zerotier Installation Guide Installation Guide

zerotier is a free and open-source global virtual networking. ZeroTier creates secure peer-to-peer virtual networks, serving as a software-defined networking solution for distributed teams

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 256MB minimum

Storage: 100MB for installation

Network: UDP port 9993

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 9993 (default zerotier port)

None

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 zerotier
sudo dnf install -y zerotier-one

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now zerotier-one

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9993/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
zerotier-cli status

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install zerotier
sudo apt install -y zerotier-one

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now zerotier-one

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 9993

# Verify installation
zerotier-cli status

bash

# Install zerotier
sudo pacman -S zerotier-one

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now zerotier-one

# Verify installation
zerotier-cli status

bash

# Install zerotier
apk add --no-cache zerotier-one

# Enable and start service
rc-update add zerotier-one default
rc-service zerotier-one start

# Verify installation
zerotier-cli status

bash

# Install zerotier
sudo zypper install -y zerotier-one

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now zerotier-one

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9993/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
zerotier-cli status

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install zerotier-one

# Start service
brew services start zerotier-one

# Verify installation
zerotier-cli status

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install zerotier-one

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'zerotier-one_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service zerotier-one start

# Verify installation
zerotier-cli status

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install zerotier-one

# Or using Scoop
scoop install zerotier-one

# Verify installation
zerotier-cli status

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/zerotier-one

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

# Test configuration
zerotier-cli status

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable zerotier-one

# Start service
sudo systemctl start zerotier-one

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop zerotier-one

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart zerotier-one

# Check status
sudo systemctl status zerotier-one

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u zerotier-one -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add zerotier-one default

# Start service
rc-service zerotier-one start

# Stop service
rc-service zerotier-one stop

# Restart service
rc-service zerotier-one restart

# Check status
rc-service zerotier-one status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'zerotier-one_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service zerotier-one start

# Stop service
service zerotier-one stop

# Restart service
service zerotier-one restart

# Check status
service zerotier-one status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start zerotier-one
brew services stop zerotier-one
brew services restart zerotier-one

# Check status
brew services list | grep zerotier-one

powershell

# Start service
net start zerotier-one

# Stop service
net stop zerotier-one

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service zerotier-one
Stop-Service zerotier-one
Restart-Service zerotier-one

# Check status
Get-Service zerotier-one

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream zerotier-one_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:9993;
}

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

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name zerotier-one.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/zerotier-one.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/zerotier-one.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://zerotier-one_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 zerotier-one.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://zerotier-one.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName zerotier-one.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/zerotier-one.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/zerotier-one.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:9993/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:9993/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend zerotier-one_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/zerotier-one.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend zerotier-one_backend

backend zerotier-one_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server zerotier-one1 127.0.0.1:9993 check

bash

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9993/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 zerotier-one

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u zerotier-one -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep zerotier-one)

bash

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

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

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

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop zerotier-one

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

# Start service
sudo systemctl start zerotier-one

1. Service won't start:

bash

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

# Check configuration
zerotier-cli status

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/zerotier-one

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 9993

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 9993

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

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep zerotier-one)

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

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 9993

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  zerotier-one:
    image: zerotier-one:latest
    ports:
      - "9993:9993"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/zerotier-one
      - ./data:/var/lib/zerotier-one
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update zerotier-one

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade zerotier-one

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu zerotier-one

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade zerotier-one

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update zerotier-one

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade zerotier-one

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

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart zerotier-one

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/zerotier-one

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

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/zerotier-one

Official Documentation: https://docs.zerotier-one.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/zerotier-one/zerotier-one

Community Forum: https://forum.zerotier-one.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.zerotier-one.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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