netbird/README.md

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Netbird is an open-source VPN management platform built on top of WireGuard® making it easy to create secure private networks for your organization or home.

It requires zero configuration effort leaving behind the hassle of opening ports, complex firewall rules, VPN gateways, and so forth.

Netbird creates an overlay peer-to-peer network connecting machines automatically regardless of their location (home, office, datacenter, container, cloud or edge environments) unifying virtual private network management experience.

Key features:

• Automatic IP allocation and management.
• Automatic peer (machine) discovery and configuration.
• Encrypted peer-to-peer connections without a central VPN gateway.
• Connection relay fallback in case a peer-to-peer connection is not possible.
• Network management layer with a neat Web UI panel (separate repo)
• Desktop client applications for Linux, MacOS, and Windows.
• Multiuser support - sharing network between multiple users.
• SSO and MFA support.
• Multicloud and hybrid-cloud support.
• Kernel WireGuard usage when possible.
• Access Controls - groups & rules (coming soon).
• Private DNS (coming soon).
• Mobile clients (coming soon).
• Network Activity Monitoring (coming soon).

Secure peer-to-peer VPN with SSO and MFA in minutes

Note: The main branch may be in an unstable or even broken state during development. For stable versions, see releases.

Hosted version: https://app.netbird.io/

Web UI repository

A bit on Netbird internals

• Every machine in the network runs Netbird Agent (or Client) that manages WireGuard.
• Netbird features a Management Service that offers peer IP management and network updates distribution (e.g. when a new machine joins the network others are getting notified if allowed by access controls). Simply put, this service holds the state of the network.
• Every agent is connected to Management Service.
• Netbird agent uses WebRTC ICE implemented in pion/ice library to discover connection candidates when establishing a peer-to-peer connection between machines.
• Connection candidates are discovered with a help of STUN server.
• Agents negotiate a connection through Signal Service.
• Signal Service uses public Wireguard keys to route messages between peers. Contents of the messages sent between peers through the signaling server are encrypted with Wireguard keys, making it impossible to inspect them.
• Sometimes the NAT traversal is unsuccessful due to strict NATs (e.g. mobile carrier-grade NAT) and p2p connection isn't possible. When this occurs the system falls back to a relay server called TURN, and a secure Wireguard tunnel is established via the TURN server.

Coturn is the one that has been successfully used for STUN and TURN in Netbird setups.

See a complete architecture overview for details.

Testimonials: We use open-source technologies like WireGuard®, Pion ICE (WebRTC), and Coturn. We very much appreciate the work these guys are doing and we'd greatly appreciate if you could support them in any way (e.g. giving a star or a contribution).

Product Roadmap

• Public Roadmap

Client Installation

Linux

APT/Debian

1. Add the repository:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg -y
   curl -L https://pkgs.wiretrustee.com/debian/public.key | sudo apt-key add -
   echo 'deb https://pkgs.wiretrustee.com/debian stable main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wiretrustee.list
   

2. Update APT's cache

   sudo apt-get update
   

3. Install the package

   # for CLI only
   sudo apt-get install netbird
   # for GUI package
   sudo apt-get install netbird-ui
   

RPM/Red hat

1. Add the repository:

   cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/wiretrustee.repo
   [Wiretrustee]
   name=Wiretrustee
   baseurl=https://pkgs.wiretrustee.com/yum/
   enabled=1
   gpgcheck=0
   gpgkey=https://pkgs.wiretrustee.com/yum/repodata/repomd.xml.key
   repo_gpgcheck=1
   EOF
   

2. Install the package

   # for CLI only
   sudo yum install netbird
   # for GUI package
   sudo yum install netbird-ui
   

MACOS

Homebrew install

1. Download and install homebrew at https://brew.sh/
2. If wiretrustee was previously installed with homebrew, you will need to run:

# Stop and uninstall daemon service:
sudo wiretrustee service stop
sudo wiretrustee service uninstall 
# unlik the app
brew unlink wiretrustee

netbird will copy any existing configuration from the Wiretrustee's default configuration paths to the new Netbird's default location

3. Install the client

# for CLI only
brew install netbirdio/tap/netbird
# for GUI package
brew install --cask netbirdio/tap/netbird-ui

4. If you are install CLI only, you need to install and start the client daemon service:

sudo netbird service install
sudo netbird service start

Installation from binary (CLI only)

1. Checkout Netbird releases
2. Download the latest release (Switch VERSION to the latest):

curl -o ./netbird_<VERSION>_darwin_amd64.tar.gz https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/releases/download/v<VERSION>/wiretrustee_<VERSION>_darwin_amd64.tar.gz

3. Decompress

tar xcf ./netbird_<VERSION>_darwin_amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv netbird /usr/bin/netbird
chmod +x /usr/bin/netbird

After that you may need to add /usr/bin in your PATH environment variable:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin

4. Install and run the service

sudo netbird service install
sudo netbird service start

Windows

1. Checkout Netbird releases
2. Download the latest Windows release installer netbird_installer_<VERSION>_windows_amd64.exe (Switch VERSION to the latest):
3. Proceed with installation steps
4. This will install the client in the C:\Program Files\Netbird and add the client service
5. After installing, you can follow the Client Configuration steps.

To uninstall the client and service, you can use Add/Remove programs

Client Configuration

If you installed the UI client, you can launch it and click on Connect

It will open your browser, and you will be prompt for email and password

Simply run:

  netbird up

It will open your browser, and you will be prompt for email and password

Check connection status:

  netbird status

In case you are activating a server peer, you can use a setup-key as described in the steps below:

1. Login to the Management Service. You need to have a setup key in hand (see ).

For all systems:

netbird up --setup-key <SETUP KEY>

For Docker, you can run with the following command:

docker run --network host --privileged --rm -d -e NB_SETUP_KEY=<SETUP KEY> -v netbird-client:/etc/netbird netbirdio/netbird:<TAG>

TAG > 0.6.0 version

Alternatively, if you are hosting your own Management Service provide --management-url property pointing to your Management Service:

sudo netbird up --setup-key <SETUP KEY> --management-url http://localhost:33073

You could also omit the --setup-key property. In this case, the tool will prompt for the key.

2. Check connection status:

  netbird status

3. Check your IP: For MACOS you will just start the service:

sudo ifconfig utun100

For Linux systems:

ip addr show wt0

For Windows systems:

netsh interface ip show config name="wt0"

4. Repeat on other machines.

Troubleshooting

1. If you are using self-hosted version and haven't specified --management-url, the client app will use the default URL which is https://api.wiretrustee.com:33073.

2. If you have specified a wrong --management-url (e.g., just by mistake when self-hosting) to override it you can do the following:

   netbird down
   netbird up --management-url https://<CORRECT HOST:PORT>/
   

   To override it see solution #1 above.

Running Dashboard, Management, Signal and Coturn

See Self-Hosting Guide

Legal

WireGuard is a registered trademark of Jason A. Donenfeld.