Follow through this tutorial to learn how to install WireGuard VPN server on Rocky Linux. According wireguard.com, WireGuard® is an extremely simple yet fast and modern VPN that utilizes state-of-the-art cryptography. It aims to be faster, simpler, leaner, and more useful than IPsec, while avoiding the massive headache. It intends to be considerably more performant than OpenVPN. It is currently under heavy development, but already it might be regarded as the most secure, easiest to use, and simplest VPN solution in the industry.
Table of Contents
Installing WireGuard VPN Server on Rocky Linux
Install EPEL Repos
WireGuard packages are not available on the default Rocky Linux repositories. To install them, you need EPEL repositories.
dnf install epel-release -yInstall ELRepo RPM repository
ELRepo RPM repository provides some of the required WireGuard Modules. You can install ELRepo rpm repository by running the command below;
dnf install elrepo-release -yInstall WireGuard VPN Server
To install WireGuard and the required modules, run the command below;
yum install kmod-wireguard wireguard-toolsSample output;
Dependencies resolved.
============================================================================================================================================================================
Package Architecture Version Repository Size
============================================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
kmod-wireguard x86_64 4:1.0.20210606-1.el8_4.elrepo elrepo 110 k
wireguard-tools x86_64 1.0.20210424-1.el8 epel 125 k
Transaction Summary
============================================================================================================================================================================
Install 2 Packages
Total download size: 235 k
Installed size: 641 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
The command installs two WireGuard VPN utilities:
- wg: is the configuration utility for getting and setting the configuration of WireGuard tunnel interfaces.
wg-quick: Use to set up a WireGuard interface. Refer toman wg-quick.
Configuring WireGuard VPN Server on Rocky Linux 8
Once the installation is done, you can now proceed to configure WireGuard VPN server on Rocky Linux 8.
Create WireGuard Configuration Directory
WireGuard dont create any configuration files by default. So first off, create WireGuard configuration directory;
mkdir /etc/wireguardGenerate WireGuard Private/Public Keys
Next, you need to generate WireGuard based64-encoded private and public keys.
Generate WireGuard Private Keys
Private keys can be generated using wg genkey command as follows:
umask 077wg genkeyThe command will print the private key to stdout. To write to a file, simply run;
wg genkey > /etc/wireguard/wireguard.key
Generate WireGuard Public Keys
Public keys can be generated from the privates using wg pubkey command. The command similarly prints the key to standard output;
wg pubkey < /etc/wireguard/wireguard.keyTo write to a file;
wg pubkey < /etc/wireguard/wireguard.key > /etc/wireguard/wireguard.pub.keyGenerate Both Private and Public Key at Once
You can run the command below to genereate WireGuard private key and public key at the same time;
wg genkey | tee /etc/wireguard/wireguard.key | wg pubkey > /etc/wireguard/wireguard.pub.keyBelow are the contents of my private and public keys;
cat /etc/wireguard/wireguard.keycPjxCJPn6YRZQh4wn4jN2LAPlYOjT2b4v0N+qsu5+1U=cat /etc/wireguard/wireguard.pub.key60UScq0EQ7ZHXIdHcOnjFYK6N/TLtmtPGTBqLwLd0WY=Generate WireGuard Server Configuration File
Once that is done, you can now generate WireGuard configuration file, /etc/wireguard/INTERFACE.conf.
Recommended INTERFACE names include ‘wg0’ or ‘wgvpn0’ or even ‘wgmgmtlan0’. However, the number at the end is in fact optional, and really any free-form string [a-zA-Z0-9_=+.-]{1,15} will work. So even interface names corresponding to geographic locations would suffice, such as ‘cincinnati’, ‘nyc’, or ‘paris’, if that’s somehow desirable.
You can simply run the command below to create a config file, named, /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf.
Be sure to replace the private key accordingly.
cat > /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf << 'EOL'
[Interface]
Address = 10.8.0.1/24
SaveConfig = true
ListenPort = 51820
DNS = 8.8.8.8,10.8.0.1
PrivateKey = cPjxCJPn6YRZQh4wn4jN2LAPlYOjT2b4v0N+qsu5+1U=
PostUp = firewall-cmd --add-port=51820/udp; firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-masquerade; firewall-cmd --direct --add-rule ipv4 filter FORWARD 0 -i wg0 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT; firewall-cmd --direct --add-rule ipv4 nat POSTROUTING 0 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
PostDown = firewall-cmd --remove-port=51820/udp; firewall-cmd --zone=public --remove-masquerade; firewall-cmd --direct --remove-rule ipv4 filter FORWARD 0 -i wg0 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT; firewall-cmd --direct --remove-rule ipv4 nat POSTROUTING 0 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
EOL
You can get explanation of the configuration options from man wg-quick.
- Address: a comma-separated list of IP (v4 or v6) addresses (optionally with CIDR masks) to be assigned to the interface. May be specified multiple
times. - ListenPort: WireGuard starts at 51820/UDP by default. However, you can choose any free higher range port.
- DNS : a comma-separated list of IP (v4 or v6) addresses to be set as the interface’s DNS servers, or non-IP hostnames to be set as the interface’s DNS search domains. May be specified multiple times.
- PrivateKey: The key extracted from the Private key file created above, /etc/wireguard/wireguard.key
- PostUp, PostDown: script snippets which will be executed before/after setting up/tearing down the interface, most commonly used to configure custom DNS options or firewall rules.
- SaveConfig: if set to ‘true’, the configuration is saved from the current state of the interface upon shutdown. Any changes made to the configuration file before the interface is removed will therefore be overwritten.
Enable IP Forwarding on WireGuard VPN Server
To route packets between VPN clients, you need to enable Kernel IP forwarding by simply running the command below:
echo "net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1" >> /etc/sysctl.confReload sysctl settings
sysctl -pRunning WireGuard VPN Server
You can run WireGuard by bringing up the WireGuard VPN server interface using the wg-quick command or by using systemd service.
To use wg-quick command to bring up the interface.
wg-quick up wg0Sample command output;
[#] ip link add wg0 type wireguard
[#] wg setconf wg0 /dev/fd/63
[#] ip -4 address add 10.8.0.1/24 dev wg0
[#] ip link set mtu 1420 up dev wg0
[#] firewall-cmd --add-port=51820/udp; firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-masquerade; firewall-cmd --direct --add-rule ipv4 filter FORWARD 0 -i wg0 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT; firewall-cmd --direct --add-rule ipv4 nat POSTROUTING 0 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
success
success
success
success
Checking the wg0 interface details:
ip add show wg05: wg0: <POINTOPOINT,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1420 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/none
inet 10.8.0.1/24 scope global wg0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft foreverListing Firewall rules on an active interface;
firewall-cmd --list-allpublic
target: default
icmp-block-inversion: no
interfaces:
sources:
services: dhcpv6-client ssh
ports: 51820/udp
protocols:
masquerade: yes
forward-ports:
source-ports:
icmp-blocks:
rich rules:
To use systemd service to manage WireGuard, simply run the command below to start it.
systemctl start wg-quick@wg0To check the status;
systemctl status wg-quick@wg0● [email protected] - WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg0
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/[email protected]; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (exited) since Sat 2021-07-03 21:24:49 EAT; 1h 5min ago
Docs: man:wg-quick(8)
man:wg(8)
https://www.wireguard.com/
https://www.wireguard.com/quickstart/
https://git.zx2c4.com/wireguard-tools/about/src/man/wg-quick.8
https://git.zx2c4.com/wireguard-tools/about/src/man/wg.8
Process: 5304 ExecStop=/usr/bin/wg-quick down wg0 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 5337 ExecStart=/usr/bin/wg-quick up wg0 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 5337 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Jul 03 21:24:47 elk.kifarunix-demo.com systemd[1]: Starting WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg0...
Jul 03 21:24:47 elk.kifarunix-demo.com wg-quick[5337]: [#] ip link add wg0 type wireguard
Jul 03 21:24:47 elk.kifarunix-demo.com wg-quick[5337]: [#] wg setconf wg0 /dev/fd/63
Jul 03 21:24:47 elk.kifarunix-demo.com wg-quick[5337]: [#] ip -4 address add 10.8.0.1/24 dev wg0
Jul 03 21:24:47 elk.kifarunix-demo.com wg-quick[5337]: [#] ip link set mtu 1420 up dev wg0
Jul 03 21:24:47 elk.kifarunix-demo.com wg-quick[5337]: [#] firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port 51820/udp --permanent;firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-masquerade --perman>
Jul 03 21:24:48 elk.kifarunix-demo.com wg-quick[5337]: success
Jul 03 21:24:48 elk.kifarunix-demo.com wg-quick[5337]: success
Jul 03 21:24:49 elk.kifarunix-demo.com wg-quick[5337]: success
Jul 03 21:24:49 elk.kifarunix-demo.com systemd[1]: Started WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg0.
To enable it to run on boot;
systemctl enable wg-quick@wg0To stop the WireGuard VPN, run;
wg-quick down wg0Or
systemctl stop wg-quick@wg0Configure WireGuard VPN Clients
Once the server is setup, you can now proceed to configure WireGuard VPN clients.
Generate WireGuard VPN Clients Private/Public Keys
To begin with, you need to generate the clients keys. You can use the same command as used above while generating the keys for the server.
The command below generates keys for our three test servers.
for i in ubuntu debian rocky8; do wg genkey | tee /etc/wireguard/$i.key | wg pubkey > /etc/wireguard/$i.pub.key; donels -1 /etc/wireguarddebian.key
debian.pub.key
rocky8.key
rocky8.pub.key
ubuntu.key
ubuntu.pub.key
wg0.conf
wireguard.key
wireguard.pub.key
Checking the contents of each keys;
cat /etc/wireguard/debian.key /etc/wireguard/debian.pub.keyUMXEH1lTn7OF+fgBswsdDJU6NAu7N5or43FPWP1EyWY=
YitAHwAT+8Z6JR8iWBRzCdD3uXEujkT8uftOMWnBqjw=cat /etc/wireguard/ubuntu.key /etc/wireguard/ubuntu.pub.keyqJ2Sczxh8QWO5ZHlN+zZ4IaaMzmnMtgITLfQ0cam82M=
CcBg7ik7RnXkNSabIY8fjeZqoNOWUu6PfMwH6MmLGl4=cat /etc/wireguard/rocky8.key /etc/wireguard/rocky8.pub.keykIn6rA7W9MbGdZxRtziFN1DCJsqCi/hAdwhyH76cyU4=
0yjtKHIH2SCZwuA6j0EboagraEdWHWZH++QxM4hWAgs=Next, you need to add the client peer settings in the WireGuard VPN Server configuration file as shown below. Be sure to replace the Public Keys for the respective clients accordingly.
cat >> /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf << 'EOL'
[Peer]
PublicKey = CcBg7ik7RnXkNSabIY8fjeZqoNOWUu6PfMwH6MmLGl4=
AllowedIPs = 10.8.0.10
[Peer]
PublicKey = YitAHwAT+8Z6JR8iWBRzCdD3uXEujkT8uftOMWnBqjw=
AllowedIPs = 10.8.0.20
[Peer]
PublicKey = 0yjtKHIH2SCZwuA6j0EboagraEdWHWZH++QxM4hWAgs=
AllowedIPs = 10.8.0.30
EOL
Our WireGuard VPN server configuration file now looks like;
cat /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf[Interface]
Address = 10.8.0.1/24
SaveConfig = true
PostUp = firewall-cmd --add-port=51820/udp; firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-masquerade; firewall-cmd --direct --add-rule ipv4 filter FORWARD 0 -i wg0 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT; firewall-cmd --direct --add-rule ipv4 nat POSTROUTING 0 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
PostDown = firewall-cmd --remove-port=51820/udp; firewall-cmd --zone=public --remove-masquerade; firewall-cmd --direct --remove-rule ipv4 filter FORWARD 0 -i wg0 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT; firewall-cmd --direct --remove-rule ipv4 nat POSTROUTING 0 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
ListenPort = 51820
PrivateKey = cPjxCJPn6YRZQh4wn4jN2LAPlYOjT2b4v0N+qsu5+1U=
[Peer]
PublicKey = CcBg7ik7RnXkNSabIY8fjeZqoNOWUu6PfMwH6MmLGl4=
AllowedIPs = 10.8.0.10
[Peer]
PublicKey = YitAHwAT+8Z6JR8iWBRzCdD3uXEujkT8uftOMWnBqjw=
AllowedIPs = 10.8.0.20
[Peer]
PublicKey = 0yjtKHIH2SCZwuA6j0EboagraEdWHWZH++QxM4hWAgs=
AllowedIPs = 10.8.0.30
Reload WireGuard;
wg syncconf wg0 <(wg-quick strip wg0)Install and Setup WireGuard VPN Client on Rocky Linux 8/Ubuntu/Debian
Follow the link below to learn how to install and setup WireGuard VPN clients.
Install WireGuard VPN Client on Rocky Linux/Ubuntu/Debian
That concludes our guide on how to install WireGuard VPN Server.
Read more on WireGuard page.
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