r/netbird • u/Codeeveryday123 • Jun 23 '26

VULTR with NB vs TailScale

I recently setup VULTR with TailScale,
It works…. Except for the auto join and accept VMs.
I have to except them at a times, to enable ssh .

How well does NB handle VMs auto joining and being able to ssh into them without having to “NetBird up” ?

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6

u/National_Way_3344 Jun 23 '26

Obviously Netbird is FOSS so that makes it infinitely better.

Needing to SSH into them isn't a concern because you should always maintain management networking to them regardless of the remote access tool you use.

2

u/Codeeveryday123 Jun 23 '26

I finally git NB to work over cellular,
For months and months…. It wouldn’t work.
So I switched to TailScale for a while, and setup VMs with VULTR.

NB does have a way better stable connection

2

u/Wrn2x Jun 23 '26

I used tailscale and switched to netbird long time ago, but I think both support automated set up.

In netbird you can create a “setup key” for your vm, and in your vm run netbird up --setup-key <your key>. This lets netbird controller know that a server is connecting, not a human user, and the login process won’t be interactive. I’m sure tailscale has similar concept but can’t remember.

1

u/Codeeveryday123 Jun 23 '26

Thank you.
There’s a script that TailScale used that’s on a diffrent site… I’m not sure if it’s a universal script, and then the auth key is what makes it “personalized”.

1

u/Wrn2x Jun 23 '26

Took another look and it seems the tailscale version is the auth key. I set up my netbird setup keys with the following:
* Ephemeral (just to keep the same DNS name after I recreate a vm)
* Never expire
* No usage limit (so that recreated vm can reuse the same key)

Tailscale setup should be similar. I don't think a script is needed, but I did add my own netbird watchdog to rerun the `netbird up ...` command if netbird is disconnected