Unraid, Tailscale, Offsite Backup and Network Access to LAN Shared folders

[valhalla540]

TLDR: Can I use Tailscale to access a remote Unraid NAS to back up my Home Unraid NAS and access the remote LAN's Windows Shared Network through a VM on the Remote Unraid NAS. If so, does anyone have any guides or experience doing this?

 

I have a new Unraid server built that I want to use as an offsite backup. This will be placed at my mother's house. I want to also be able to access her networked computers and devices (with her permission of course). The main reason to access her computer is to help maintain her picture library. She goes nuts taking pictures with her phone, emailing them to herself and then creating an exponential number of folders to "organize" her pictures. This usually occurs because she'll download the zip file from gmail, but then every time she wants to look at the pics she extracts them....every time. So there are nested folders all over the place on her PC. I'm sure you all have dealt with this. After spending a weekend onsite fixing this for her I vowed to never do so again by checking in on her PC every now and then and fixing it, then pointing her to a photo library she can be confident in. 

 

Tailscale seems to be a the newest hotness and I'm hoping it can be used in this solution so port forwarding, weird DNS stuff and all that is not required. 

 

Would I be able to set up Talescale so that:

1. My Home Unraid server can be connected to Mom's Unraid server for period backups of documents, pictures and other valuable data using rsync. Pretty sure this is possible but I haven't found any guides for doing it on Unraid. 
2. In order to access her networked computers file systems with out using remote desktop (I don't like it and will freak her out if I just take over her PC) I was thinking of setting up a Windows VM on the remote Unraid box and using that access her shared network files. Is this doable with Tailscale?
3. If this was set up properly would I be setting up a VPN connect between my Windows PC and the VM? Or would I access the Unraid box through Tailscale then run the VM through the VM Console(VNC). Would I then have access to her network since that VM should be on that local area network? Does that make sense?

Am I making this too difficult? I know remote desk top would work but I also want to play around with Tailscale and VPNs to learn more about them. Thanks! 

 

 

Edited February 29 by valhalla540

[NikolakiH]

All of that is very possible with Tailscale. Once you install and login to multiple devices on Tailscale you will have a "tailnet" that acts like a separate LAN using a 100.X.X.X subnet. The major difference is that every connection you make on the Tailnet LAN is made automatically through a Wireguard interface. Once your devices get a new 100.x.x.x IP from your tailnet, it doesn't change even if you change the public IP address. So, as long as your Unraid box has internet and is running Tailscale, you'll be able to access it from anywhere using the same IP.

 

Their documentation is pretty good and easy to follow even without a guide. https://tailscale.com/kb/1019/subnets

 

1 hour ago, valhalla540 said:

Would I be able to set up Talescale so that:

1. My Home Unraid server can be connected to Mom's Unraid server for period backups of documents, pictures and other valuable data using rsync. Pretty sure this is possible but I haven't found any guides for doing it on Unraid. 
2. In order to access her networked computers file systems with out using remote desktop (I don't like it and will freak her out if I just take over her PC) I was thinking of setting up a Windows VM on the remote Unraid box and using that access her shared network files. Is this doable with Tailscale?
3. If this was set up properly would I be setting up a VPN connect between my Windows PC and the VM? Or would I access the Unraid box through Tailscale then run the VM through the VM Console(VNC). Would I then have access to her network since that VM should be on that local area network? Does that make sense?

 

1. Yes, that should be easy. If Unraid has a Tailscale app then you can just log in on both boxes and point the sync to the Tailnet IP (100.X.X.X) of your mom's box. If Unraid doesn't have a Tailscale app, you'll have to run a VM that runs Tailscale and advertise the local IP through your Tailnet. (The link to the documentation above is about how to do that)

 

2/3. If the main objective is to gain access to her local network, then you don't need to setup a VM. All you need to do is setup a "subnet router" through your Unraid box. (The link above explains this.) All this really means is that your Unraid box will advertise your mom's local network so that you can access it through your Tailnet as if it were another part of your local network. However, there could be some issues if you both use the same LAN IP addresses, so you might have to change one of your networks to use a slightly different subnet.

 

I'd recommend downloading Tailscale on some of your own devices to start testing it ASAP. Like, try accessing your NAS through your tailnet IP instead of your normal LAN, and try disconnecting your phone from Wifi and accessing your NAS or computer through cellular data. And then try using rsync through your tailnet on your local network. If it works through the tailnet, even on LAN, then it should work the exact same way once you take it to your mom's house because Tailscale does all the routing/DNS stuff automagically.

[valhalla540]

@NikolakiH Oh that's awesome thank you. To be honest I didn't check the documentation on their site because usually it goes above my head but the way you described the tailnet so well I'll give it a go. That makes total sense and was actually I think the key piece of their deal I was missing. 

 

If you don't mind me asking one more question...If I set up a VLAN on my Dream Machine and would that mimic the box being off the LAN? I could then throw a couple one or two computer on that VLAN to test is my hope. 

 

Thank you so much for your quick reply. It's giving me the confidence to dive in. Much appreciated. 

[valhalla540]

@NikolakiH I got Tailscale working and setting up a VLAN for testing. Been able to isolate the remote box, restricting ping in with my local IPs but working with Tailnet IP. Thanks for the info to provide the confidence to make it work. Cheers.