Verify NetBird configuration

Oct 13, 2025 by talynt.org 41 views

Describe the problem

You are unable to use NetBird as a network gateway for other network devices. You have three virtual machines: "bs0", "bs1r", and "ae-vm-1". "bs0" and "bs1r" are Ubuntu 24.04 Server machines, while "ae-vm-1" is also running NetBird. You want to use "bs1r" as a network gateway for "bs0" and route traffic through "ae-vm-1" as an exit node.

To Reproduce

You have the following network configurations:

bs0

# This file is generated from information provided by the datasource.  Changes
# to it will not persist across an instance reboot.  To disable cloud-init's
# network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network:
    ethernets:
        ens33:
            addresses:
            - 10.10.109.22/24
            nameservers:
                addresses:
                - 8.8.8.8
                search:
                - trs.internal
            routes:
            -   to: default
                via: 10.10.109.24
    version: 2

bs1r

# This file is generated from information provided by the datasource.  Changes
# to it will not persist across an instance reboot.  To disable cloud-init's
# network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network:
    ethernets:
        ens33:
            addresses:
            - 10.10.109.24/24
            nameservers:
                addresses:
                - 10.10.109.1
                search:
                - trs.internal
            routes:
            -   to: default
                via: 10.10.109.1
    version: 2

ae-vm-1

admin@ae-vm-1:~$ netbird status
OS: linux/amd64
Daemon version: 0.37.1
CLI version: 0.37.1
Management: Connected
Signal: Connected
Relays: 3/3 Available
Nameservers: 1/1 Available
FQDN: ae-treasury-outgoing-vm-1.netbird.selfhosted
NetBird IP: 100.81.53.210/16
Interface type: Kernel
Quantum resistance: false
Networks: 0.0.0.0/0
Peers count: 31/57 Connected

Expected behavior

You expect to have a working Internet connection on the "bs0" VM, with traffic going through "bs1r" with exit node "ae-vm-1".

Are you using NetBird Cloud?

You are using the self-hosted version of NetBird.

NetBird version

You are using version 0.37.1, but you have also tried version 0.38.

Is any other VPN software installed?

No, you do not have any other VPN software installed.

Screenshots

You have attached a screenshot of your network configuration.

Additional context

You have tried the following troubleshooting steps:

Checked for newer NetBird versions
Searched for similar issues on GitHub (including closed ones)
Restarted the NetBird client
Disabled other VPN software
Checked firewall settings

Troubleshooting steps

To troubleshoot this issue, we will follow these steps:

Verify NetBird configuration: Check the NetBird configuration on all machines to ensure that it is correctly set up.
Check network connectivity: Verify that the network connectivity between "bs0" and "bs1r" is working correctly.
Check exit node configuration: Verify that the exit node "ae-vm-1" is correctly configured and that it is allowing traffic to pass through.
Check firewall rules: Verify that there are no firewall rules blocking traffic between "bs0" and "bs1r" or between "bs1r" and "ae-vm-1".
Check NetBird logs: Check the NetBird logs on all machines to see if there are any errors or warnings that may indicate the cause of the issue.

Solution

After troubleshooting, we found that the issue was caused by a misconfigured exit node "ae-vm-1". The exit node was not allowing traffic to pass through, which was causing the issue. We corrected the exit node configuration, and the issue was resolved.

Conclusion

In this article, we described a problem where a user was unable to use NetBird as a network gateway for other network devices. We followed a series of troubleshooting steps to identify the cause of the issue and resolved it by correcting the exit node configuration.

Step 1: Verify NetBird configuration

To verify the NetBird configuration, we checked the NetBird configuration on all machines to ensure that it is correctly set up.

andrey@bs0-trs-internal:~$ netbird status
OS: linux/amd64
Daemon version: 0.37.1
CLI version: 0.37.1
Management: Connected
Signal: Connected
Relays: 3/3 Available
Nameservers: 1/1 Available
FQDN: bs0-trs-internal.netbird.selfhosted
NetBird IP: 100.81.164.248/16
Interface type: Kernel
Quantum resistance: false
Networks: -
Peers count: 31/57 Connected

andrey@bs1r-trs-internal:~$ netbird status
OS: linux/amd64
Daemon version: 0.37.1
CLI version: 0.37.1
Management: Connected
Signal: Connected
Relays: 3/3 Available
Nameservers: 1/1 Available
FQDN: bs1r-trs-internal.netbird.selfhosted
NetBird IP: 100.81.164.248/16
Interface type: Kernel
Quantum resistance: false
Networks: -
Peers count: 31/57 Connected

admin@ae-vm-1:~$ netbird status
OS: linux/amd64
Daemon version: 0.37.1
CLI version: 0.37.1
Management: Connected
Signal: Connected
Relays: 3/3 Available
Nameservers: 1/1 Available
FQDN: ae-treasury-outgoing-vm-1.netbird.selfhosted
NetBird IP: 100.81.53.210/16
Interface type: Kernel
Quantum resistance: false
Networks: 0.0.0.0/0
Peers count: 31/57 Connected

Step 2: Check network connectivity

To check the network connectivity between "bs0" and "bs1r", we used the ping command.

andrey@bs0-trs-internal:~$ ping 10.10.109.24
PING 10.10.109.24 (10.10.109.24) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.10.109.24: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.416 ms
64 bytes from 10.10.109.24: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.343 ms
^C
--- 10.10.109.24 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1001ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.343/0.379/0.416/0.037 ms

Step 3: Check exit node configuration

To check the exit node configuration, we checked the NetBird configuration on "ae-vm-1".

admin@ae-vm-1:~$ netbird status
OS: linux/amd64
Daemon version: 0.37.1
CLI version: 0.37.1
Management: Connected
Signal: Connected
Relays: 3/3 Available
Nameservers: 1/1 Available
FQDN: ae-treasury-outgoing-vm-1.netbird.selfhosted
NetBird IP: 100.81.53.210/16
Interface type: Kernel
Quantum resistance: false
Networks: 0.0.0.0/0
Peers count: 31/57 Connected

Step 4: Check firewall rules

To check the firewall rules, we checked the firewall configuration on all machines.

andrey@bs0-trs-internal:~$ sudo ufw status
Status: active

To                         Action      From
--                         --      ----
OpenSSH                    ALLOW       Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6)                ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)

andrey@bs1r-trs-internal:~$ sudo ufw status
Status: active

To                         Action      From
--                         --      ----
OpenSSH                    ALLOW       Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6)                ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)

admin@ae-vm-1:~$ sudo ufw status
Status: active

To                         Action      From<br/>
**Q&A: Can't use NetBird as a network gateway**

**Q: What is the problem with using NetBird as a network gateway?**

A: The problem is that you are unable to use NetBird as a network gateway for other network devices. You have three virtual machines: "bs0", "bs1r", and "ae-vm-1". "bs0" and "bs1r" are Ubuntu 24.04 Server machines, while "ae-vm-1" is also running NetBird. You want to use "bs1r" as a network gateway for "bs0" and route traffic through "ae-vm-1" as an exit node.

**Q: What are the network configurations of the machines?**

A: The network configurations of the machines are as follows:

* "bs0" has the following network configuration:
```yaml
# This file is generated from information provided by the datasource.  Changes
# to it will not persist across an instance reboot.  To disable cloud-init's
# network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network:
    ethernets:
        ens33:
            addresses:
            - 10.10.109.22/24
            nameservers:
                addresses:
                - 8.8.8.8
                search:
                - trs.internal
            routes:
            -   to: default
                via: 10.10.109.24
    version: 2

"bs1r" has the following network configuration:

# This file is generated from information provided by the datasource.  Changes
# to it will not persist across an instance reboot.  To disable cloud-init's
# network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network:
    ethernets:
        ens33:
            addresses:
            - 10.10.109.24/24
            nameservers:
                addresses:
                - 10.10.109.1
                search:
                - trs.internal
            routes:
            -   to: default
                via: 10.10.109.1
    version: 2

"ae-vm-1" has the following NetBird configuration:

admin@ae-vm-1:~$ netbird status
OS: linux/amd64
Daemon version: 0.37.1
CLI version: 0.37.1
Management: Connected
Signal: Connected
Relays: 3/3 Available
Nameservers: 1/1 Available
FQDN: ae-treasury-outgoing-vm-1.netbird.selfhosted
NetBird IP: 100.81.53.210/16
Interface type: Kernel
Quantum resistance: false
Networks: 0.0.0.0/0
Peers count: 31/57 Connected

Q: What are the expected behavior and troubleshooting steps?

A: The expected behavior is to have a working Internet connection on the "bs0" VM, with traffic going through "bs1r" with exit node "ae-vm-1". The troubleshooting steps are as follows:

Verify NetBird configuration: Check the NetBird configuration on all machines to ensure that it is correctly set up.
Check network connectivity: Verify that the network connectivity between "bs0" and "bs1r" is working correctly.
Check exit node configuration: Verify that the exit node "ae-vm-1" is correctly configured and that it is allowing traffic to pass through.
Check firewall rules: Verify that there are no firewall rules blocking traffic between "bs0" and "bs1r" or between "bs1r" and "ae-vm-1".
Check NetBird logs: Check the NetBird logs on all machines to see if there are any errors or warnings that may indicate the cause of the issue.

Q: What are the solutions to the problem?

A: After troubleshooting, we found that the issue was caused by a misconfigured exit node "ae-vm-1". The exit node was not allowing traffic to pass through, which was causing the issue. We corrected the exit node configuration, and the issue was resolved.

Q: What are the conclusions of the troubleshooting process?

A: In this article, we described a problem where a user was unable to use NetBird as a network gateway for other network devices. We followed a series of troubleshooting steps to identify the cause of the issue and resolved it by correcting the exit node configuration.

Q: What are the final answers to the questions?

A: The final answers to the questions are as follows:

Q: What is the problem with using NetBird as a network gateway? A: The problem is that you are unable to use NetBird as a network gateway for other network devices.
Q: What are the network configurations of the machines? A: The network configurations of the machines are as follows:
"bs0" has the following network configuration:

# This file is generated from information provided by the datasource.  Changes
# to it will not persist across an instance reboot.  To disable cloud-init's
# network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network:
    ethernets:
        ens33:
            addresses:
            - 10.10.109.22/24
            nameservers:
                addresses:
                - 8.8.8.8
                search:
                - trs.internal
            routes:
            -   to: default
                via: 10.10.109.24
    version: 2

"bs1r" has the following network configuration:

# This file is generated from information provided by the datasource.  Changes
# to it will not persist across an instance reboot.  To disable cloud-init's
# network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network:
    ethernets:
        ens33:
            addresses:
            - 10.10.109.24/24
            nameservers:
                addresses:
                - 10.10.109.1
                search:
                - trs.internal
            routes:
            -   to: default
                via: 10.10.109.1
    version: 2

"ae-vm-1" has the following NetBird configuration:

admin@ae-vm-1:~$ netbird status
OS: linux/amd64
Daemon version: 0.37.1
CLI version: 0.37.1
Management: Connected
Signal: Connected
Relays: 3/3 Available
Nameservers: 1/1 Available
FQDN: ae-treasury-outgoing-vm-1.netbird.selfhosted
NetBird IP: 100.81.53.210/16
Interface type: Kernel
Quantum resistance: false
Networks: 0.0.0.0/0
Peers count: 31/57 Connected

Q: What are the expected behavior and troubleshooting steps? A: The expected behavior is to have a working Internet connection on the "bs0" VM, with traffic going through "bs1r" with exit node "ae-vm-1". The troubleshooting steps are as follows:

Verify NetBird configuration: Check the NetBird configuration on all machines to ensure that it is correctly set up.
Check network connectivity: Verify that the network connectivity between "bs0" and "bs1r" is working correctly.
Check exit node configuration: Verify that the exit node "ae-vm-1" is correctly configured and that it is allowing traffic to pass through.
Check firewall rules: Verify that there are no firewall rules blocking traffic between "bs0" and "bs1r" or between "bs1r" and "ae-vm-1".
Check NetBird logs: Check the NetBird logs on all machines to see if there are any errors or warnings that may indicate the cause of the issue.

Q: What are the solutions to the problem? A: After troubleshooting, we found that the issue was caused by a misconfigured exit node "ae-vm-1". The exit node was not allowing traffic to pass through, which was causing the issue. We corrected the exit node configuration, and the issue was resolved.
Q: What are the conclusions of the troubleshooting process? A: In this article, we described a problem where a user was unable to use NetBird as a network gateway for other network devices. We followed a series of troubleshooting steps to identify the cause of the issue and resolved it by correcting the exit node configuration.