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Introduction

The aim of this repository is to create a simple and easy to use docker container with minimal setup to run your own Tailscale DERP server.

There is two parts to the container, the tailscale client itself and the DERP server. The tailscale client is used to connect the container to your tailnet as it's own device, this allows the --verify-clients argument to be set on the derp server, this is so only devices in your own tailnet can use the DERP server, allowing it to the open internet in my opinion is a bad idea.

Placing this DERP server at a closer geolocation than the default DERP servers to all of your devices can and will be beneficial for connections speeds between your devices that can't make a direct connection or at least struggle too.

This is scalable, just build and run the container on servers in different countries if need be.

My recommendation for the tailscale auth key to key an non-ephemeral key and once the device is connected disable the key expiry otherwise you will need to go back every now and then to renew it.

The container was built and tested on Ubuntu 22 5.19.0-28-generic. It's docker so it will most likely work on other distros as well.

Container

The container is setup to pull the latest version of the DERPER application and the latest version of Tailscale each time you build the container.

To rebuild with the latest version simple run the following commands

docker rmi tailscale-derp-docker:1.0
docker build . -t tailscale-derp-docker:1.0

Github Container Registry

If you don't want to build the container, you can simply using the pre-built container I have added to the github container registry.

Using the docker-compose.yml file, simply change this line

image: tailscale-derp-docker:1.0

To the following,

image: ghcr.io/tijjjy/tailscale-derp-docker:latest

There is a github actions workflow setup to build and publish a new container every roughly every 10 days so the tailscale version will be matching whichever version is available here https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/package/edge/community/x86/tailscale

Instructions

Instructions can be followed below or you can find a more detailed walkthrough on my blog. https://tijjjy.me/2023-01-22/Self-Host-Tailscale-Derp-Server

Ports Required

To allow full functionality of the DERP server, you will need to open/allow the following ports on your Firewall/Security Group

80:80/tcp
443:443/tcp
3478:3478/udp

Port 3478 is for STUN

Changing the .env file variables

IMPORTANT STEP

Change the variables below, most importantly the hostname and tailscale auth key variable.
Make sure the hostname is correct in your DNS zone or you will get an error when attempting to request a letsencrypt certificate

TAILSCALE_DERP_HOSTNAME=derp.example.com
TAILSCALE_DERP_VERIFY_CLIENTS=true
TAILSCALE_DERP_CERTMODE=letsencrypt
TAILSCALE_AUTH_KEY="ENTER YOUR TAILSCALE AUTH KEY HERE"

Building Docker Image

docker build . -t tailscale-derp-docker:1.0

Starting the image

docker compose up -d

Checking containers logs

All processes and scripts are set to direct logs to stdout run the below command to monitor the container logs

docker logs -f tailscale-derp

Changing the Tailscale ACL

Once your Tailscale DERP server is operational and you can see the new device in the devices section of the Tailscale admin console, You need to change your ACL to only allow the use of your DERP server and omit out the default Tailscale servers. This can be done by adding the following config at the bottom of your ACL file.

	"derpMap": {
		"OmitDefaultRegions": true,
		"Regions": {
			"900": {
				"RegionID":   900,
				"RegionCode": "myderpserver",
				"Nodes": [
					{
						"Name":     "1",
						"RegionID": 900,
						"HostName": "derp.example.com",
					},
				],
			},
		},
	},

More information can be found here Tailscale DERP server docs on setting this config.