NetBird is an Open Source Zero Trust Networking platform that allows you to create secure private networks for your organization or home. We designed NetBird to be simple and fast, requiring near-zero configuration effort and leaving behind the hassle of opening ports, complex firewall rules, VPN gateways, etc.
There is no centralized VPN server with NetBird - your computers, devices, machines, and servers connect to each other directly over a fast encrypted tunnel. It creates a high-performance point-to-point WireGuard® overlay network that connects machines running anywhere in just a few clicks.
Infrastructure requirements
A Linux VM with at least 1CPU and 2GB of memory.
The VM must be publicly accessible on TCP ports 80 and 443, and UDP port 3478.
A public domain name that resolves to the VM's public IP address (e.g. netbird.example.com).
NetBird Server Gallery
Getting Started with NetBird on Vultr
Set Your DNS Records
Once your server has an IPv4 address available, grab it from the Vultr dashboard and create a DNS A record pointing your domain to it, this much the domain you sent when deploying the installation:
netbird.yourdomain.com A <your-server-ip>
If you plan to use the built-in proxy feature, also add a wildcard CNAME:
*.netbird.yourdomain.com CNAME netbird.yourdomain.com
Wait for Provisioning
Once DNS is pointed, the server handles everything automatically. It will wait for your domain to resolve to the server's IP, then generate all the configuration and start services. This usually takes a few minutes depending on how fast your DNS propagates.
You can watch the progress from the Vultr console (View Console in the dashboard). You'll see output like:
Waiting for netbird.yourdomain.com to resolve to 203.0.113.50...
DNS resolved correctly.
Starting core services...
Waiting for NetBird server to become ready... done
Creating proxy access token...
Starting proxy service...
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NETBIRD SETUP COMPLETE
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Once you see "NETBIRD SETUP COMPLETE" you're good to go.
Access the Dashboard
Open https://netbird.yourdomain.com in your browser. You'll see the NetBird dashboard with an onboarding flow that walks you through setting up your first network and connecting devices.
Connect Your First Device
- Follow the onboarding steps in the dashboard to create your network
- Install the NetBird client on your device from netbird.io/download
- Connect using your self-hosted management URL:
netbird up --management-url https://netbird.yourdomain.com
Useful Commands
SSH into your server to manage the stack:
# Check service status
cd /opt/netbird
docker compose ps
# View logs
docker compose logs -f
# Restart all services
docker compose restart
# Update to latest images
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d
Server Details
Your setup info is saved on the server at /root/netbird-info.txt. Configuration files are in /opt/netbird/.
Troubleshooting
Dashboard shows a certificate warning? Your DNS may still be propagating. Check with dig netbird.yourdomain.com +short and make sure it returns your server's IP. Traefik will retry certificate issuance automatically once DNS resolves.
Services not starting? Check the logs:
cd /opt/netbird
docker compose logs
Provisioning didn't complete? Check the provisioning log:
cat /var/log/per-instance.log
Support Information
Support Contact
Website
https://netbird.ioSupport URL
https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/discussionsRepository
https://github.com/netbirdio/netbirdSlack Channel
https://docs.netbird.io/slack-urlMaintainer Contact
Website
https://netbird.io/Git
https://github.com/netbirdioSlack
https://docs.netbird.io/slack-urlReport Application
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