artis3n.tailscale

This role initializes a Tailscale node. If Tailscale is already installed, this role will update Tailscale to the latest version.

Supported operating systems:

• Debian / Ubuntu
• CentOS / RedHat
• Rocky Linux / AlmaLinux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Oracle Linux
• Fedora
• Arch Linux
• Raspbian (untested but should work through Debian support)

See the CI worfklow for the list of distribution versions actively tested in each pull request.

This role uses Ansible fully qualified collection names (FQCN) and therefore requires Ansible 2.11+. Ansible 2.12 is set as the minimum required version as this was the version tested for compatibility during the FQCN refactor.

V3 Breaking Changes

• tailscale_auth_key is now tailscale_authkey
• insecurely_log_auth_key is now insecurely_log_authkey
• force is no longer a role variable

State Tracking

This role will create a .artis3n-tailscale directory in the target's home directory in order to maintain a concept of state from the configuration of the arguments passed to tailscale up. This allows the role to idempotently update a Tailscale node's configuration when needed. Deleting this directory will lead to this role re-configuring Tailscale when it is not needed, but will not otherwise break anything. However, it is recommended that you let this Ansible role manage this directory and its contents.

Note that:

Flags are not persisted between runs; you must specify all flags each time.

...

In Tailscale v1.8 or greater, if you forget to specify a flag you added before, the CLI will warn you and provide a copyable command that includes all existing flags.

docs: tailscale up

This role will bubble up any stderr messages from the Tailscale binary to resolve any end-user configuration errors with tailscale up arguments. The --authkey= value will be redacted unless insecurely_log_authkey is set to true.

Role Variables

Required

One of tailscale_authkey or tailscale_up_skip must be present. In most cases you will use tailscale_authkey.

tailscale_authkey

Is not required if tailscale_up_skip is set to true.

A Tailscale Node Authorization auth key.

A Node Authorization auth key can be generated under your Tailscale account at https://login.tailscale.com/admin/authkeys. Note that reusable authorization keys now expire 90 days after they are generated.

This value should be treated as a sensitive secret. You are encouraged to use ansible-vault to encrypt this value in your playbook.

tailscale_up_skip

If set to true, tailscale_authkey is not required.

Default: false

Whether to install and configure Tailscale as a service but skip running tailscale up. Helpful when packaging up a Tailscale installation into a build process such as AMI creation when the server should not yet authenticate to your Tailscale network.

Optional

insecurely_log_authkey

Default: false

If set to true, the "Bring Tailscale Up" command will include the raw value of the Tailscale authkey when logging any errors encountered during tailscale up. The authkey is not logged in successful task completions and is redacted in the stderr output by this role if an error occurs.

If you are encountering an error bringing Tailscale up and want the "Bring Tailscale Up" task to not redact the value of the authkey, set this variable to true.

If the authkey is invalid, the role will relay Tailscale's error message on that fact:

release_stability

Default: stable

Whether to use the Tailscale stable or unstable track.

stable:

Stable releases. If you're not sure which track to use, pick this one.

unstable:

The bleeding edge. Pushed early and often. Expect rough edges!

tailscale_args

Pass any additional command-line arguments to tailscale up.

Note that this parameter's contents will be wrapped in quotes to prevent command expansion. The command module is used, which does not support subshell expressions ($()) or bash operations like ; and & in any case. Only tailscale up arguments can be passed in.

Do not use this for --authkey. Use the tailscale_authkey variable instead.

Any stdout/stderr output from the tailscale binary will be printed. Since the tasks move quickly in this section, a 5 second pause is introduced to grant more time for users to realize a message was printed.

Stderrs will continue to fail the role's execution. The sensitive --authkey value will be redacted by default. If you need to view the unredacted value, see insecurely_log_authkey.

verbose

Default: false

Whether to output additional information during role execution. Helpful for debugging and collecting information to submit in a GitHub issue on this repository.

Dependencies

Collections

• community.general

Example Playbook

- name: Servers
  hosts: all
  roles:
    - role: artis3n.tailscale
      vars:
        # Fake example encrypted by ansible-vault
        tailscale_authkey: !vault |
          $ANSIBLE_VAULT;1.2;AES256;tailscale
          32616238303134343065613038383933333733383765653166346564363332343761653761646363
          6637666565626333333664363739613366363461313063640a613330393062323161636235383936
          37373734653036613133613533376139383138613164323661386362376335316364653037353631
          6539646561373535610a643334396234396332376431326565383432626232383131303131363362
          3537

Pass arbitrary command-line arguments:

- name: Servers
  hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Get AZ subnets
      ec2_vpc_subnet_facts:
        region: "{{ placement.region }}"
        filters:
          vpc-id: "{{ vpc_id }}"
          availability-zone: "{{ placement.availability_zone }}"
      register: subnet_info

    - name: Set Subnet list
      set_fact:
        subnet_blocks: "{{ subnet_info.subnets | map(attribute='cidr_block') | list  }}"

    - name: Configure Sysctl
      sysctl:
        name: net.ipv4.ip_forward
        value: 1
        state: present
        ignoreerrors: true
        sysctl_set: true

    - name: Iptables Masquerade
      iptables:
        table: nat
        chain: POSTROUTING
        jump: MASQUERADE

    - name: Configure Tailscale
      include_role:
        name: artis3n.tailscale
      vars:
        tailscale_args: "--accept-routes=false --advertise-routes={{ subnet_blocks | join(',') }}"
        # Pulled from the env vars on the host running Ansible
        tailscale_authkey: "{{ lookup('env', 'TAILSCALE_KEY') }}"

Get verbose output:

- name: Servers
  hosts: all
  roles:
    - role: artis3n.tailscale
      vars:
        verbose: true
        # Pulled from the env vars on the host running Ansible
        tailscale_authkey: "{{ lookup('env', 'TAILSCALE_KEY') }}"

Install Tailscale, but don't authenticate to the network:

- name: Servers
  hosts: all
  roles:
    - role: artis3n.tailscale
      vars:
        tailscale_up_skip: true

License

MIT

Author Information

Ari Kalfus (@artis3n) dev@artis3nal.com

Development and Contributing

This GitHub repository uses a dedicated "test" Tailscale account to authenticate Tailscale during CI runs. Each Docker container creates a new authorized machine in that test account. The machines are authorized with ephemeral auth keys and are automatically cleaned up within 30 minutes-48 hours.

This value is stored in a GitHub Action secret with the name TAILSCALE_CI_KEY. If you are interested in contributing to this repository, you must create a Tailscale account and generate a Node Authorization ephemeral auth key. Fork this repo and add an ephemeral auth key to the fork's secrets under the name TAILSCALE_CI_KEY.

To test this role locally, store the Tailscale ephemeral auth key in a TAILSCALE_CI_KEY env var.

If you are a Collaborator on this repository, you can open a GitHub Codespace and the TAILSCALE_CI_KEY will be populated for you.

molecule scenario: state

Note: the -s state scenario intentionally fails during execution to demonstrate correct error throwing with inconsistent state scenarios. Not sure how to turn that into a stable test scenario yet. It can be run via make test-state but is excluded from the GitHub Action CI workflow for now. The idempotency step will definitely need to go.