your Hetzner API token and configuration
   

4. Create client secrets:

   cp secrets/clients/test.sops.yaml secrets/clients/<client>.sops.yaml
   sops secrets/clients/<client>.sops.yaml
   # Update client_name, domains, regenerate all passwords
   

5. Provision infrastructure:

   cd tofu
   tofu init
   tofu apply
   

6. Deploy applications:

   cd ../ansible
   export HCLOUD_TOKEN="your-token"
   export SOPS_AGE_KEY_FILE="../keys/age-key.txt"
   
   ansible-playbook -i hcloud.yml playbooks/setup.yml --limit <client>
   ansible-playbook -i hcloud.yml playbooks/deploy.yml --limit <client>
   

🎯 Project Principles

1. EU/GDPR-first: European vendors and data residency
2. Truly open source: Avoid source-available or restrictive licenses
3. Client isolation: Full separation between tenants
4. Infrastructure as Code: All changes via version control
5. Security by default: Encryption, hardening, least privilege

📝 License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details

🙋 Support

For issues or questions, please create am issue or contact us on vrijecloud@postxsociety.org