03. Netbird Routing Peers

After you have created a Netbird Network, it is time to install the first Routing Peer. That is machines on your local network that can forward traffic between the NetBird NetBird overlay network and resources that cannot or should not run the NetBird client themselves, acting as a bridge to LANs, VPCs, datacenters, or individual hosts. It is used for site or LAN access, domain-based access, exit nodes, and Kubernetes integrations

Now, as stated a routing peer can be installed on any machine on your local network including for instance your laptop. However, it is important to have at least one or two machines that are always up and running and stay inside your network. Therefore, we recommend to install a routing peer in the same DockerVM you run the Netbird Server or another VM that is up and running 24/7.

The easiest and cleanest way to install such a routing peer is via a docker compose file. You can find this docker compose file here

compose.yml

services:
  netbird-client:
      container_name: netbird-client
      hostname: <HOSTNAME>
      cap_add:
          - NET_ADMIN
          - SYS_ADMIN
          - SYS_RESOURCE
      devices:
          # Required when using userspace mode or when kernel module is not available
          - /dev/net/tun
      network_mode: host
      environment:
          - NB_SETUP_KEY=<SETUP KEY>
      volumes:
          - ./netbird-client:/var/lib/netbird
      image: netbirdio/netbird:latest