Automatic Reconnection

The container supports three reconnection mechanisms: scheduled switching, connection failure handling, and health monitoring.

Scheduled Reconnection

Use RECREATE_VPN_CRON to periodically switch to a different server. This uses standard cron syntax.

# Reconnect every 6 hours at minute 0
-e RECREATE_VPN_CRON="0 */6 * * *"

# Reconnect daily at 3 AM
-e RECREATE_VPN_CRON="0 3 * * *"

# Reconnect every 4 hours
-e RECREATE_VPN_CRON="0 */4 * * *"

When triggered, the cron job stops the svc-nordvpn service, which causes it to restart automatically. On restart, vpn-config re-fetches the server list and selects a new server based on current load.

Connection Failure Handling

WireGuard is a connectionless, "silent" protocol — there is no session that errors out when the path dies, so failures don't restart the service on their own. The generated config sets PersistentKeepalive = 25 to keep NAT mappings alive, but detecting a dead tunnel relies on health monitoring (below): when probes fail, the svc-nordvpn service is restarted and vpn-config selects a new server.

If you want servers rotated even without failures, combine health monitoring with scheduled reconnection (RECREATE_VPN_CRON).

Connection Health Monitoring

Use the CHECK_CONNECTION_* variables for active health probing:

-e CHECK_CONNECTION_CRON="*/5 * * * *"
-e CHECK_CONNECTION_URL="https://1.1.1.1;https://8.8.8.8"
-e CHECK_CONNECTION_ATTEMPTS=3
-e CHECK_CONNECTION_ATTEMPT_INTERVAL=10

Variable	Default	Description
CHECK_CONNECTION_CRON	Disabled	Cron schedule for health checks
CHECK_CONNECTION_URL	https://www.google.com	URLs to probe (semicolon-separated)
CHECK_CONNECTION_ATTEMPTS	5	Number of retry attempts
CHECK_CONNECTION_ATTEMPT_INTERVAL	10	Seconds between retries

Recommended Setup

For most users, combining scheduled reconnection with health monitoring provides robust connectivity:

environment:
  - RECREATE_VPN_CRON=0 */6 * * *           # Switch server every 6 hours
  - CHECK_CONNECTION_CRON=*/5 * * * *       # Check every 5 minutes
  - CHECK_CONNECTION_URL=https://1.1.1.1    # Fast, reliable endpoint
  - CHECK_CONNECTION_ATTEMPTS=3