docker-documentation/images/docker-wireguard.md

linuxserver/wireguard

WireGuard® is an extremely simple yet fast and modern VPN that utilizes state-of-the-art cryptography. It aims to be faster, simpler, leaner, and more useful than IPsec, while avoiding the massive headache. It intends to be considerably more performant than OpenVPN. WireGuard is designed as a general purpose VPN for running on embedded interfaces and super computers alike, fit for many different circumstances. Initially released for the Linux kernel, it is now cross-platform Windows, macOS, BSD, iOS, Android and widely deployable. It is currently under heavy development, but already it might be regarded as the most secure, easiest to use, and simplest VPN solution in the industry.

Supported Architectures

Our images support multiple architectures such as x86-64, arm64 and armhf. We utilise the docker manifest for multi-platform awareness. More information is available from docker here and our announcement here.

Simply pulling linuxserver/wireguard should retrieve the correct image for your arch, but you can also pull specific arch images via tags.

The architectures supported by this image are:

Architecture	Tag
x86-64	amd64-latest
arm64	arm64v8-latest
armhf	arm32v7-latest

Usage

Here are some example snippets to help you get started creating a container from this image.

docker

docker create \
  --name=wireguard \
  --cap-add=NET_ADMIN \
  --cap-add=SYS_MODULE \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=Europe/London \
  -e SERVERURL=wireguard.domain.com `#optional` \
  -e SERVERPORT=51820 `#optional` \
  -e PEERS=1 `#optional` \
  -e PEERDNS=auto `#optional` \
  -e INTERNAL_SUBNET=10.13.13.0 `#optional` \
  -p 51820:51820/udp \
  -v /path/to/appdata/config:/config \
  -v /lib/modules:/lib/modules \
  --sysctl="net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark=1" \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  linuxserver/wireguard

docker-compose

Compatible with docker-compose v2 schemas.

---
version: "2.1"
services:
  wireguard:
    image: linuxserver/wireguard
    container_name: wireguard
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
      - SYS_MODULE
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Europe/London
      - SERVERURL=wireguard.domain.com #optional
      - SERVERPORT=51820 #optional
      - PEERS=1 #optional
      - PEERDNS=auto #optional
      - INTERNAL_SUBNET=10.13.13.0 #optional
    volumes:
      - /path/to/appdata/config:/config
      - /lib/modules:/lib/modules
    ports:
      - 51820:51820/udp
    sysctls:
      - net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark=1
    restart: unless-stopped

Parameters

Docker images are configured using parameters passed at runtime such as those above. These parameters are separated by a colon and indicate <external>:<internal> respectively. For example, -p 8080:80 would expose port 80 from inside the container to be accessible from the host's IP on port 8080 outside the container.

Ports `-p`

Parameter	Function
51820/udp	wireguard port

Environment Variables `-e`

Env	Function
PUID=1000	for UserID - see below for explanation
PGID=1000	for GroupID - see below for explanation
TZ=Europe/London	Specify a timezone to use EG Europe/London
SERVERURL=wireguard.domain.com	External IP or domain name for docker host. Used in server mode. If set to auto, the container will try to determine and set the external IP automatically
SERVERPORT=51820	External port for docker host. Used in server mode.
PEERS=1	Number of peers to create confs for. Required for server mode.
PEERDNS=auto	DNS server set in peer/client configs can be set as `8.8.8.8`. Used in server mode. Defaults to auto, which uses wireguard docker host's DNS via included CoreDNS forward.
INTERNAL_SUBNET=10.13.13.0	Internal subnet for the wireguard and server and peers only change if it clashes. Used in server mode.

Volume Mappings `-v`

Volume	Function
/config	Contains all relevant configuration files.
/lib/modules	Maps host's modules folder.

Miscellaneous Options

Parameter	Function
--sysctl=	Required for client mode.

Environment variables from files Docker secrets

You can set any environment variable from a file by using a special prepend FILE__.

As an example:

-e FILE__PASSWORD=/run/secrets/mysecretpassword

Will set the environment variable PASSWORD based on the contents of the /run/secrets/mysecretpassword file.

Umask for running applications

For all of our images we provide the ability to override the default umask settings for services started within the containers using the optional -e UMASK=022 setting. Keep in mind umask is not chmod it subtracts from permissions based on it's value it does not add. Please read up here before asking for support.

User / Group Identifiers

When using volumes `-v` flags, permissions issues can arise between the host OS and the container, we avoid this issue by allowing you to specify the user PUID and group PGID.

Ensure any volume directories on the host are owned by the same user you specify and any permissions issues will vanish like magic.

In this instance PUID=1000 and PGID=1000, to find yours use id user as below:

  $ id username
    uid=1000(dockeruser) gid=1000(dockergroup) groups=1000(dockergroup)

Application Setup

This image is designed for Ubuntu and Debian based systems mainly it works on some others, but ymmv. During container start, it will first check if the wireguard module is already installed and loaded. If not, it will then check if the kernel headers are already installed in `/usr/src` and if not, attempt to download the necessary kernel headers from the ubuntu/debian/raspbian repos; then will compile and install the kernel module.

If you're on a debian/ubuntu based host with a custom or downstream distro provided kernel ie. Pop!\_OS, the container won't be able to install the kernel headers from the regular ubuntu and debian repos. In those cases, you can try installing the headers on the host via sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) if distro version and then add a volume mapping for /usr/src:/usr/src, or if custom built, map the location of the existing headers to allow the container to use host installed headers to build the kernel module tested successful on Pop!\_OS, ymmv.

With regards to arm32/64 devices, Raspberry Pi 2-4 running the official ubuntu images prior to focal or Raspbian Buster are supported out of the box. For all other devices and OSes, you can try installing the kernel headers on the host, and mapping /usr/src:/usr/src and it may just work no guarantees.

This can be run as a server or a client, based on the parameters used.

Server Mode

If the environment variable PEERS is set to a number, the container will run in server mode and the necessary server and peer/client confs will be generated. The peer/client config qr codes will be output in the docker log. They will also be saved in text and png format under /config/peerX.

Variables SERVERURL, SERVERPORT, INTERNAL_SUBNET and PEERDNS are optional variables used for server mode. Any changes to these environment variables will trigger regeneration of server and peer confs. Peer/client confs will be recreated with existing private/public keys. Delete the peer folders for the keys to be recreated along with the confs.

To add more peers/clients later on, you increment the PEERS environment variable and recreate the container.

To display the QR codes of active peers again, you can use the following command and list the peer numbers as arguments: docker exec -it wireguard /app/show-peer 1 4 5 Keep in mind that the QR codes are also stored as PNGs in the config folder.

The templates used for server and peer confs are saved under /config/templates. Advanced users can modify these templates and force conf generation by deleting /config/wg0.conf and restarting the container.

Client Mode

Do not set the PEERS environment variable. Drop your client conf into the config folder as /config/wg0.conf and start the container.

Road warriors, roaming and returning home

If you plan to use Wireguard both remotely and locally, say on your mobile phone, you will need to consider routing. Most firewalls will not route ports forwarded on your WAN interface correctly to the LAN out of the box. This means that when you return home, even though you can see the Wireguard server, the return packets will probably get lost.

This is not a Wireguard specific issue and the two generally accepted solutions are NAT reflection setting your edge router/firewall up in such a way as it translates internal packets correctly or split horizon DNS setting your internal DNS to return the private rather than public IP when connecting locally.

Both of these approaches have positives and negatives however their setup is out of scope for this document as everyone's network layout and equipment will be different.

Docker Mods

We publish various Docker Mods to enable additional functionality within the containers. The list of Mods available for this image if any can be accessed via the dynamic badge above.

Support Info

• Shell access whilst the container is running:
  • docker exec -it wireguard /bin/bash
• To monitor the logs of the container in realtime:
  • docker logs -f wireguard
• Container version number
  • docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' wireguard
• Image version number
  • docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' linuxserver/wireguard

Versions

• 19.06.20: - Add support for Ubuntu Focal 20.04 kernels. Compile wireguard tools and kernel module instead of using the ubuntu packages. Make module install optional. Improve verbosity in logs.
• 29.05.20: - Add support for 64bit raspbian.
• 28.04.20: - Add Buster/Stretch backports repos for Debian. Tested with OMV 5 and OMV 4 on kernel 4.19.0-0.bpo.8-amd64.
• 20.04.20: - Fix typo in client mode conf existence check.
• 13.04.20: - Fix bug that forced conf recreation on every start.
• 08.04.20: - Add arm32/64 builds and enable multi-arch rpi4 with ubuntu and raspbian buster tested. Add CoreDNS for PEERDNS=auto setting. Update the add-peer/show-peer scripts to utilize the templates and the INTERNAL_SUBNET var previously missed, oops.
• 05.04.20: - Add INTERNAL_SUBNET variable to prevent subnet clashes. Add templates for server and peer confs.
• 01.04.20: - Add show-peer script and include info on host installed headers.
• 31.03.20: - Initial Release.