Laravel Forge or Ploi
Forge and Ploi users have a reproducible server, which is the hard part. What is missing is a way for the panel to learn about servers it did not create; the snapshot path works without that: new servers boot from a snapshot of the seed, and the panel deploys to the seed only.
- Prerequisite work
- a load balancer, TLS at the balancer, DNS to it, a new release after each panel deploy
- Time to set up
- half day
- Adapter
- Snapshot
- Fit
- 4 → 7/104 before the prerequisites, 7 once they are done
Prerequisites, time and fit are this case's row in the onboarding cases table. Hetscale's own setup is about 15 minutes in every case; the rest is work on your side.
Steps
- 01Put a load balancer in front
A Hetzner load balancer with TLS terminated at it, rather than by the panel’s per-server certificates, and your DNS pointed at it; sessions and uploads off the server. A database on the server is its own case first: move it to a managed service or its own server, and until then the fit is 3.
- 02Provision one server fully through the panel
That server becomes the seed. Hetscale snapshots it as release v1; new nodes boot from the snapshot with your restart policies bringing the app up.
- 03Accept that the panel does not see the nodes
Nodes created from a snapshot are not registered in Forge or Ploi. Deploys go to the seed, followed by a new snapshot; running nodes keep their release until they leave or you replace them one at a time from the group’s Servers page.
- 04Observe, rehearse, go Live
Read-only trial first, one Rehearsal, then Live with minimum 2.
FAQ for this case
Will there be a native Forge or Ploi adapter?
No. Every new server would first run the panel’s full provisioning, which takes many minutes; a server cloned from a snapshot of the seed skips it. The panel deploys to the seed, and you take a new release after each deploy.