Tailscale Unraid Setup

!Tailscale Unraid Setup.bash

########################################################################
#### DEPRECATED in favor of https://github.com/deasmi/unraid-tailscale
########################################################################

# /boot/config/go

# add the following...

# Tailscale
bash /boot/config/tailscale/install.sh
bash /boot/config/tailscale/start.sh

install.bash

#!/bin/bash

# /boot/config/tailscale/install.sh

tar -xf /boot/config/tailscale/tailscale_static.tgz -C /usr/bin/ --strip-components=1 --no-anchored tailscale
tar -xf /boot/config/tailscale/tailscale_static.tgz -C /usr/sbin/ --strip-components=1 --no-anchored tailscaled

start.bash

#!/bin/bash

# /boot/config/tailscale/start.sh

exec >/tmp/tailscaled.log 2>&1
setsid /usr/sbin/tailscaled -statedir=/boot/config/tailscale/ &

user_script.bash

#!/bin/bash
set -x

# check latest version against what's installed
VER=$(curl -sL https://api.github.com/repos/tailscale/tailscale/releases/latest |  jq -r ".tag_name" | cut -c 2-)
if [ "$VER" = "$(tailscale version | head -n1)" ]; then
    echo "$VER already installed, exiting..."
    exit 0
fi

# download latest version, restart daemon
curl -fsSL -o /boot/config/tailscale/tailscale_static.tgz "https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/tailscale_${VER}_amd64.tgz"
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    pkill tailscaled
    sleep 1
    /usr/sbin/tailscaled -cleanup
    bash /boot/config/tailscale/install.sh
    bash /boot/config/tailscale/start.sh
fi

Happy to make this easier for folks.

Questions: Is there an existing plugin that behaves similar that you can point me to? Are there docs for writing something like this?

Last I checked it wasn't well documented, but it's been a few years.

I went searching for info regarding the plugin system, and sadly it seems that it is still pretty much completely undocumented, at least officially.
Most of the guides suggest picking apart other plugins and figuring things out as you go. I set up your scripts today, and I suppose it's so straightforward, that perhaps the time and energy spent in figuring out the plugin stuff, might not be worth it.

This seemed to be a thread with the best collection of info regarding Unraid plugins:

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/52623-plugin-system-documentation/

@shayne @jozefKruszynski this is exactly what I did as my first resort to see if I could make a plugin. I just looked at a few .plg files to see how other plugins work and saw that it's pretty straightforward to running commands for installation and such inside of them. I haven't tried to duplicate any so unsure if there's a config you'd have to edit to get it to run. Looks like it may be easier than I originally anticipated. Looking at how simple this setup is, I don't imagine it would be terribly difficult to port it to a plugin. That said, unfortunately my plate is full and can't work on it.

just wanted to say thanks for the huge help!!!!

With the latest version of unRAID, the Nerd Pack went away, so Screen was uninstalled. There is a new version in the Apps store called NerdTools. You will need to install that and install Screen again for the Tailscale script to work.

Updated! I was experiencing issues with the state being overwritten on server restarts.

Now the -statedir flag is set to store everything in the persisted /boot/config/tailscale directory. No more symlinking, etc...

Also removed the dependency on screen since NerdTools is kinda a mess. Now there's a logfile /boot/config/tailscale/tailscaled.log and the process is running in its own session.

@shayne I tried the new version and after restarting the server emhttp wouldn't load and the webUI wouldn't come up, so I did a little testing and it seems like the start.sh script runs indefinitely as long as tailscaled runs. Which means if you have the start emhttp line at the very end of the go file (like the unRAID team recommends you to) it will never be run.

As a (temporary?) workaround I've changed the go file to fork the start.sh script, like so:

bash /boot/config/tailscale/start.sh &

But I'm not sure if this is the correct solution. Please let me know if there's a better way!

I restarted one of my servers, and it came up just fine. Did the start.sh get updated with the new setsid method of starting tailscaled?

My /boot/config/go:

#!/bin/bash
# Start the Management Utility
/usr/local/sbin/emhttp &

# Tailscale
bash /boot/config/tailscale/install.sh
bash /boot/config/tailscale/start.sh

And /boot/config/tailscale/start.sh:

#!/bin/bash
exec >/boot/config/tailscale/tailscaled.log 2>&1
setsid /usr/sbin/tailscaled -statedir=/boot/config/tailscale/

@shayne as your Tailscale lines are below the emhttp line in your go file, you would not experience this problem. However, in the future, if you changed around the ordering of the go file or appended more lines, anything under the start.sh line will not get executed because the start.sh line will execute indefinitely. I've verified that forking with & works fine and will allow the go file to be fully run.

I went ahead and added & to the end of the tailscaled line in start.sh which should mitigate the issue and avoid 🦶 🔫 in the /boot/config/go

Looking at the script it seems that this is writing the log file directly to the USB drive. I want to limit how often the unraid USB drive gets written to. Can we safely change the location to /tmp instead? Also maybe change where tailscale_static.tgz gets downloaded to?

That’s a good idea. I’ll update it.

I want to advertise my Unraid server as an exit node, which requires a call to /usr/bin/tailscale up --advertise-exit-node.
I believe in the start script, we just need to add the line:

/usr/bin/tailscale up --advertise-exit-node

However, I’m not sure where to put this line in the start script given the discussion earlier about the importance of the ampersand sign in the script to ensure it doesn’t block the execution of the go script.

As related to exit node, the tailscale docs recommend adding these lines to /etc/sysctl.conf to handle the IP forwarding:

net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1
net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding = 1

This is also mentioned on Ibrahub in the instructions about setting up the docker container: https://docs.ibracorp.io/tailscale/#enable-ip-forwarding-in-unraid

However, since changes will be lost on reboots, we need to make sure these lines are added to /etc/sysctl.conf each time. However, in my past experience it’s a bit of a pain to manage that file as you have to insert changes then call into sysctl. Instead, I think a better approach based on this post is calling into sysctl directly with -w param and adding these lines to start script also.

/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding=1

Should be safe to add this at the start of the start script, so the entire script looking like this:

#!/bin/bash

# /boot/config/tailscale/start.sh

# If your server is meant to use as exit node, uncomment these 2 lines to enable IP forwarding 
/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
/sbin/sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding=1

exec >/tmp/tailscaled.log 2>&1
setsid /usr/sbin/tailscaled -statedir=/boot/config/tailscale/ &

I believe Unraid enables IPv4 forwarding by default. However, I am unsure about IPv6 since I don't run it.

Regarding exit-node and -ssh: From a terminal, run tailscale up --ssh --advertise-exit-node, and you're all set. It's persisted to the state directory, so it'll retain its previous configuration on reboot.

I believe Unraid enables IPv4 forwarding by default. However, I am unsure about IPv6 since I don't run it.

Yes, I just verified this. So only the IPV6 line is needed.

Regarding exit-node and -ssh: From a terminal, run tailscale up --ssh --advertise-exit-node, and you're all set. It's persisted to the state directory, so it'll retain its previous configuration on reboot.

Oh interesting, I didn’t realize it was single run thing. It was passed into the docker container as a parameter so assumed it needed to be run each time. Thanks!

How does one get the user script to run on multiple schedules (array start and weekly)? I only see single scheduling options

I only have the user script run weekly; it's only used for updates. Also, one of the reasons I use this method over a container is that Tailscale runs even when the array is offline.

To have it run both weekly and at array start, I think you'd create two separate user scripts.

it's only used for updates.

Oops I misread the script. I thought it also go the daemon running but that’s from the go file. Thanks.

Does anyone know if there is a way to make MagicDNS work when installing Tailscale using this method? I ran tailscale up with --accept-dns, but I don't seem to be able to resolve MagicDNS hostnames.

Does anyone know if there is a way to make MagicDNS work when installing Tailscale using this method? I ran tailscale up with --accept-dns, but I don't seem to be able to resolve MagicDNS hostnames.

I haven’t been able to get this to work either, haven’t figured out why yet.

First, make sure MagicDNS is enabled over at https://login.tailscale.com/admin/dns.
Other than that, I don't do anything special. /etc/resolv.conf should show 100.100.100.100 after connecting to Tailscale.

You can try dig +short <node>.<tailnet>.ts.net @100.100.100.100 to query the nameserver directly.

@shayne Thanks for the reply. After further investigation, /etc/resolv.conf does show 100.100.100.100, and MagicDNS works, immediately after rebooting the Unraid server. However, after some time, it gets modified to 8.8.8.8, and MagicDNS stops working. So unfortunately I think this may be a case of tailscale/tailscale#2334.

This is what was in my /etc/resolv.conf after it got overwritten:

# Generated by dhcpcd from br0.dhcp
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

Hello,

I'm trying to run the User Script but cant get it to write the file.

curl: (23) Failure writing output to destination

Maybe I'm just not doing something in the right order?

Any help would be appreciated

@SC8198 does the folder /boot/config/tailscale/ exist?

Wow, I feel dumb.

Made the directory and it grabbed it,
It looks like it didn't make the install.sh and the start.sh files.

When I run the Unraid set up script I get

bash: /boot/config/tailscale/install.sh: No such file or directory bash: /boot/config/tailscale/start.sh: No such file or directory

Do I have to manually make those files?

I do see tailscale and tailscaled in the correct folders

@SC8198

Do I have to manually make those files?

yes you have to make those files. The files are at the top of the gist.

Nevermind I got the interface up. All good to go!

Sorry if that is the wrong place to ask but I am hoping that you might have the answer. Until yesterday, i was able to reach all the my docker apps/containers locally via the tailscale ip or the forwarded route (unraid local IP) and the corresponding port. However, today, apps that do not allow internet access (like sabnzbd) are locking me out like I am connecting from the internet.

Do you have any idea what could cause that? Thanks in advance.

Everyone should switch to using

https://github.com/dkaser/unraid-tailscale
😄

Edit: fixed link

I moved away from the docker tailscale specifically because I once turned off docker in the unraid settings and was locked out until I got home a few days later.
I'm now using this tailscale plugin for unraid instead
https://forums.unraid.net/topic/136889-plugin-tailscale/

I think @shayne meant https://github.com/dkaser/unraid-tailscale

That’s the plug-in :)