Tailscale on Raspberry Pi

🔍 What Tailscale Does

• Zero‑config VPN: Devices automatically discover each other and connect securely, no manual IP setup required.
• Mesh networking: Every device talks directly to others, forming a resilient peer‑to‑peer network.
• Identity integration: Works with identity providers (Google, Microsoft, Okta, etc.) for authentication.
• Cross‑platform: Runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and even NAS devices.
• Exit nodes & routing: You can route all traffic through one device (like a home server) or advertise subnet routes.
• MagicDNS: Provides human‑friendly names for devices instead of IP addresses.

🚀 Docker Installation Steps

1. Update your system
   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
2. Install Docker
   

   curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
   sudo sh get-docker.sh

3. Install Docker Compose
   sudo apt install docker-compose-plugin
4. Add your user to the Docker group
   sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
5. Enable Docker at boot
   sudo systemctl enable docker
6. Reboot
   sudo reboot
7. Test Docker
   docker run hello-world

📁 Setup Tailscale

Go to Tailscale's website and create an account. Then setup your docker directories.

	mkdir ~/docker
	mkdir ~/docker/tailscale

🧾 Docker Compose File

In ~/docker/tailscale create docker-compose.yml

	services:
	  tailscale:
	    image: tailscale/tailscale:latest
	    container_name: tailscale
	    network_mode: host
	    privileged: true
	    volumes:
	      - ./tailscale:/var/lib/tailscale
	    environment:
	      - TS_STATE_DIR=/var/lib/tailscale
	    command: tailscaled --state=/var/lib/tailscale/tailscaled.state --socket=/var/run/tailscale/tailscaled.sock &
		     tailscale up --accept-dns=true --accept-routes=true
	    restart: unless-stopped 

▶️ Start Tailscale

From within ~/docker/tailscale run:

Now run docker exec -it tailscale tailscale up That will give you a link to browse to to register the Pi with Tailscale.

📜 View Logs

Check the status

You should see your Pi listed.

🌐 Access Web Interface

Go to Tailscale's website. You should see your Pi listed.