Create Droplet to run single task then destroy

Hi there @mindglitch,

I don’t think that there is built-in functionality to do that via the DigitalOcean control panel directly. Though I think that this is a great idea, sounds like it’d be super useful!

The best thing to do to get your voice heard regarding this would be to head over to our Product Ideas board and post a new idea, including as much information as possible for what you’d like to see implemented.

https://ideas.digitalocean.com/

On another note, I have a small bash script that I use for similar tasks.

NOTE: Please, carefully review the whole script before using it.

The prerequisites are:

• You need to have the doctl installed and authenticated, you can do that by following the steps here: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-doctl-the-official-digitalocean-command-line-client

• You need to have your SSH Key on the machine that you are going to run the script on

• You need Your SSH key ID

What the script does is:

• Creates a new Droplet with the details that you’ve specified
• Waits for the Droplet to become active
• Runs a key scan
• Executes a set of commands on the new Droplet over SSH
• Deletes the Droplet

#!/bin/bash

##
# Variables
# Add the details of the Droplet that you would like to create
## 

droplet_name='test-droplet'
droplet_size='s-1vcpu-1gb'
droplet_image='ubuntu-18-04-x64'
droplet_region='fra1'
ssh_key_id='your_ssh_key_id'

##
# Droplet info session file
##
temp_droplet=$(mktemp /tmp/temp-droplet.XXXXXX)

##
# Create Droplet
##
function new_droplet() {
    echo "Creating Droplet with the following details:"
    echo "Droplet name: ${droplet_name}"
    echo "Droplet size: ${droplet_size}"
    echo "Droplet image: ${droplet_image}"
    echo "Droplet regon: ${droplet_region}"

    doctl compute droplet create ${droplet_name} --size ${droplet_size} --image ${droplet_image} --region ${droplet_region} --ssh-keys ${ssh_key_id} > ${temp_droplet}
    echo "Waiting 60 seconds for Droplet to be created..."
    sleep 1m

    new_droplet_id=$(cat ${temp_droplet} | tail -1 | awk '{ print $1 }')
    new_droplet_ip=$(doctl compute droplet get ${new_droplet_id} --template "{{ .PublicIPv4}}")
    echo "Droplet IP: ${new_droplet_ip}"
}
new_droplet

##
# Check if Droplet is running
##

function ssh_key_scan() {
    while [ "$status" != "active" ] ; do
        echo "Waiting for status to become active.."
        sleep 5
        status=$(doctl compute droplet get ${new_droplet_id} --template "{{ .Status}}")
    done
    echo "Droplet status is: ${status}. Proceeding to SSH Key Scan"
    ssh-keyscan ${new_droplet_ip} >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
}
ssh_key_scan

##
# Execute a command
##

function run_commands() {
    echo "Running commands.."
    ssh root@${new_droplet_ip} 'cat /etc/os-release'
}
run_commands

##
# Delete Droplet and session file
##
function clean_up(){
    echo "Deleting Droplet and temp files.."
    doctl compute droplet delete -f ${new_droplet_id}
    rm ${temp_droplet}
}
clean_up

In the run_commands function you can change the command/commands which you would like to execute.

Hope that this helps! Regards, Bobby