Access Remote Devices Anytime, Anywhere! - Self-hosted Remote Network VPN - Easytier Deployment Guide

Preface

Sometimes we need to access remote devices that are not in the same internal network environment when we're outside. Setting up services like Frp can be very troublesome and inflexible. That's when we need a VPN service. But traditional VPN services have high setup costs: servers are too expensive, and setup is very complicated. So, is there a low-cost, easy-to-deploy VPN service? Yes. This article will introduce you to a self-hostable civilian VPN networking service called Easytier.

Declaration

This VPN is not the proxy for bypassing internet restrictions that most people understand, but a Virtual Private Network. This technology allows you to establish a dedicated virtual network channel over a public network to connect devices in different network environments. With this technology, you can use a dedicated IP to connect to your devices in an external network, just like using an internal network IP address at home.

Setup Requirements

• A cloud/local server with public IPv4 address (bandwidth not required)

• Home broadband with NAT level >= 3 (not mandatory)

  Note: If the NAT level does not meet this requirement and IPv6 is not available, it may not be possible to establish P2P connections

• A thinking brain

  Why Choose EasyTier

• Convenient deployment, strong deployability
• Supports both centralized/decentralized deployment
• Has a comprehensive WebUI for easy management
• Does not force HTTPS
• Easy device access
• Supports multiple device platforms ( Linux, Windows, Android, MacOS, HarmonyOS )
• Supports multiple device architectures ( x86, x86-64, armhf, arm64, riscv, mips, loongarch )

• I will

  This article may require an internet environment that can bypass restrictions

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  1. Server Configuration

  This tutorial is for Linux platform servers

  1.1 Download Easytier Server

• Go to Easytier Official Release Page to download the distribution corresponding to your server environment, and extract it to any directory

• Use the following commands to grant executable permissions to the binary files

  chmod +x ./easytier-core
  chmod +x ./easytier-web-embed

  • easytier-core is the core program of the entire Easytier. Both the server and client use this program to establish connections.
  • easytier-web-embed is a web server embedded with a page for managing Easytier connections. If you don't need such a tool, or want to use the public web page, you can also choose not to enable this program

  1.2 Deploy Easytier Service

  To ensure that Easytier can still run normally after the server is unexpectedly powered off and restarted, we need to deploy Easytier as a Linux service. Here we use systemctl for deployment

• Use the following commands to create services for the core and Web UI respectively

  sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/easytier-core.service
  sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/easytier-web-embed.service

• Fill in the following content in easytier-core.service

  [Unit]
  Description=easytier-core
  After=network.target
  
  [Service]
  Type=simple
  ExecStart=<path/to/easytier-core> -w udp://127.0.0.1:22020/<UserName> --machine-id aliyun-sh
  User=root
  Restart=on-failure
  RestartSec=5
  
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Fill in the following content in easytier-web-embed.service

  [Unit]
  Description=easytier-web-embed
  After=network.target
  
  [Service]
  Type=simple
  ExecStart=<path/to/easytier-web-embed> --api-server-port 11211 --api-host http://127.0.0.1:11211 --config-server-port 22020 --config-server-protocol udp
  User=root
  Restart=on-failure
  RestartSec=5
  
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target

• After saving, enable the startup of both services respectively, then start the Web UI service first

  sudo systemctl daemon-reload
  sudo systemctl enable easytier-web-embed
  sudo systemctl enable easytier-core
  sudo systemctl start easytier-web-embed

• Use this command to check the service running status, if there are no exceptions, it is running

  sudo systemctl status easytier-web-embed

• Enter the Web UI (address is http://<Server IP>:11211), fill in http://<Server IP>:11211 in API Host, and register an account at the location shown in Figure 1-2-1.

  Note: The username should be the same as the <UserName> field filled in when registering the core service just now
  

  

• After successfully registering an account, log in to the Web UI and use this command to start the easytier-core service.

  sudo systemctl start easytier-core

• Switch to the Device List column in the sidebar of the Web UI. If the configuration is correct, you should see your server as shown in Figure 1-2-3.
  

  

• Click the gear icon of the device, which is the settings button, to jump to the page for creating a new connection. Fill in your VPN information on this page.

  Note: If you are establishing a new VPN network segment, the IP address segment you set will become the network segment of this VPN. If you use DHCP, the server will automatically assign an available network segment.
  For example: If your IP address is set to 10.0.0.1, the network segment of the VPN will become 10.0.0.x, and subsequent devices that join will be assigned to this network segment.

  • Network Name: The identifier of the VPN network segment. If you want other devices to join this VPN, the Network Name set on those devices should be the same.
    Note: Easytier identifies different VPNs by this Network Name, and one Network Name corresponds to one VPN.
  • Network Secret: The password for the VPN.

  • Networking Method: Network connection method. After selecting Manual, fill in tcp://<IPAddr>:11010, udp://<IPAddr>:11010. Please click the button shown in Figure 1-2-4 to add to the list after entering each item, otherwise it will not take effect.
    

    

    • Public Server: Easytier's public server. If you want to use the public server to establish VPN connections, you can directly use this option.
    • Manual: Manually configure the server. Suitable for most centralized deployment scenarios.
    • Standalone: Use this device as an independent server.
  • Advanced Settings: Advanced settings. If you have a certain network engineering foundation, you can configure it according to your needs, otherwise please leave it as it is.
    You can refer to the Easytier Official Documentation to configure the settings here.
  • Port Forward: Port forwarding. Same as above.

• At this time, use this command to view the output of easytier-core

  sudo systemctl status easytier-core

  The status output after correct configuration should be similar to that shown in Figure 1-2-5
  

  

  2. Client Configuration

  Linux Client

  Linux has two configuration methods: GUI desktop program configuration and CLI command line program configuration. Since GUI is less used on Linux platforms, only CLI program configuration is taught here. This method applies to both client machines and servers. Of course, if you want to configure the GUI program, you can refer to the Windows platform GUI configuration below.

  2.1 Download Program

• Download the compressed package suitable for Linux version according to your device platform from the Official Release Page (example filename easytier-linux-x86_64-v2.4.5.zip), and extract it to your device.

• Use the following command to grant executable permission

  chmod +x ./easytier-core

  2.2 Configure Program

  Before registering as a service, we first test the program.

• Use this command to start the Easytier client

  ./easytier-core <IP Mode> --network-name <Network Name> --network-secret <Network Secret> -p <Server Address> <Optional Config>

  • IP Mode: Expected IP address. If you want to configure a static IP address, please use the --ipv4 <IP Address> parameter. If you want to configure a DHCP address, please use the --dhcp parameter
  • Network Name: The identifier of the VPN network segment.
  • Network Secret: The password for the VPN. To join this VPN, you must enter the same password, no need for further explanation.
  • Server Address: Server address. It is recommended to use TCP to connect to the server, so the format for filling in this address is: tcp://<Server IP>:11010.
  • Optional Config: Additional parameters. It is recommended to add the --multi-thread parameter here to enable multi-threading. If you want to add other more parameters, please refer to the Easytier Official Documentation
    After starting the program, if the output log is normal, it means this configuration is valid. Normal log output should be as shown in Figure 2-2-1, including prompts for successful connection with other peers.
    

    

  2.3 Register Service

  Here we also use systemctl to register the service.

• Use this command to create a service for easytier-core

  sudp vim /etc/systemd/system/easytier-core.service

• Add the following content to this file

  [Unit]
  Description=easytier-core
  After=network.target
  
  [Service]
  Type=simple
  ExecStart=<path/to/easytier-core> <Config>
  User=root
  Restart=on-failure
  RestartSec=5
  
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Use the following commands to reload systemctl and start the service

  sudo systemctl daemon-reload
  sudo systemctl enable easytier-core
  sudo systemctl start easitier-core

• Use this command to check the logs of the service

  sudo systemctl status easytier-core

  The correct log output should be as shown in Figure 2-2-2, including prompts for successful operation and peer information.
  

  

  
  This completes the configuration.

  Windows Client

  Windows has two configuration methods: GUI desktop program configuration and CLI command line program configuration. If your configuration target is a server, it is recommended to use the CLI method for configuration. If it is a regular home computer, it is recommended to use the GUI method for configuration.

  2.1 GUI Configuration

• Download the GUI program suitable for Windows version from the Official Release Page (example filename easytier-gui_2.4.5_x64-setup.exe), and install it on your computer. Start the program after installation.

• Configure your private VPN as needed according to the prompts below.

  • Virtual IPv4: The virtual IPv4 address of your device in the VPN network. As a client, if there are no special needs, it is recommended to check DHCP to automatically obtain an available IP address.

    Note: If you are establishing a new VPN network segment, the IP address segment you set will become the network segment of this VPN. If you use DHCP, the server will automatically assign an available network segment.
    For example: If your IP address is set to 10.0.0.1, the network segment of the VPN will become 10.0.0.x, and subsequent devices that join will be assigned to this network segment.

• Network Name: The identifier of the VPN network segment.
• Network Secret: The password for the VPN.

• Networking Method: Network connection method. After selecting Manual, fill in tcp://<IPAddr>:11010, udp://<IPAddr>:11010. Please click the button shown in Figure 2-1-1 to add to the list after entering each item, otherwise it will not take effect.
  

  

  • Public Server: Easytier's public server. If you want to use the public server to establish VPN connections, you can directly use this option.
  • Manual: Manually configure the server. Suitable for most centralized deployment scenarios.
  • Standalone: Use this device as an independent server.

• Advanced Settings: Advanced settings. If you have a certain network engineering foundation, you can configure it according to your needs, otherwise please leave it as it is.

  You can refer to the Easytier Official Documentation to configure the settings here.

• Port Forward: Port forwarding. Same as above.
  You can refer to the blogger's configuration shown in Figure 2-1-2 as a reference.
  

  

  
  After configuration is complete, click Run Network to start the VPN service. If the configuration is correct and the network environment is ideal, you should be able to establish P2P connections between all devices.
  

  

  Note: If P2P cannot be established, i.e., in relay state, when accessing the node, Easytier will select a device with the lowest P2P latency for both parties to relay. The number next to the relay symbol indicates the number of relay nodes passed through.

  2.2 CLI Configuration

  The CLI configuration method is not much different between Windows and Linux platforms, so please refer to the Linux CLI program configuration method above. In the Windows section, I will only introduce the service configuration method.

• The easytier-core executable itself has the function of registering services, here we can directly call the program itself to register Windows services. The command is as follows

  sudo .\easytier-cli.exe service install `
    --description <Service Description> `
    --display-name <Service Name> `
    --disable-autostart `
    --core-path <path/to/easytier-core> `
    --service-work-dir <Work Dir> `
    -- <Config>

  • Service Description: Service description. Fill in whatever you want
  • Service Name: Service name. Fill in whatever you want
  • --disable-autostart: Disable auto-start. If you want to enable it, you can change it to --enable-autostart, or manually start service.msc to make changes after execution.
  • path/to/easytier-core: Path to the easytier-core program
  • Work Dir: Working directory of the easytier-core program. It is recommended to directly fill in the directory where the executable file is placed.
  • Config: Parameters passed when starting the program. The configuration method is the same as Linux CLI.

• After the program prompts registration completion, use this command to start the service

  sudo .\easytier-cli.exe service start

• After starting, you can use this command to check the service status

  ./easytier-cli service status

  If the service runs normally, the configuration ends here

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Conclusion

• This article covers the configuration of Easytier from GUI to CLI, from Linux to Windows. It's not easy to write. If you find it useful, please leave your comments and share it with those in need. Thank you!
• I am not a professional. If there are any mistakes, please point them out directly. Thank you!