Server Groups

The GROUP environment variable filters the NordVPN server fleet by specialty. Each group is a separate set of servers with different capabilities. Only one group can be set at a time.

NordLynx only: this container connects with NordLynx (WireGuard). Server lookups are always filtered to NordLynx-capable servers. Groups that historically exist only for OpenVPN (e.g. Obfuscated / XOR) have no NordLynx servers — selecting them returns nothing and the container falls back to the recommended pool.

Quick Reference

Group	Identifier	Availability
Standard VPN servers	legacy_standard	All countries
P2P	legacy_p2p	Most countries
Double VPN	legacy_double_vpn	Limited country pairs
Onion Over VPN	legacy_onion_over_vpn	Very limited (NL, SE, CH)
Dedicated IP	legacy_dedicated_ip	Subscription-dependent
Anti DDoS	legacy_anti_ddos	Limited
Europe	europe	Regional
The Americas	the_americas	Regional
Asia Pacific	asia_pacific	Regional
Africa, the Middle East and India	africa_the_middle_east_and_india	Regional

You can also use the human-readable names (e.g., GROUP=Double VPN) or numeric IDs. The full list is in GROUPS.md.

When GROUP is not set, the API returns servers from the default recommended pool (equivalent to legacy_standard).

Standard VPN Servers (legacy_standard)

The default NordVPN fleet. General-purpose servers suitable for everyday use.

environment:
  # GROUP not needed — this is the default
  - COUNTRY=United States

Available in all countries and cities. This is what you get when GROUP is omitted.

P2P (legacy_p2p)

Servers optimized for peer-to-peer traffic. These allow the incoming connections that BitTorrent and other P2P protocols require.

environment:
  - GROUP=legacy_p2p
  - COUNTRY=Netherlands

Use when torrenting or file sharing. Available in most countries, though some countries where P2P is restricted by law may not have P2P servers.

Double VPN (legacy_double_vpn)

Traffic is routed through two VPN servers in different countries. Availability of NordLynx Double VPN servers is limited — if none are returned, the container falls back to the recommended pool.

environment:
  - GROUP=legacy_double_vpn

Server names show both countries (e.g., ca-us75 = Canada entry → United States exit). You can filter by COUNTRY to select the exit country, but only pre-defined country pairs are available.

Trade-offs

• Higher latency than standard servers (traffic traverses two hops)
• Lower throughput
• Not compatible with P2P traffic

Onion Over VPN (legacy_onion_over_vpn)

The VPN server routes your outbound traffic into the Tor network. No local Tor client is needed. Available in very few locations (Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland at time of writing).

environment:
  - GROUP=legacy_onion_over_vpn

Important: DNS configuration

Do not override DNS when using Onion Over VPN. The default NordVPN DNS servers (103.86.96.100, 103.86.99.100) route DNS queries through the Tor network. If you set DNS to external resolvers (e.g., Cloudflare 1.1.1.1), DNS queries will fail because Tor only carries TCP traffic and standard DNS uses UDP.

Trade-offs

• Significantly slower than standard or Double VPN (Tor adds multiple hops)
• Not compatible with P2P traffic
• Some websites block Tor exit nodes

Dedicated IP (legacy_dedicated_ip)

For NordVPN accounts with the Dedicated IP add-on. Provides a static IP address assigned exclusively to your account.

environment:
  - GROUP=legacy_dedicated_ip

The API returns Dedicated IP servers regardless of your subscription status, but you need an active Dedicated IP add-on on your NordVPN account to successfully use these servers.

When to use

• IP whitelisting for remote access
• Services that block shared VPN IP addresses
• When you need a consistent public IP

Anti DDoS (legacy_anti_ddos)

Servers with DDoS protection.

environment:
  - GROUP=legacy_anti_ddos

Useful for gaming or hosting services exposed through the VPN. This group may have limited server availability.

Regional Groups

Broad geographic filters that return servers from an entire region rather than a specific country.

Group	Identifier
Europe	europe
The Americas	the_americas
Asia Pacific	asia_pacific
Africa, the Middle East and India	africa_the_middle_east_and_india

environment:
  - GROUP=europe
  - RANDOM_TOP=10

Use when you don't need a specific country — just a region.

Combining with Other Parameters

GROUP is sent to the NordVPN API as an AND filter alongside other parameters. All filters must match for a server to be returned.

Parameter	Combines with GROUP?	Notes
COUNTRY	Yes	Servers must match both group and country
CITY	Yes	Servers must match both group and city
RANDOM_TOP	Yes	Applied after filtering — picks randomly from top N results

Restrictions

• One group at a time. The API accepts a single group filter. You cannot combine legacy_p2p with legacy_double_vpn, for example.
• NordLynx availability. Groups without NordLynx servers (e.g. Obfuscated/XOR) return nothing.
• Empty results. If the combination of GROUP + COUNTRY + CITY has no matching servers, the container falls back to default recommended servers (without the group filter).

Legacy and Internal Groups

The NordVPN API also lists groups that are not useful for this container:

Group	Reason
legacy_obfuscated_servers	XOR obfuscation — OpenVPN only, no NordLynx servers
legacy_ultra_fast_tv (ID 5)	Legacy streaming group — few or no servers
legacy_netflix_usa (ID 13)	Legacy streaming group — few or no servers
legacy_socks5_proxy (ID 245)	SOCKS5 protocol — not supported by this container
anycast-dns, geo_dns, grafana, kapacitor, fastnetmon	NordVPN internal infrastructure