Advanced Server Installation¶

This section outlines installing the Netmaker server, including Netmaker, Netmaker UI, rqlite, and CoreDNS

System Compatibility¶

Netmaker will require elevated privileges to perform network operations. Netmaker has similar limitations to netclient (client networking agent).

Typically, Netmaker is run inside of containers (Docker). To run a non-docker installation, you must run the Netmaker binary, CoreDNS binary, rqlite, and a web server directly on the host. Each of these components have their own individual requirements.

The quick install guide is recommended for first-time installs.

The following documents are meant for special cases like Kubernetes and LXC, or for more advanced setups.

Server Configuration Reference¶

Netmaker sets its configuration in the following order of precendence:

Defaults
Config File
Environment Variables

Variable Description¶

VERBOSITY:

Default: 0

Description: Specify level of logging you would like on the server. Goes up to 3 for debugging.

GRPC_SSL:

Default: “off”

Description: Specifies if GRPC is going over secure GRPC or SSL. This is a setting for the clients and is passed through the access token. Can be set to “on” and “off”. Set to on if SSL is configured for GRPC.

SERVER_API_CONN_STRING

Default: “”

Description: Allows specification of the string used to connect to the server api. Format: IP:PORT or DOMAIN:PORT. Defaults to SERVER_HOST if not specified.

SERVER_GRPC_CONN_STRING

Default: “”

Description: Allows specification of the string used to connect to grpc. Format: IP:PORT or DOMAIN:PORT. Defaults to SERVER_HOST if not specified.

SERVER_HOST: (depreciated, use SERVER_API_CONN_STRING and SERVER_GRPC_CONN_STRING)

Default: Server will perform an IP check and set automatically unless explicitly set, or DISABLE_REMOTE_IP_CHECK is set to true, in which case it defaults to 127.0.0.1

Description: Sets the SERVER_HTTP_HOST and SERVER_GRPC_HOST variables if they are unset. The address where traffic comes in.

SERVER_HTTP_HOST: (depreciated, use SERVER_API_CONN_STRING and SERVER_GRPC_CONN_STRING)

Default: Equals SERVER_HOST if set, “127.0.0.1” if SERVER_HOST is unset.

Description: Set to make the HTTP and GRPC functions available via different interfaces/networks.

SERVER_GRPC_HOST: (depreciated, use SERVER_API_CONN_STRING and SERVER_GRPC_CONN_STRING)

Default: Equals SERVER_HOST if set, “127.0.0.1” if SERVER_HOST is unset.

Description: Set to make the HTTP and GRPC functions available via different interfaces/networks.

API_PORT:

Default: 8081

Description: The HTTP API port for Netmaker. Used for API calls / communication from front end.

GRPC_PORT:

Default: 50051

Description: The GRPC port for Netmaker. Used for communications from nodes.

MASTER_KEY:

Default: “secretkey”

Description: The admin master key for accessing the API. Change this in any production installation.

CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGIN:

Default: “*”

Description: The “allowed origin” for API requests. Change to restrict where API requests can come from.

REST_BACKEND:

Default: “on”

Description: Enables the REST backend (API running on API_PORT at SERVER_HTTP_HOST). Change to “off” to turn off.

AGENT_BACKEND:

Default: “on”

Description: Enables the AGENT backend (GRPC running on GRPC_PORT at SERVER_GRPC_HOST). Change to “off” to turn off.

DNS_MODE:

Default: “off”

Description: Enables DNS Mode, meaning config files will be generated for CoreDNS.

DATABASE:

Default: “sqlite”

Description: Specify db type to connect with. Currently, options include “sqlite” and “rqlite”.

SQL_CONN:

Default: “http://”

Description: Specify the necessary string to connect with your local or remote sql database.

CLIENT_MODE:

Default: “on”

Description: Specifies if server should deploy itself as a node (client) in each network. May be turned to “off” for more restricted servers.

Config File Reference¶

A config file may be placed under config/environments/<env-name>.yml. To read this file at runtime, provide the environment variable NETMAKER_ENV at runtime. For instance, dev.yml paired with ENV=dev. Netmaker will load the specified Config file. This allows you to store and manage configurations for different environments. Below is a reference Config File you may use.

server:
  apihost: "" # defaults to 127.0.0.1 or remote ip (SERVER_HOST) if DisableRemoteIPCheck is not set to true. SERVER_API_HOST if set
  apiport: "" # defaults to 8081 or HTTP_PORT (if set)
  grpchost: "" # defaults to 127.0.0.1 or remote ip (SERVER_HOST) if DisableRemoteIPCheck is not set to true. SERVER_GRPC_HOST if set.
  grpcport: "" # defaults to 50051 or GRPC_PORT (if set)
  masterkey: "" # defaults to 'secretkey' or MASTER_KEY (if set)
  allowedorigin: "" # defaults to '*' or CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGIN (if set)
  restbackend: "" # defaults to "on" or REST_BACKEND (if set)
  agentbackend: "" # defaults to "on" or AGENT_BACKEND (if set)
  clientmode: "" # defaults to "on" or CLIENT_MODE (if set)
  dnsmode: "" # defaults to "on" or DNS_MODE (if set)
  sqlconn: "" # defaults to "http://" or SQL_CONN (if set)
  disableremoteipcheck: "" # defaults to "false" or DISABLE_REMOTE_IP_CHECK (if set)
  version: "" # version of server

Compose File - Annotated¶

All environment variables and options are enabled in this file. It is the equivalent to running the “full install” from the above section. However, all environment variables are included, and are set to the default values provided by Netmaker (if the environment variable was left unset, it would not change the installation). Comments are added to each option to show how you might use it to modify your installation.

services:
  rqlite:
    container_name: rqlite
    image: rqlite/rqlite
    network_mode: host
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - sqldata:/rqlite/file/data
  netmaker: # The Primary Server for running Netmaker
    privileged: true # Necessary to run sudo/root level commands on host system. Take out if not running with CLIENT_MODE=on
    container_name: netmaker
    depends_on:
      - rqlite
    image: gravitl/netmaker:v0.7
    volumes: # Volume mounts necessary for CLIENT_MODE to control netclient, wireguard, and networking on host (except dnsconfig, which is where dns config files are stored for use by CoreDNS)
      - ./:/local
      - /etc/netclient:/etc/netclient
      - dnsconfig:/root/config/dnsconfig # Netmaker writes Corefile to this location, which gets mounted by CoreDNS for DNS configuration.
      - /usr/bin/wg:/usr/bin/wg
      - /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket:/var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket
      - /run/systemd/system:/run/systemd/system
      - /etc/systemd/system:/etc/systemd/system
      - /sys/fs/cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup
    cap_add: # Necessary for CLIENT_MODE. Should be removed if turned off. 
      - NET_ADMIN
      - SYS_MODULE
    restart: always
    network_mode: host # Necessary for CLIENT_MODE. Should be removed if turned off, but then need to add port mappings
    environment:
      SERVER_HOST: "" # All the Docker Compose files pre-populate this with HOST_IP, which you replace as part of the install instructions. This will set both HTTP and GRPC host.
      SERVER_HTTP_HOST: "127.0.0.1" # Overrides SERVER_HOST if set. Useful for making HTTP and GRPC available via different interfaces/networks.
      SERVER_GRPC_HOST: "127.0.0.1" # Overrides SERVER_HOST if set. Useful for making HTTP and GRPC available via different interfaces/networks.
      API_PORT: 8081 # The HTTP API port for Netmaker. Used for API calls / communication from front end. If changed, need to change port of BACKEND_URL for netmaker-ui.
      GRPC_PORT: 50051 # The GRPC port for Netmaker. Used for communications from nodes.
      MASTER_KEY: "secretkey" # The admin master key for accessing the API. Change this in any production installation.
      CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGIN: "*" # The "allowed origin" for API requests. Change to restrict where API requests can come from.
      REST_BACKEND: "on" # Enables the REST backend (API running on API_PORT at SERVER_HTTP_HOST). Change to "off" to turn off.
      AGENT_BACKEND: "on" # Enables the AGENT backend (GRPC running on GRPC_PORT at SERVER_GRPC_HOST). Change to "off" to turn off.
      DNS_MODE: "on" # Enables DNS Mode, meaning config files will be generated for CoreDNS. Note, turning "off" does not remove CoreDNS. You still need to remove CoreDNS from compose file.
      DISABLE_REMOTE_IP_CHECK: "off" # If turned "on", Server will not set Host based on remote IP check. This is already overridden if SERVER_HOST is set. Turned "off" by default.
      GRPC_SSL: "off" # Tells clients to use SSL to connect to GRPC. Switch to on to turn on.
      COREDNS_ADDR: "" # Address of the CoreDNS server. Defaults to SERVER_HOST
      SERVER_API_CONN_STRING: "" # Changes the api connection string. IP:PORT format. By default is empty and uses SERVER_HOST:API_PORT
      SERVER_GRPC_CONN_STRING: "" # Changes the grpc connection string. IP:PORT format. By default is empty and uses SERVER_HOST:GRPC_PORT
  netmaker-ui: # The Netmaker UI Component
    container_name: netmaker-ui
    depends_on:
      - netmaker
    image: gravitl/netmaker-ui:v0.7
    links:
      - "netmaker:api"
    ports:
      - "8082:80"
    environment:
      BACKEND_URL: "http://HOST_IP:8081" # URL where UI will send API requests. Change based on SERVER_HOST, SERVER_HTTP_HOST, and API_PORT
  coredns: # The DNS Server. Remove this section if DNS_MODE="off"
    depends_on:
      - netmaker 
    image: coredns/coredns
    command: -conf /root/dnsconfig/Corefile # Config location for Corefile. This is the path of file which is also mounted to Netmaker for modification.
    container_name: coredns
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "53:53/udp" # Likely needs to run at port 53 for adequate nameserver usage.
    volumes:
      - dnsconfig:/root/dnsconfig
volumes:
  sqldata: {}
  dnsconfig: {}

DNS Mode Setup¶

If you plan on running the server in DNS Mode, know that a CoreDNS Server will be installed. CoreDNS is a light-weight, fast, and easy-to-configure DNS server. It is recommended to bind CoreDNS to port 53 of the host system, and it will do so by default. The clients will expect the nameserver to be on port 53, and many systems have issues resolving a different port.

However, on your host system (for Netmaker), this may conflict with an existing process. On linux systems running systemd-resolved, there is likely a service consuming port 53. The below steps will disable systemd-resolved, and replace it with a generic (e.g. Google) nameserver. Be warned that this may have consequences for any existing private DNS configuration. The following was tested on Ubuntu 20.04 and should be run prior to deploying the docker containers.

systemctl stop systemd-resolved
systemctl disable systemd-resolved
vim /etc/systemd/resolved.conf
  *  uncomment DNS and add 8.8.8.8 or whatever reachable nameserver is your preference  *
  *  uncomment DNSStubListener and set to "no"  *
ln -sf /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf

Port 53 should now be available for CoreDNS to use.

Docker Compose Install¶

The most simple (and recommended) way of installing Netmaker is to use one of the provided Docker Compose files. Below are instructions for several different options to install Netmaker via Docker Compose, followed by an annotated reference Docker Compose in case your use case requires additional customization.

Test Install - No DNS, No Secure GRPC¶

This install will run Netmaker on a server without HTTPS using an IP address. This is not secure and not recommended, but can be helpful for testing.

It also does not run the CoreDNS server, to simplify the deployment

Prerequisites:

server ports 80, 8081, and 50051 are not blocked by firewall

Notes:

You can change the port mappings in the Docker Compose if the listed ports are already in use.

Assuming you have Docker and Docker Compose installed, you can just run the following, replacing < Insert your-host IP Address Here > with your host IP (or domain):

wget -O docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gravitl/netmaker/master/scripts/docker-compose.test.yml
sed -i ‘s/HOST_IP/< Insert your-host IP Address Here >/g’ docker-compose.yml
docker-compose up -d`

No DNS - CoreDNS Disabled¶

DNS Mode is currently limited to clients that can run resolvectl (systemd-resolved, see Architecture docs for more info). You may wish to disable DNS mode for various reasons. This installation option gives you the full feature set minus CoreDNS.

To run without DNS, follow the Quick Install guide, omitting the steps for DNS setup. In addition, when the guide has you pull (wget) the Netmaker docker-compose template, use the following link instead:

wget -O docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gravitl/netmaker/master/scripts/docker-compose.nodns.yml

This template is equivalent but omits CoreDNS.

Linux Install without Docker¶

Most systems support Docker, but some do not. In such environments, there are many options for installing Netmaker. Netmaker is available as a binary file, and there is a zip file of the Netmaker UI static HTML on GitHub. Beyond the UI and Server, you need to install MongoDB and CoreDNS (optional).

To start, we recommend following the Nginx instructions in the Quick Install guide to enable SSL for your environment.

Once this is enabled and configured for a domain, you can continue with the below. The recommended server runs Ubuntu 20.04.

rqlite Setup¶

Install rqlite on your server: https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite
Run rqlite: rqlited -node-id 1 ~/node.1

Server Setup¶

Run the install script:

sudo curl -sfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gravitl/netmaker/develop/scripts/netmaker-server.sh | sh -

Check status: sudo journalctl -u netmaker
If any settings are incorrect such as host or mongo credentials, change them under /etc/netmaker/config/environments/< your env >.yaml and then run sudo systemctl restart netmaker

UI Setup¶

The following uses Nginx as an http server. You may alternatively use Apache or any other web server that serves static web files.

Download and Unzip UI asset files
Copy Config to Nginx
Modify Default Config Path
Change Backend URL
Start Nginx

sudo wget -O /usr/share/nginx/html/netmaker-ui.zip https://github.com/gravitl/netmaker-ui/releases/download/latest/netmaker-ui.zip
sudo unzip /usr/share/nginx/html/netmaker-ui.zip -d /usr/share/nginx/html
sudo cp /usr/share/nginx/html/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
sudo sed -i 's/root \/var\/www\/html/root \/usr\/share\/nginx\/html/g' /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
sudo sh -c 'BACKEND_URL=http://<YOUR BACKEND API URL>:PORT /usr/share/nginx/html/generate_config_js.sh >/usr/share/nginx/html/config.js'
sudo systemctl start nginx

CoreDNS Setup¶

Kubernetes Install¶

Server Install¶

This template assumes your cluster uses Nginx for ingress with valid wildcard certificates. If using an ingress controller other than Nginx (ex: Traefik), you will need to manually modify the Ingress entries in this template to match your environment.

This template also requires RWX storage. Please change references to storageClassName in this template to your cluster’s Storage Class.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gravitl/netmaker/develop/kube/netmaker-template.yaml

Replace the NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN references to the base domain you would like for your Netmaker services (ui,api,grpc). Typically this will be something like netmaker.yourwildcard.com.

sed -i ‘s/NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN/<your base domain>/g’ netmaker-template.yaml

Now, assuming Ingress and Storage match correctly with your cluster configuration, you can install Netmaker.

kubectl create ns nm
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=nm
kubectl apply -f netmaker-template.yaml -n nm

In about 3 minutes, everything should be up and running:

kubectl get ingress nm-ui-ingress-nginx

Netclient Daemonset¶

The following instructions assume you have Netmaker running and a network you would like to add your cluster into. The Netmaker server does not need to be running inside of a cluster for this.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gravitl/netmaker/develop/kube/netclient-template.yaml
sed -i ‘s/ACCESS_TOKEN_VALUE/< your access token value>/g’ netclient-template.yaml
kubectl apply -f netclient-template.yaml

For a more detailed guide on integrating Netmaker with MicroK8s, check out this guide.

Nginx Reverse Proxy Setup with https¶

The Swag Proxy makes it easy to generate a valid ssl certificate for the config bellow. Here is the documentation for the installation.

The following file configures Netmaker as a subdomain. This config is an adaption from the swag proxy project.

./netmaker.subdomain.conf:

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    listen [::]:443 ssl;

    server_name netmaker.*; # The external URL
    client_max_body_size 0;

    # A valid https certificate is needed.
    include /config/nginx/ssl.conf;

    location / {
        # This config file can be found at:
        # https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-swag/blob/master/root/defaults/proxy.conf
        include /config/nginx/proxy.conf;

        # if you use a custom resolver to find your app, needed with swag proxy
        # resolver 127.0.0.11 valid=30s;
        set $upstream_app netmaker-ui;                             # The internal URL
        set $upstream_port 80;                                     # The internal Port
        set $upstream_proto http;                                  # the protocol that is being used
        proxy_pass $upstream_proto://$upstream_app:$upstream_port; # combine the set variables from above
        }
    }

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    listen [::]:443 ssl;

    server_name backend-netmaker.*; # The external URL
    client_max_body_size 0;
    underscores_in_headers on;

    # A valid https certificate is needed.
    include /config/nginx/ssl.conf;

    location / {
        # if you use a custom resolver to find your app, needed with swag proxy
        # resolver 127.0.0.11 valid=30s;

        set $upstream_app netmaker;                                # The internal URL
        set $upstream_port 8081;                                   # The internal Port
        set $upstream_proto http;                                  # the protocol that is being used
        proxy_pass $upstream_proto://$upstream_app:$upstream_port; # combine the set variables from above

        # Forces the header to be the one that is visible from the outside
        proxy_set_header                Host backend.netmaker.example.org; # Please cange to your URL

        # Pass all headers through to the backend
        proxy_pass_request_headers      on;
        }
    }

Highly Available Installation¶

For an enterprise Netmaker installation, you will need a server that is highly available, to ensure redundant WireGuard routing when any server goes down. To do this, you will need:

A load balancer
3+ Netmaker server instances
rqlite as the backing database

These documents outline general HA installation guidelines. Netmaker is highly customizable to meet a wide range of enterprise environments. If you would like support with an enterprise-grade Netmaker installation, you can schedule a consultation here .

The main consideration here is how to configure rqlite. Most other settings and procedures match the standardized way of making applications HA: Load balancing to multiple instances, and sharing a DB. In our case, the DB (rqlite) is distributed, making HA data more easily achievable.

1. Load Balancer Setup¶

Your load balancer of choice will send requests to the Netmaker servers. Setup is similar to the various guides we have created for Nginx, Caddy, and Traefik. SSL certificates must also be configured and handled by the LB.

2. RQLite Setup¶

RQLite is the included distributed datastore for an HA Netmaker installation. If you have a different corporate database you wish to integrate, Netmaker is easily extended to other DB’s. If this is a requirement, please contact us.

Assuming you use Rqlite, you must run it on each Netmaker server VM, or alongside that VM as a container. Setup a config.json for database credentials (password supports BCRYPT HASHING) and mount in working directory of rqlite and specify with -auth config.json :

[{
    "username": "netmaker",
    "password": "<YOUR_DB_PASSWORD>",
    "perms": ["all"]
}]

Once your servers are set up with rqlite, the first instance must be started normally, and then additional nodes must be added with the “join” command. For instance, here is the first server node:

sudo docker run -d -p 4001:4001 -p 4002:4002 rqlite/rqlite -node-id 1 -http-addr 0.0.0.0:4001 -raft-addr 0.0.0.0:4002 -http-adv-addr 1.2.3.4:4001 -raft-adv-addr 1.2.3.4:4002 -auth config.json

And here is a joining node:

sudo docker run -d -p 4001:4001 -p 4002:4002 rqlite/rqlite -node-id 2 -http-addr 0.0.0.0:4001 -raft-addr 0.0.0.0:4002 -http-adv-addr 2.3.4.5:4001  -raft-adv-addr 2.3.4.5:4002 -join https://netmaker:<YOUR_DB_PASSWORD>@1.2.3.4:4001

reference for rqlite setup: https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/CLUSTER_MGMT.md#creating-a-cluster
reference for rqlite security: https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite/blob/master/DOC/SECURITY.md

Once rqlite instances have been configured, the Netmaker servers can be deployed.

3. Netmaker Setup¶

Netmaker will be started on each node with default settings, except with DATABASE=rqlite and SQL_CONN set appropriately to reach the local rqlite instance. Rqlite will maintain consistency with each Netmaker backend.

4. Other Considerations¶

This is enough to get a functioning HA installation of Netmaker. However, you may also want to make the Netmaker UI or the CoreDNS server HA as well. The Netmaker UI can simply be added to the same servers and load balanced appropriately. For some load balancers, you may be able to do this with CoreDNS as well.