[Solved with Gluetun] Tailscale ExitNode with VPN

Mr. Forager@lemmy.world to Linux@lemmy.ml – 36 points –

I would really really really like to have one device on my tailnet as the exitnode for all other devices on the tailnet. However, most VPNs make this really difficult. Is there any way to do this? I've read it's possible with split-tunnelling, but ProtonVPN (which I use) doesn't support that. I just installed Alpine Linux on my RPI 4b. And would like to use this as my exit node. Does anyone have any tips for how this could be done?

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I have solved this problem! The trick is to use two Docker containers:

  1. Gluetun (https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun): set this up to connect to your VPN.
  2. Tailscale (https://tailscale.com/kb/1282/docker/): set this to use the Gluetun network.

Here is an example docker-compose.yml:

version: "3"
services:
  gluetun:
    image: qmcgaw/gluetun
    container_name: gluetun
    # line above must be uncommented to allow external containers to connect.
    # See https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun-wiki/blob/main/setup/connect-a-container-to-gluetun.md#external-container-to-gluetun
    restart: unless-stopped
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
    devices:
      - /dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun
    volumes:
      - ./gluetun:/gluetun
    environment:
      - VPN_SERVICE_PROVIDER=airvpn
      - VPN_TYPE=wireguard
      - WIREGUARD_PRIVATE_KEY=xxx
      - WIREGUARD_PRESHARED_KEY=xxx
      - WIREGUARD_ADDRESSES=xxx
      - WIREGUARD_MTU=1320
      - SERVER_COUNTRIES=United States
      # See https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun-wiki/tree/main/setup#setup
      # Timezone for accurate log times
      - TZ=America/New_York
      # Server list updater
      # See https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun-wiki/blob/main/setup/servers.md#update-the-vpn-servers-list
      - UPDATER_PERIOD=24h

  tailscale:
    container_name: tailscale
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
      - NET_RAW
    volumes:
      - ./tailscale/var/lib:/var/lib
      - ./tailscale/state:/state
      - /dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun
    network_mode: "service:gluetun"
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - TS_HOSTNAME=airvpn-exit-node
      - TS_AUTHKEY=xxxxxxxx
      - TS_EXTRA_ARGS=--login-server=https://example.com --advertise-exit-node
      - TS_NO_LOGS_NO_SUPPORT=true
      - TS_STATE_DIR=/state
    image: tailscale/tailscale

Wow! You know what, I was just thinking about using Gleutun for this enefore I went to bed last night, and then I wake up to this gem of a message!! 😅 Well done sir, I'll be cooking this up ASAP!

Let me know how it works out for you! I'm happy to be able to share this. I was very pleased with myself but had no one to tell haha. I actually have several copies of this set up with each Gluetun instance connected to different countries. Then, changing country is as easy as changing your tailnet exit node!

Awesome stuff dude! I will totally do this too 😁 Worst thing is I am already using Gleutun and I am ashamed I didn't think about using it for this before... But honestly gonna have to donate some money to the developer of Gleutun as its just so awesome.

Hell yeah, got that working in an instant! Appreciate the pointer, have a great weekend! :)