Quickstart Guide

Step-by-step video guide on YouTube:

This guide describes how to quickly get started with NetBird and create a secure private network with two connected machines.

One machine is a Linux laptop, and the other one a EC2 node running on AWS. Both machines are running Linux but NetBird also works on Windows, MacOS nad popular mobile platforms like Android and iOS.

1. Sign-up at https://app.netbird.io/

You can use your Google, GitHub or Microsoft account.

2. After a successful login you will be redirected to the Peers screen which is empty because you don't have any peers yet.

The Add peer window should automatically pop up, but if it doesn't, click Add new peer to add a new machine.

3. Choose your machine operating system (in our case it is Linux) and proceed with the installation steps.

4. If you installed NetBird Desktop UI you can use it to connect to the network instead of running netbird up command. Look for NetBird in your application list, run it, and click Connect.

5. At this point a browser window pops up starting a device registration process. Click confirm and follow the steps if required.

6. On the EC2 node repeat the installation steps and run netbird up command.

sudo netbird up

7. Copy the verification URL from the terminal output and paste it in your browser. Repeat step #5

8. Return to Peers and you should notice 2 new machines with status online

9. To test the connection you could try pinging devices:

On your laptop:

ping 100.64.0.2

On the EC2 node:

ping 100.64.0.1

10. Done! You now have a secure peer-to-peer private network configured.

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• NetBird release page on GitHub: releases

Installation

Linux

APT/Debian

1. Add the repository:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg -y
curl -sSL https://pkgs.netbird.io/debian/public.key | sudo gpg --dearmor --output /usr/share/keyrings/netbird-archive-keyring.gpg
echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/netbird-archive-keyring.gpg] https://pkgs.netbird.io/debian stable main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/netbird.list

2. Update APT's cache

 sudo apt-get update

3. Install the package

 # for CLI only
 sudo apt-get install netbird
 # for GUI package
 sudo apt-get install netbird-ui

RPM/Red hat

1. Add the repository:

 cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/netbird.repo
 [netbird]
 name=netbird
 baseurl=https://pkgs.netbird.io/yum/
 enabled=1
 gpgcheck=0
 gpgkey=https://pkgs.netbird.io/yum/repodata/repomd.xml.key
 repo_gpgcheck=1
 EOF

2. Install the package

 # for CLI only
 sudo yum install netbird
 # for GUI package
 sudo yum install netbird-ui

Fedora

1. Create the repository file:

 cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/netbird.repo
 [netbird]
 name=netbird
 baseurl=https://pkgs.netbird.io/yum/
 enabled=1
 gpgcheck=0
 gpgkey=https://pkgs.netbird.io/yum/repodata/repomd.xml.key
 repo_gpgcheck=1
 EOF

2. Import the file

 sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo /etc/yum.repos.d/netbird.repo

3. Install the package

 # for CLI only
 sudo dnf install netbird
 # for GUI package
 sudo dnf install netbird-ui

NixOS 22.11+/unstable

1. Edit your configuration.nix

 { config, pkgs, ... }:
 {
   services.netbird.enable = true; # for netbird service & CLI
   environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.netbird-ui ]; # for GUI
 }

2. Build and apply new configuration

 sudo nixos-rebuild switch

macOS

Homebrew install

1. Download and install homebrew at https://brew.sh/
2. If netbird was previously installed with homebrew, you will need to run:

# Stop and uninstall daemon service:
sudo netbird service stop
sudo netbird service uninstall
# unlik the app
brew unlink netbird

netbird will copy any existing configuration from the netbird's default configuration paths to the new NetBird's default location

3. Install the client

  # for CLI only
  brew install netbirdio/tap/netbird
  # for GUI package
  brew install --cask netbirdio/tap/netbird-ui

4. If you installed CLI only, you need to install and start the client daemon service:

 sudo netbird service install
 sudo netbird service start

Windows

1. Checkout NetBird releases
2. Download the latest Windows release installer netbird_installer_<VERSION>_windows_amd64.exe (Switch VERSION to the latest):
3. Proceed with the installation steps
4. This will install the UI client in the C:\Program Files\NetBird and add the daemon service
5. After installing, you can follow the steps from Running NetBird with SSO Login steps.

To uninstall the client and service, you can use Add/Remove programs

⚠️ In case of any issues with the connection on Windows check the firewall settings. With default Windows 11 firewall setup there could be connectivity issue related to egress traffic.

Recommended way is to add NetBird in firewall settings:

1. Go to "Control panel".
2. Select "Windows Defender Firewall".
3. Select "Advanced settings".
4. Select "Outbound Rules" -> "New rule".
5. In the new rule select "Program" and click "Next".
6. Point to the NetBird installation exe file (usually in C:\Program Files\NetBird\netbird.exe) and click "Next".
7. Select "Allow the connection" and click "Next".
8. Select the network in which rule should be applied (Domain, Private, Public) according to your needs and click "Next".
9. Provide rule name (e.g. "Netbird Egress Traffic") and click "Finish".
10. Disconnect and connect to NetBird.

Binary Install

Installation from binary (CLI only)

1. Checkout NetBird releases
2. Download the latest release:

  curl -L -o ./netbird_<VERSION>.tar.gz https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/releases/download/v<VERSION>/netbird_<VERSION>_<OS>_<Arch>.tar.gz

3. Decompress

  tar xcf ./netbird_<VERSION>.tar.gz
  sudo mv netbird /usr/bin/netbird
  sudo chown root:root /usr/bin/netbird
  sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/netbird

After that you may need to add /usr/bin in your PATH environment variable:

  export PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin

4. Install and run the service

  sudo netbird service install
  sudo netbird service start

Running NetBird with SSO Login

Desktop UI Application

If you installed the Desktop UI client, you can launch it and click on Connect.

It will open your browser, and you will be prompt for email and password. Follow the instructions.

CLI

Alternatively, you could use command line. Simply run

netbird up

It will open your browser, and you will be prompt for email and password. Follow the instructions.

Check connection status:

  netbird status

Running NetBird with a Setup Key

In case you are activating a server peer, you can use a setup key as described in the steps below.

This is especially helpful when you are running multiple server instances with infrastructure-as-code tools like ansible and terraform.

1. Login to the Management Service. You need to have a setup key in hand (see setup keys).

For all systems:

  netbird up --setup-key <SETUP KEY>

For Docker, you can run with the following command:

docker run --network host --privileged --rm -d -e NB_SETUP_KEY=<SETUP KEY> -v netbird-client:/etc/netbird netbirdio/netbird:<TAG>

TAG > 0.6.0 version

Alternatively, if you are hosting your own Management Service provide --management-url property pointing to your Management Service:

  netbird up --setup-key <SETUP KEY> --management-url http://localhost:33073

You could also omit the --setup-key property. In this case, the tool will prompt for the key.

2. Check connection status:

  netbird status

3. Check your IP:

On macOS :

  sudo ifconfig utun100

On Linux:

  ip addr show wt0

On Windows:

  netsh interface ip show config name="wt0"

Running NetBird in Docker

Set the NB_SETUP_KEY environment variable and run the command.

NetBird makes use of eBPF and raw sockets, therefore to guarantee the client software functionality, we recommend adding the flags --cap-add=SYS_ADMIN and --cap-add=SYS_RESOURCE for docker clients. The experience may vary depending on the docker daemon, operating system, or kernel version.

docker run --rm --name PEER_NAME --hostname PEER_NAME --cap-add=NET_ADMIN --cap-add=SYS_ADMIN --cap-add=SYS_RESOURCE -d -e NB_SETUP_KEY=<SETUP KEY> -v netbird-client:/etc/netbird netbirdio/netbird:latest

See Docker example for details.

Troubleshooting

1. If you are using self-hosted version and haven't specified --management-url, the client app will use the default URL which is https://api.wiretrustee.com:33073.

2. If you have specified a wrong --management-url (e.g., just by mistake when self-hosting) to override it you can do the following:

netbird down
netbird up --management-url https://<CORRECT HOST:PORT>/

To override it see the solution #1 above.