Best way to configure Tailscale for remote LAN/server access?

[Technicstat]

Pretty much just as the title says... Just set up a Proxmox server and do NOT want to host it on WAN. I have done some looking into Tailscale and although some time I think Headscale would make more sense, I think this is a really elegant and reasonable solution for now. The main thing right now is just figuring out how to configure my exit node at home. Should I be running an Ubuntu Server VM and then running Tailscale within that as an exit node on the bare Proxmox network from the server's NIC? Should I run it in an LXC? If so, how? Separate hardware all together? Raspberry Pi? I have an old Thinkpad T430 that I would honestly love to run off AC power as a server, but then it's external of the server. I'm a bit lost as to what the norm is here and I'm looking for some help or pointers from anyone who has Tailscale configured for this purpose.

Thanks!

[LIGISTX]

16 hours ago, Technicstat said:

Pretty much just as the title says... Just set up a Proxmox server and do NOT want to host it on WAN. I have done some looking into Tailscale and although some time I think Headscale would make more sense, I think this is a really elegant and reasonable solution for now. The main thing right now is just figuring out how to configure my exit node at home. Should I be running an Ubuntu Server VM and then running Tailscale within that as an exit node on the bare Proxmox network from the server's NIC? Should I run it in an LXC? If so, how? Separate hardware all together? Raspberry Pi? I have an old Thinkpad T430 that I would honestly love to run off AC power as a server, but then it's external of the server. I'm a bit lost as to what the norm is here and I'm looking for some help or pointers from anyone who has Tailscale configured for this purpose.

Thanks!

You can run the vpn on any system within your LAN. I wouldn’t run it, or anything, directly on Proxmox… there are a few cases where this is not true, but just create LXC’s, VM’s, or docker containers within VM’s to host the applications you want to host. 
 

Any of those options, from a data flow perspective, act as an individual computer on your LAN. LXC’s and VM’s get their own IP address on your network, so you can logically think of them as their own entire PC. And id run my VPN on one of those. 

[Technicstat]

3 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

You can run the vpn on any system within your LAN. I wouldn’t run it, or anything, directly on Proxmox… there are a few cases where this is not true, but just create LXC’s, VM’s, or docker containers within VM’s to host the applications you want to host. 
 

Any of those options, from a data flow perspective, act as an individual computer on your LAN. LXC’s and VM’s get their own IP address on your network, so you can logically think of them as their own entire PC. And id run my VPN on one of those. 

Thanks for the input! That was poorly worded on my part because I meant to suggest running it in an LXC or VM from the start. Right now I set up a separate server on a thinkpad with Ubuntu Server and a ton of power optimizations. subnet routing and exit node. This is great because it's got a huge extended battery on it so even if the power goes out it will continue running for about 6 hours. It's hooked into LAN directly via ethernet on one of its two NICs. 

[LIGISTX]

2 hours ago, Technicstat said:

This is great because it's got a huge extended battery on it so even if the power goes out it will continue running for about 6 hours.

If the rest of your networking infrastructure is not also on a battery backup, this won't matter much

 

But you can set up the VPN anywhere you want, as long as its inside your LAN, itll work the same. Whatever makes the most sense to you is fine.

[Technicstat]

31 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

If the rest of your networking infrastructure is not also on a battery backup, this won't matter much

 

But you can set up the VPN anywhere you want, as long as its inside your LAN, itll work the same. Whatever makes the most sense to you is fine.

I do have a UPS in place for a lot of this equipment though, so hopefully it's not totally a lost cause.

[LIGISTX]

1 hour ago, Technicstat said:

I do have a UPS in place for a lot of this equipment though, so hopefully it's not totally a lost cause.

As long as your networking and intenret are up, then yes, youd be able to access everything via the VPN.