How I automated my entire VPS lifecycle for $0

Hej everyone, want share my setup for zero cost. No pay anything for orchestration.

Into config I put terraform with Contabo provider. State file is on github public repo because free. Ansible pull from same repo for configuration. Github actions trigger on push, deploy to all servers.

Malý server in prague, malý server in warsaw, malý server in helsinki. All same code, very nice.

On server I run debian with docker. Terraform makes dns record on Vultr, ansible installs nginx and certbot. Whole thing takes 3 minutes from git push to live.

I write guide if people want. No secret in repo, all safe.

Where do you keep the api keys? Like for Contabo and Vultr? In the repo too? That seems bad but I dont know much

Best practices for Terraform state management:

• Remote state with encryption at rest (S3-compatible backend + KMS)
• State locking to prevent concurrent modifications
• No credentials committed to version control
• Separate workspaces per environment

The described architecture presents significant security exposure. I recommend immediate rotation of any exposed credentials.

I used to work support at a different host, and this is the kind of thing we'd flag in audits.