Run netbird rootless and distroless from a single image.
NetBird combines a WireGuard-based overlay network with Zero Trust Network Access, providing a unified open source platform for reliable and secure connectivity. Create your own selfhosted ZTNA mesh network.
What can I do with this? This image will run netbird from a single image (not multiple) rootless and distroless for more security. Due to the nature of a single image and not multiple, you see in the compose.yaml example that an entrypoint: has been defined for each service. This image also needs some environment variables present in your .env file. This image's defaults (management.json) as well as the example .env are to be used with Keycloak as your IdP and Traefik as your reverse proxy. You can however provide your own management.json file and use any IdP you like and use a different reverse proxy.
The init binary management will replace all variables in the format ${VARIABLE} with all environment variables present in the service.
Why should I run this image and not the other image(s) that already exist? Good question! Because ...
Important
- ... this image runs rootless as 1000:1000
- ... this image has no shell since it is distroless
- ... this image is auto updated to the latest version via CI/CD
- ... this image has a health check
- ... this image runs read-only
- ... this image is automatically scanned for CVEs before and after publishing
- ... this image is created via a secure and pinned CI/CD process
- ... this image is very small
If you value security, simplicity and optimizations to the extreme, then this image might be for you.
Below you find a comparison between this image and the most used or original one.
| image | 11notes/netbird | netbirdio/* |
|---|---|---|
| image size on disk | 44.6MB | 377.9MB |
| process UID/GID | 1000/1000 | 0/0 |
| distroless? | ✅ | ❌ |
| rootless? | ✅ | ❌ |
- /netbird/etc - Directory of your management.json config
- /netbird/var - Directory of dynamic data from different init systems (relay, signal, management)
# postgres settings
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=
# netbird settings
NETBIRD_RELAY_SECRET=
NETBIRD_DATASTORE_ENCRYPTION_KEY=
NETBIRD_FQDN=netbird.domain.com
# Keycloak settings
KEYCLOAK_FQDN=keycloak.domain.com
KEYCLOAK_REALM=netbird
KEYCLOAK_CLIENT_SECRET=
# STUN/TURN configuration
STUN_FQDN_AND_PORT=turn.domain.com:5349
TURN_FQDN_AND_PORT=turn.domain.com:5349
TURN_SECRET=name: "netbird"
x-image-netbird: &image
image: "11notes/netbird:0.55.1"
read_only: true
services:
db:
image: "11notes/postgres:16"
read_only: true
environment:
TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
# make a full and compressed database backup each day at 03:00
POSTGRES_BACKUP_SCHEDULE: "0 3 * * *"
volumes:
- "db.etc:/postgres/etc"
- "db.var:/postgres/var"
- "db.backup:/postgres/backup"
tmpfs:
# needed for read-only
- "/postgres/run:uid=1000,gid=1000"
- "/postgres/log:uid=1000,gid=1000"
networks:
backend:
restart: "always"
dashboard:
<<: *image
environment:
NETBIRD_MGMT_API_ENDPOINT: "https://${NETBIRD_FQDN}"
NETBIRD_MGMT_GRPC_API_ENDPOINT: "https://${NETBIRD_FQDN}"
AUTH_AUDIENCE: "netbird-client"
AUTH_CLIENT_ID: "netbird-client"
AUTH_CLIENT_SECRET:
AUTH_AUTHORITY: "https://${KEYCLOAK_FQDN}/realms/${KEYCLOAK_REALM}"
USE_AUTH0: false
AUTH_SUPPORTED_SCOPES: "openid"
NETBIRD_TOKEN_SOURCE: "accessToken"
entrypoint: ["/usr/local/bin/dashboard"]
volumes:
- "dashboard.var:/nginx/var"
tmpfs:
- "/nginx/cache:uid=1000,gid=1000"
- "/nginx/run:uid=1000,gid=1000"
networks:
frontend:
ports:
- "3000:3000/tcp"
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD", "/usr/local/bin/curl", "-kILs", "--fail", "http://localhost:3000/ping"]
interval: 5s
timeout: 2s
start_period: 5s
restart: "always"
management:
depends_on:
db:
condition: "service_healthy"
restart: true
<<: *image
env_file: '.env'
environment:
TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
NETBIRD_STORE_ENGINE_POSTGRES_DSN: "host=db user=postgres password=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD} dbname=postgres port=5432"
NB_ACTIVITY_EVENT_STORE_ENGINE: "postgres"
NB_ACTIVITY_EVENT_POSTGRES_DSN: "host=db user=postgres password=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD} dbname=postgres port=5432"
entrypoint: ["/usr/local/bin/management"]
volumes:
- "management.etc:/netbird/etc"
- "management.var:/netbird/var"
networks:
frontend:
backend:
ports:
- "3080:80/tcp"
- "33073:33073/tcp"
sysctls:
net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start: 80
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD", "/usr/local/bin/curl", "-kILs", "--fail", "http://localhost:9090/metrics"]
interval: 5s
timeout: 2s
start_period: 5s
restart: "always"
signal:
<<: *image
environment:
TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
entrypoint: ["/usr/local/bin/signal"]
command: [
"run",
"--log-file", "console",
"--log-level", "info"
]
volumes:
- "signal.var:/netbird/var"
networks:
frontend:
ports:
- "10000:10000/tcp"
restart: "always"
relay:
<<: *image
environment:
TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
NB_LISTEN_ADDRESS: ":33080"
NB_EXPOSED_ADDRESS: "rels://${NETBIRD_FQDN}:443"
NB_AUTH_SECRET: ${NETBIRD_RELAY_SECRET}
entrypoint: ["/usr/local/bin/relay"]
networks:
frontend:
ports:
- "33080:33080/tcp"
restart: "always"
volumes:
management.etc:
management.var:
dashboard.var:
signal.var:
db.etc:
db.var:
db.backup:
networks:
frontend:
backend:
internal: true| Parameter | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
user |
docker | user name |
uid |
1000 | user identifier |
gid |
1000 | group identifier |
home |
/netbird | home directory of user docker |
| Parameter | Value | Default |
|---|---|---|
TZ |
Time Zone | |
DEBUG |
Will activate debug option for container image and app (if available) |
These are the main tags for the image. There is also a tag for each commit and its shorthand sha256 value.
It is of my opinion that the :latest tag is dangerous. Many times, I’ve introduced breaking changes to my images. This would have messed up everything for some people. If you don’t want to change the tag to the latest semver, simply use the short versions of semver. Instead of using :0.55.1 you can use :0 or :0.55. Since on each new version these tags are updated to the latest version of the software, using them is identical to using :latest but at least fixed to a major or minor version.
If you still insist on having the bleeding edge release of this app, simply use the :rolling tag, but be warned! You will get the latest version of the app instantly, regardless of breaking changes or security issues or what so ever. You do this at your own risk!
docker pull 11notes/netbird:0.55.1
docker pull ghcr.io/11notes/netbird:0.55.1
docker pull quay.io/11notes/netbird:0.55.1
Important
This image is not based on another image but uses scratch as the starting layer. The image consists of the following distroless layers that were added:
- 11notes/distroless:curl - app to execute HTTP requests
- 11notes/distroless:nginx
Tip
- Use a reverse proxy like Traefik, Nginx, HAproxy to terminate TLS and to protect your endpoints
- Use Let’s Encrypt DNS-01 challenge to obtain valid SSL certificates for your services
Caution
- Because this image is distroless, it only works with PostgreSQL, not SQLite. The GeoLocation middleware is also disabled because of this!
This image is provided to you at your own risk. Always make backups before updating an image to a different version. Check the releases for breaking changes. If you have any problems with using this image simply raise an issue, thanks. If you have a question or inputs please create a new discussion instead of an issue. You can find all my other repositories on github.
created 21.08.2025, 07:52:39 (CET)
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