Setting Up WireGuard

Assuming you have a local node (i.e. block producer / validator client / local laptop) and remote node (i.e. relay node / beacon-chain node / VPS), this guide helps you secure and encrypt your network traffic between the two machines with WireGuard.
This greatly minimizes the chances that your local node is attacked and minimizes the attack surface of the remote node by not requiring you to open ports for services such as Grafana.
Only the remote node is public internet facing online and the local machine can access the remote node's internal services, such as Grafana.
​🐣
 Installing WireGuard
Linux Headers needs to be installed before WireGuard. Below you see the generic headers being installed.
local and remote node
sudo apt install linux-headers-generic
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wireguard/wireguard -y
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wireguard -y
In case of linux header problems, use the following instead.
sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Be aware this will require installing the headers again. Not restarting with the new linux-headers will prevent Wireguard network interface from functioning.
​🗝
 Setting Up Public/Private Key Pairs
On each node, to generate a public/private key type the following commands:
local and remote nodes
sudo su
​
cd /etc/wireguard
umask 077
wg genkey | tee wireguard-privatekey | wg pubkey > wireguard-publickey
​🤖
 Configuring WireGuard
Create a wg0.conf configuration file in /etc/wireguard directory.
Update your Private and Public Keys accordingly.
Change the Endpoint to your remote node public IP or DNS address.
Two Node Setup ( i.e. 1 block producer, 1 relay node)
local node
remote node
# local node WireGuard Configuration
[Interface]
# local node address
Address = 10.0.0.1/32
# local node private key
PrivateKey = <i.e. SJ6ygM3csa36...+pO4XW1QU0B2M=>
# local node wireguard listening port
ListenPort = 51820
​
# remote node
[Peer]
# remote node's publickey
PublicKey = <i.e. Rq7QEe2g3qIjDftMu...knBGS9mvJDCa4WQg=>
# remote node's public ip address or dns address
Endpoint = remotenode.mydomainname.com:51820
# remote node's interface address
AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.2/32
PersistentKeepalive = 21
# remote node WireGuard Configuration
[Interface]
Address = 10.0.0.2/32
PrivateKey = <i.e. cF3OjVhtKJAY/rQ...LFi7ASWg=>
ListenPort = 51820
​
# local node
[Peer]
# local node's public key
PublicKey = <i.e. rZLBzslvFtEJ...JdfX4XSwk=>
# local node's public ip address or dns address
Endpoint = localnodesIP-or-domain.com:51820
# local node's interface address
AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.1/32
PersistentKeepalive = 21
Triple Node Setup ( i.e. 1 block producer, 2 relay nodes)
local node
remote node 1
remote node 2
# local node WireGuard Configuration
[Interface]
# local node address
Address = 10.0.0.1/32
# local node private key
PrivateKey = <i.e. SJ6ygM3csa36...+pO4XW1QU0B2M=>
# local node wireguard listening port
ListenPort = 51820
​
# remote node 1 config
[Peer]
# remote node's publickey
PublicKey = <i.e. R11q7QEe2g3qIjDftMu...knBGdd2mvJDCaasde=>
# remote node's public ip address or dns address
Endpoint = remotenode1.mydomainname.com:51820
# remote node's interface address
AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.2/32
PersistentKeepalive = 21
​
# remote node 2 config
[Peer]
# remote node 2's publickey
PublicKey = <i.e. ESDd7QEe2g3qIjDftMu...knBGS9mvJDCa4WQg=>
# remote node 2's public ip address or dns address
Endpoint = remotenode2.mydomainname.com:51820
# remote node 2's interface address
AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.3/32
PersistentKeepalive = 21
# remote node 1's WireGuard Configuration
[Interface]
Address = 10.0.0.2/32
PrivateKey = <i.e. cF3OjVhtKJAY/rQ...LFi7ASWg=>
ListenPort = 51820
​
# local node config
[Peer]
PublicKey = <i.e. rZLBzslvFtEJ...knBGS9mvJDCa4WQg=>
Endpoint = localnodesIP-or-domain.com:51820
AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.1/32
PersistentKeepalive = 21
​
# remote node 2 config
[Peer]
PublicKey = <i.e. m2222zslvFtEJ...JdfX4XSwk=>
Endpoint = remotenode2.mydomainname.com:51820
AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.3/32
PersistentKeepalive = 21
# remote node WireGuard Configuration
[Interface]
Address = 10.0.0.3/32
PrivateKey = <i.e. 222jVhtKJAY/rQ...LFi7ASWg=>
ListenPort = 51820
​
# local node config
[Peer]
PublicKey = <i.e. rZLBzslvFtEJ...knBGS9mvJDCa4WQg=>
Endpoint = localnodesIP-or-domain.com:51820
AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.1/32
PersistentKeepalive = 21
​
# remote node 1 config
[Peer]
PublicKey = <i.e. R11q7QEe2g3qIjDftMu...knBGdd2mvJDCaasde=>
Endpoint = remotenode1.mydomainname.com:51820
AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.2/32
PersistentKeepalive = 21
​🧱
 Configuring Your Firewall / Port Forwarding
You must allow traffic on port 51820 UDP to your node.
To configure your firewall / port forwarding, type:
local node
remote nodes
sudo ufw allow 51820/udp
sudo ufw allow from 10.0.0.0/16 to any
# check the firewall rules
sudo ufw verbose
sudo ufw allow 51820/udp
sudo ufw allow from 10.0.0.0/16 to any
# check the firewall rules
sudo ufw verbose
​🔗
 Setting Up Autostart with systemd
Setup systemd on both your local node and remote node.
Add the service to systemd.
local and remote node
sudo systemctl enable [email protected]
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
Start wireguard.
local and remote node
sudo systemctl start [email protected]
Check the status.
local and remote node
sudo systemctl status [email protected]
​✅
 Verifying the Connection
Check the status of the interfaces by running wg
local and remote node
sudo wg
​
## Example Output
# interface: wg0
#  public key: rZLBzslvFtEJ...JdfX4XSwk=
#  private key: (hidden)
#  listening port: 51820
​
#peer:
#  endpoint: 12.34.56.78:51820
#  allowed ips: 10.0.0.2/32
#  latest handshake: 15 seconds ago
#  transfer: 500 KiB received, 900 KiB sent
#  persistent keepalive: every 21 seconds
Verify ping works between nodes.
local node
remote node
remote node 2
ping 10.0.0.2
​
# if triple node configuration
ping 10.0.0.3
ping 10.0.0.1
​
# if triple node configuration
ping 10.0.0.3
# if triple node configuration
ping 10.0.0.1
ping 10.0.0.2
Cardano
ETH
Cardano-specific Configuration
Update and/or review your topology.json file to ensure the "addr" matches this new tunneled IP address, and not the usual public node IP address.
Dual node setup
Example: topology.json on blockproducer
{ "addr": "10.0.0.2", "port": 6000, "valency": 1 },
topology.json on **relaynode1 **
{ "addr": "10.0.0.1", "port": 6000, "valency": 1 },
Triple node setup
Example: topology.json on blockproducer
{ "addr": "10.0.0.2", "port": 6000, "valency": 1 },
{ "addr": "10.0.0.3", "port": 6000, "valency": 1 },
topology.json on **relaynode1 **
{ "addr": "10.0.0.1", "port": 6000, "valency": 1 },
{ "addr": "10.0.0.3", "port": 6000, "valency": 1 },
topology.json on relaynode2
{ "addr": "10.0.0.1", "port": 6000, "valency": 1 },
{ "addr": "10.0.0.2", "port": 6000, "valency": 1 },
ETH Validator Specific Configuration
Update and/or review your validator's configuration and ensure it connects to the beacon-chain's new tunneled IP address, and not the usual public node IP address.
In this example, the beacon-chain is the remote node with IP address 10.0.0.2
To access Grafana from your local machine, enter into the browser http://10.0.0.2:3000
Wireguard setup is complete.
​🛑
 Stopping and Disabling WireGuard
To stop and disable WireGuard, type:
sudo systemctl stop [email protected]
sudo systemctl disable [email protected]
sudo systemctl daemon-reload