Setup a New Dedicated Hetzner Server

Updated June 2026 — commands and versions refreshed for current releases.

Hetzner offers very good dedicated and cloud servers, from datacenters based in Germany and Finland, at very competitive prices. This article shows that while the setup isn't overly complex, following the proper steps prevents issues. The same server later forms the base for Proxmox VMs, Docker containers with Traefik and Portainer, and SAP servers.

Ordering the server

Explore the Hetzner Server Auction for deals on dedicated hardware, then access the Hetzner Robot / Cloud Console to order your server and any additional IP addresses for guest VMs.

Ordering additional IPs

If you plan to run virtual machines that each need a public IP, order an additional subnet. Available subnet options include:

• /29: 6 usable IPs
• /28: 14 usable IPs
• /27: 30 usable IPs
• /26: 62 usable IPs
• /25: 126 usable IPs

Server details

For the purposes of this article we use the following example specifications:

• CPU: Intel Xeon E-5-1650V3, 12 core
• RAM: 256GB
• Storage: 2 x 4TB HDD
• Network: 1 Gbit
• RAID: Hardware - 4 port

Network configuration example:

• Main IP: 11.11.11.11, gateway 11.11.11.1, netmask 255.255.255.192
• Additional subnet: 100.100.100.32/28 (usable IPs from 100.100.100.33 to 100.100.100.46)

Setup process

The server arrives in Rescue mode. SSH into the system and run the installimage command to start the guided installer:

installimage

Select your Linux distribution. For a Proxmox base, choose a recent Debian release. In 2020 this guide recommended Debian 10+; for current Proxmox VE 8 you should select Debian 12 (Bookworm). The installimage config syntax below is unchanged.

The installer opens a configuration file for editing. For a single-drive setup:

DRIVE1 /dev/sda
HOSTNAME your.chosen.hostname
PART swap swap 4G
PART /boot ext3 512M
PART / ext4 all

For a multi-drive LVM setup with software RAID:

DRIVE1 /dev/sda
DRIVE2 /dev/sdb
SWRAID 0
SWRAIDLEVEL 1
BOOTLOADER grub
HOSTNAME your.chosen.hostname
PART /boot ext3 512M
PART lvm vg0 all
LV vg0   swap   swap    swap    16G
LV vg0   root    /      ext4    all

Save the file and let the installer run, then reboot the machine into the newly installed system.

Adding extra drives to LVM

After rebooting, additional drives require manual LVM configuration. First, create a partition on the secondary drive:

gdisk /dev/sdb

Press o to create a new GPT, n for a new partition, select partition type 8e00 (Linux LVM), then w to write the changes.

Then add the new partition to the LVM volume group and grow the root filesystem:

pvcreate /dev/sdb1
vgextend vg0 /dev/sdb1
lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/vg0/root
resize2fs /dev/mapper/vg0-root
df -h

For modifying the RAID controller and other hardware-specific tweaks, refer to the official Hetzner wiki and community tutorials.