Switching to Tailscale completely changed the vibe. Suddenly everything could talk to everything else, securely, easily and without the hub getting overwhelmed with switching.

Hub-and-Spoke Network (left) vs Full Mesh Network (right) | Joey Manani

The Old Setup: Hub-and-Spoke WireGuard

Hub-and-spoke basically means:

• Every network node establishes a WireGuard tunnel only to the central hub
• If two spokes want to talk, traffic must route through the hub
• The hub must handle all encryption + forwarding
• No peer-to-peer discovery; everything is statically configured
• Peers basically don't know of each other's existence

In practice, this meant:

• Devices on the same AP-Isolating LAN had to talk via the hub rather than directly on the LAN. AP-Isolation prevents LAN devices talking entirely (hello apartment Wi-Fi)
• Latency was… BAD

It works, but it’s very “manual oldschool energy.”

The Upgrade: Tailscale Full Mesh

Tailscale flips the entire model on its head. Instead of a rigid hub, you now get a full mesh overlay network:

• Every device is a WireGuard peer
  
• Peers discover each other automatically using DERP + magic DNS
  
• Connections become direct, peer-to-peer, and encrypted
  
• If NAT says “no :)“, Tailscale falls back to DERP relay without breaking anything
  
• No manual key management!

The coolest part?
It's still WireGuard under the hood – Tailscale just simplifies all of the annoying parts.

Why Full Mesh Is Better

1. Direct Peer-to-Peer Traffic

With Tailscale, remote servers are able to talk to the home server directly and not zigzag through a hub.

Result:

• Lower latency
• Lower CPU usage
• Faster file transfers
• Hub doesn't have to process the same thing twice

2. Automatic Key Management

WireGuard’s biggest pain point basically disappears.

Tailscale handles:

• Key distribution
  
• Key rotation
• Device onboarding
• Device removal
  
• Secure device signing
• Revocation

3. MagicDNS and Stable IPs

Every node gets a stable 100.x address plus a nice readable DNS name:

storage.tsxxxx.net
raspberrypi.tsxxxx.net
syncthing.tsxxxx.net

Even if I'm switching networks five times a day, nothing breaks and everything remains accessible.

4. DERP & NAT Traversal

If two nodes can't reach each other directly (i.e., via CGNAT or an aggressive firewall), Tailscale relays traffic via DERP.

Full mesh + fallback relay means the connection always exist and is very reliable.

5. No More Central Point of Failure

In hub-and-spoke, if the hub died, the entire VPN network died.

This happened once and the TFR network came to a standstill.

With Tailscale, one node disappearing affects only that node.

Huge stability upgrade.

How I Migrated

1. Removed my WireGuard hub config from all nodes

2. Installed Tailscale everywhere:

   • Home server
     
   • Remote servers
   • NAS
     
   • Laptop
     
   • Phone
     
   • Whatever else I needed

3. Enabled subnet routing for certain networks so local LANs are reachable

4. Turned on MagicDNS using my own internal DNS server including Ad and Tracker blocking

5. Sat back and enjoyed a network that Just Works™

Tailscale DNS | Joey Manani

Final Thoughts

Switching from a DIY hub-and-spoke WireGuard setup to Tailscale full mesh is gamechanging. Same fundamentals, wildly improved experience.

If you've got servers scattered across a few networks, this is the easiest quality-of-life network upgrade you can make.

Everything just works how I like it, and every device knows about each other.

#sysadmin #tailscale #networking #wireguard

What is Unix?

Unix is an operating system developed in the 1970s at Bell Labs. It was designed to be simple, stable, and highly portable, which made it a great choice for servers and professional environments. The original Unix code isn’t widely used anymore, but the Unix principles and standards heavily influenced the development of modern OSs. Unix's main characteristics include:

• File System Structure: Unix organises data in a hierarchical file system, starting at a root directory (/). Key directories like /bin, /usr, and /var have specific roles within the Unix system. Everything (including files, executables, devices, etc.) are organised in a tree structure.

• Command-Line Interface (CLI): Unix’s CLI allows users to interact directly with the system using commands like ls (list files) or grep (search text). Shells like Bash or Zsh make scripting and automation in Unix easy.

• Multi-User & Multi-Tasking: Unix supports multiple users and processes at once, making it ideal for server environments. Users can control processes and manage system resources directly.

• Permissions & Security: Unix systems have a robust permissions model. Each file or folder has specific permissions for the owner, group, and others, ensuring secure access control.

• Modularity: Unix follows the “do one thing and do it well” philosophy. Programs are small, focused, and can be combined using pipes (|) to create more complex actions.

What is POSIX?

POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) is a set of standards established to ensure compatibility across Unix systems. POSIX outlines how operating systems should handle core functions, so that software can run on any compliant system. Key components include:

• Standardised APIs: Defines common functions for programming, like reading/writing files, managing processes and handling input/output.

• Shell & Utilities: Specifies standard command-line tools like grep, ls, awk, and sed, and a default shell.

• File System: POSIX sets rules for how files should be stored and managed, including permission systems and directory structures.

POSIX compliance ensures that applications can run across different Unix systems (like Solaris or AIX) and Unix-like systems (like Linux or macOS) without needing major rewrites.

What is Linux?

Linux is a Unix-like operating system that follows many Unix principles but is not derived directly from Unix code. It’s an open-source OS created by Linus Torvalds in the early 1990s. Linux has since grown to power everything from servers to mobile devices. Its key features include:

• Open Source: Linux is free and open-source, meaning anyone can modify and distribute it. (See also: GNU)

• Versatile: Available in different “distributions” (like Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS and many more) tailored for specific use cases — desktop, server, or embedded systems.

• Wide Adoption: Linux powers most web servers, supercomputers, and many IoT devices, making it highly versatile and widely supported.

Why They Matter (tl;dr)

Unix set the foundation for modern operating systems, with POSIX ensuring consistency across them. Linux, while Unix-like, has evolved to become dominant for its adaptability and open-source model. Understanding these systems helps users navigate the world of servers, networking, and software development more effectively.

#blog #linux #comparison #sysadmin #joeymanani

That's the first word I posted to this blog to test if it worked. It does.

In the middle of 2022, I had the ambition to create a blog... From scratch. I had drawn out visual diagrams on how everything would work, listed the tools I would need, and the features I'd want. I still probably have this somewhere, just I can't be bothered looking for it.

Today, I was searching through the awesome-selfhosted website for some blogging solutions that I could just host myself, and get into writing straight away rather than building a full-scale solution from the ground up.

I found this one. It's called WriteFreely and I think it's pretty cool.

I was able to deploy this in about 10 minutes to already existing infrastructure. It was really easy to set up. It has a small CLI wizard that takes you through basic configuration, and it allows for reverse proxy-ing straight out of the box. Awesome.

After running Certbot, and adding a DNS record on Cloudflare, it was up. Of course, in my haste, I made a typo in my Nginx configuration file, and spelt the domain as “joeymnanani” instead of “joeymanani”. Luckily, I fixed this after I realised static files weren't loading.

Now, apparently, it supports Markdown, and if you don't know what that is, it allows me to do stuff like this:

📝 Hey, that's a Markdown feature...

It allows me to customize the post however I choose, allowing me to add text formatting, titles, hyperlinks or even images. I'm impressed.

Anyways, that's it from me I think. Stay tuned for more, probably...

Yours truly, Joey Manani

#tech #blog #joeymanani #sysadmin #writefreely