Welcome to the Headscale repository! This project serves as a demo for my blog post on how to deploy Headscale in AWS and connect to private resources. If you're looking to enhance your networking skills and learn about VPN solutions, you're in the right place.

• Introduction
• Features
• Topics
• Getting Started
• Installation
• Usage
• Connecting to Private Resources
• Releases
• Contributing
• License
• Contact

Headscale is an open-source implementation of the Tailscale coordination server. It allows you to create your own mesh VPN network, giving you the freedom to manage your private resources securely. This demo will guide you through deploying Headscale on AWS, providing a practical example of how to set up and connect to your private network.

• Self-hosted VPN: Control your own VPN server without relying on third-party services.
• AWS Integration: Leverage the power of AWS to deploy your Headscale server.
• Private Resource Access: Easily connect to your private resources over a secure network.
• Simple Setup: Follow straightforward steps to get your Headscale instance running.
• Scalable: Easily scale your deployment based on your needs.

This repository covers a range of topics related to deploying Headscale. Here are some of the key areas:

• aws
• blog
• caddy
• devbox
• dnsmasq
• ec2
• headscale
• mesh
• precommit
• route53
• tailscale
• terraform
• vpn

To get started with Headscale, you will need an AWS account. If you don't have one, sign up for free. Once you have access to AWS, you can follow the instructions below to deploy Headscale.

• An AWS account
• Basic knowledge of AWS services (EC2, Route 53, etc.)
• Familiarity with command-line tools

To install Headscale, you can download the latest release from our Releases page. Make sure to download the appropriate binary for your operating system and architecture.

1. Log in to your AWS account.
2. Navigate to the EC2 dashboard.
3. Click on "Launch Instance."
4. Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) that suits your needs (Ubuntu is a good choice).
5. Select an instance type (t2.micro is free-tier eligible).
6. Configure your instance details and security groups.

Once your EC2 instance is running, connect to it using SSH. You can do this with the following command:

ssh -i your-key.pem ubuntu@your-ec2-public-ip

After connecting, you can download and install Headscale:

wget https://github.com/TheJolty/headscale/releases/latest/download/headscale-linux-amd64
chmod +x headscale-linux-amd64
sudo mv headscale-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/headscale

Create a configuration file for Headscale. You can do this by running:

headscale init

This will create a default configuration file that you can edit according to your needs.

Once Headscale is installed and configured, you can start it with the following command:

headscale serve

Headscale will now be running on your EC2 instance, and you can access it via your browser or command line.

To connect to your private resources, you will need to set up DNS and routing. You can use Route 53 for DNS management and configure your security groups to allow traffic between your EC2 instance and your private resources.

1. Go to the Route 53 dashboard in AWS.
2. Create a hosted zone for your domain.
3. Add A records pointing to your EC2 instance's public IP.

Make sure your EC2 instance's security group allows inbound traffic on the necessary ports. For Headscale, you typically need to allow UDP and TCP traffic on port 443.

For the latest releases and updates, please visit our Releases page. Download the necessary files and execute them as instructed.

We welcome contributions! If you'd like to contribute to this project, please fork the repository and create a pull request. Make sure to follow the coding standards and include tests for your changes.

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.

If you have any questions or need support, feel free to reach out. You can find me on Twitter or email me at [email protected].

Thank you for checking out the Headscale repository! Happy networking!