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It's easy to get started, but the issues come mostly from managing that "just a config file" over time. Have a bunch of new nodes? Replacing a lighthouse? Revo
by JeremyNT 5y ago
It's easy to get started, but the issues come mostly from managing that "just a config file" over time.
Have a bunch of new nodes? Replacing a lighthouse? Revoking and replacing certs?
Here's a mistake that I made personally. Did you read the docs fully and realize that the default expiration for a CA is one year? The same is true for certificates. You need some kind of tooling to rotate certs every year, by default, or one day you'll find your entire overlay network disappears.
What about the ACL lists? Well, they're just stored in that same config file. What if you add a new service you didn't count on initially? Or you have a new class of clients?
What if your lighthouse needs to change its IP address? Or you need to retire and replace it outright?
And if you have hosts coming and going a lot, suddenly managing all those configuration files looks like quite a pain indeed...
None of this is unsolvable - assuming you have root on all the nodes you care about. You could even create tooling to automate these things with some kind of configuration management system (which indeed, if you are deploying to more than a handful of systems, you basically must do). But these pain points will eventually add up if you are just trying to connect to friends.
- discardedrefuse 5y agoJust FYI, when you create a CA cert or sign certs with nebula-cert you can specify a -duration. Which I know doesn't help you after the fact, but it might help someone going forward.
- JeremyNT 5y agoVery good to know! I did learn this and used 10 year certs/ca when my originals expired... as will presumably most of the other people who didn't fully grok the implications of the defaults :)
- rhuber 5y agoWe need to do a better job of this and I'm really sorry you had a not-great experience with expiration. Totally agree with your take.
- JeremyNT 4y agoI hope I don't come across as too negative! Sure I'd love to see some improvements here, and they would help adoption amongst hobbyists / home users, but I totally understand focusing on the features needed to make the business work first. The existing open source functionality for the overlay network itself is (for me) what's really exciting, and it's all there. The management limitations just keep me from evangelizing more broadly (outside of places like HN).