Quickstart: Cloud Snapshot Demo Lifecycle

Feature: 008-cloud-snapshot-lifecycle

Prerequisites

• Hetzner Cloud account with API token (HCLOUD_TOKEN in infra/.env)
• Docker installed (or Terraform + Ansible + hcloud CLI installed locally)
• A successfully provisioned cluster (via make demo-cloud-up) — needed once

One-Time Setup: Create Your First Snapshot Set

# 1. Build the cluster from scratch (one-time, ~25 min)
make demo-cloud-up

# 2. At the end of provisioning, you'll be prompted:
#    "Snapshot this cluster for future fast starts? [Y/n]"
#    Say yes. Or run manually:
make demo-snapshot

# 3. Tear down the running cluster (stops billing)
make demo-cloud-down

You now have a snapshot set stored in Hetzner Cloud. This is your seed.

Daily Demo Workflow

# Warm start from snapshots (~3-5 min)
make demo-warm

# Verify everything is healthy
make demo-health

# Run your demo scenarios
make demo-scenario-a    # Project onboarding (3-5 min)
make demo-scenario-b    # Drift detect & fix (5-8 min)
make demo-scenario-c    # Audit package (3-5 min)

# When done, wind down (stops billing)
make demo-cool

Managing Snapshots

# List available snapshot sets
make demo-snapshot ARGS="--list"
# Or directly:
./infra/scripts/demo-cloud-snapshot.sh --list

# Delete an old snapshot set
./infra/scripts/demo-cloud-snapshot.sh --delete rcd-demo-20260227-01

Typical Timeline

Step	Time	What Happens
make demo-warm	3-5 min	VMs created from snapshots, network configured, services verified
Demo scenarios	3-15 min	Run one or more scenarios for stakeholders
make demo-cool	1-2 min	Optional snapshot, then destroy all resources
Total	7-22 min	Down from 45+ minutes with cold-start

Cost

• Compute: ~EUR 0.03/hour for the full 4-node cluster (cpx21 + 3×cpx11), billed per minute
• Per demo session: ~EUR 0.01 for a 15-min session, ~EUR 0.03 for a 1-hour session
• Snapshots: ~EUR 0.35/month per snapshot set (stored even when cluster is down)
• Monthly budget for weekly demos: ~EUR 0.50 (4 × 1-hour sessions + 1 snapshot set)