headscale Installation Guide Installation Guide

headscale is a free and open-source open source Tailscale control server. Headscale provides self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server, enabling fully self-hosted mesh VPN

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 256MB minimum

Storage: 100MB for installation

Network: HTTPS for clients

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 8080 (default headscale port)

gRPC on 50443

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install headscale
sudo dnf install -y headscale

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now headscale

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
headscale version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install headscale
sudo apt install -y headscale

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now headscale

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 8080

# Verify installation
headscale version

bash

# Install headscale
sudo pacman -S headscale

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now headscale

# Verify installation
headscale version

bash

# Install headscale
apk add --no-cache headscale

# Enable and start service
rc-update add headscale default
rc-service headscale start

# Verify installation
headscale version

bash

# Install headscale
sudo zypper install -y headscale

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now headscale

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
headscale version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install headscale

# Start service
brew services start headscale

# Verify installation
headscale version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install headscale

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'headscale_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service headscale start

# Verify installation
headscale version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install headscale

# Or using Scoop
scoop install headscale

# Verify installation
headscale version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/headscale

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
headscale version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable headscale

# Start service
sudo systemctl start headscale

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop headscale

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart headscale

# Check status
sudo systemctl status headscale

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u headscale -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add headscale default

# Start service
rc-service headscale start

# Stop service
rc-service headscale stop

# Restart service
rc-service headscale restart

# Check status
rc-service headscale status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'headscale_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service headscale start

# Stop service
service headscale stop

# Restart service
service headscale restart

# Check status
service headscale status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start headscale
brew services stop headscale
brew services restart headscale

# Check status
brew services list | grep headscale

powershell

# Start service
net start headscale

# Stop service
net stop headscale

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service headscale
Stop-Service headscale
Restart-Service headscale

# Check status
Get-Service headscale

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream headscale_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:8080;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name headscale.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name headscale.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/headscale.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/headscale.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://headscale_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName headscale.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://headscale.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName headscale.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/headscale.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/headscale.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend headscale_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/headscale.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend headscale_backend

backend headscale_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server headscale1 127.0.0.1:8080 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R headscale:headscale /etc/headscale
sudo chmod 750 /etc/headscale

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status headscale

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u headscale -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep headscale)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/headscale"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/headscale-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/headscale /var/lib/headscale

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/headscale-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop headscale

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/headscale/headscale-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start headscale

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u headscale -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/headscale/headscale.log

# Check configuration
headscale version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/headscale

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 8080

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 8080

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep headscale)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep headscale)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 8080

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  headscale:
    image: headscale:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/headscale
      - ./data:/var/lib/headscale
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update headscale

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade headscale

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu headscale

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade headscale

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update headscale

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade headscale

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/headscale-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/headscale

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart headscale

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/headscale

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/headscale -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/headscale

Official Documentation: https://docs.headscale.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/headscale/headscale

Community Forum: https://forum.headscale.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.headscale.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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