Tailscale on EdgeOS

This is a short guide for getting Tailscale running on the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter platform. EdgeOS 2.0+ is required to make use of the systemd unit file shipped by Tailscale.

This was originally inspired by lg's gist and joeshaw's suggestion of putting everything under /config/tailscale rather than directly in /config, however this guide uses Tailscale's Debian package repository instead of downloading the tarball and manually managing the files.

Installing Tailscale

1. Configure the Tailscale apt repository

   configure
   set system package repository tailscale url '[signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/tailscale-stretch-stable.gpg] https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/debian'
   set system package repository tailscale distribution stretch
   set system package repository tailscale components main
   commit comment "Add Tailscale repository"
   save; exit
   

2. Create required directories and download and run firstboot script

   Scripts in the firstboot.d directory are run after firmware upgrades. This script ensures that the Tailscale daemon's state is symlinked to /config so it persists across firmware upgrades (otherwise you'll have to set up as a new device on every upgrade) and installs a post-config.d script to ensure Tailscale is installed after each boot.

   The post-config.d script also copies the Debian package to /config/data/firstboot/install-packages so the package can be installed during firstboot after a firmware upgrade to ensure the package gets installed and doesn't require downloading it again. This also means the same version will be consistently installed.

   sudo bash
   mkdir -p /config/scripts/firstboot.d
   curl -o /config/scripts/firstboot.d/tailscale.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jamesog/tailscale-edgeos/main/firstboot.d/tailscale.sh
   chmod 755 /config/scripts/firstboot.d/tailscale.sh
   /config/scripts/firstboot.d/tailscale.sh
   /config/scripts/post-config.d/tailscale.sh

3. Log in to Tailscale

   The example below enables subnet routing for one subnet, enables use as an exit node (Tailscale 1.6+), and uses a one-off pre-auth key, which can be generated at https://login.tailscale.com/admin/authkeys

   ⚠️ Remember to change 192.0.2.0/24 with the subnet(s) you actually want to expose to the tailnet.

   tailscale up --advertise-routes 192.0.2.0/24 --advertise-exit-node --authkey tskey-XXX

4. (Optional) If you want sshd to explicitly listen on the Tailscale address instead of all addresses:

   1. Fetch the override unit

      curl -o /config/tailscale/systemd/tailscaled.service.d/before-ssh.conf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jamesog/tailscale-edgeos/main/systemd/tailscaled.service.d/before-ssh.conf
      systemctl daemon-reload

   2. Exit the shell, enter configure mode and set the listen-address

      If you don't currently have any listen-address directives, make sure you add any other addresses you want to access the router by, such as a private network IP.

      The Tailscale IP can be found in the admin console, or using tailscale ip.

      exit
      configure
      set service ssh listen-address <Tailscale IP>
      commit comment "sshd listen on Tailscale IP"
      

Firmware Upgrades

After an EdgeOS upgrade third-party packages are no longer installed, but the firstboot script described above ensures Tailscale gets reinstalled.

Note that it will install the Tailscale version from the first time the post-config.d script ran. If you had upgraded Tailscale since you will need to re-upgrade it.

Upgrading Tailscale

Upgrading is straightforward as the package manager will do everything for you.

Note: DO NOT USE apt-get upgrade. This is not supported on EdgeOS and may result in a broken system.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tailscale

If you want to install a specific version of Tailscale use:

sudo apt-get install tailscale=X.Y.Z

Where X.Y.Z is the version you want. This also works for downgrading.

If you consider this version to be "stable" for your use-cases you should think about copying the package to flash memory so it survives firmware upgrades, otherwise an older version may get installed.

First check if old packages are saved:

sudo bash
ls -l /config/data/firstboot/install-packages

If old versions exist delete them, e.g.

rm /config/data/firstboot/install-packages/tailscale_1.6.0_mips.deb

Then copy the latest version:

cp /var/cache/apt/archives/tailscale_*.deb /config/data/firstboot/install-packages

Uninstalling

sudo apt-get purge tailscale
sudo rm /config/scripts/firstboot.d/tailscale.sh /config/scripts/post-config.d/tailscale.sh
configure
delete system package repository tailscale
commit comment "Remove Tailscale repository"
save; exit