I have multiple Ubuntu 24.04 instances hosted at DO. I have setup a Netbird infrastructure and added the public addresses of my DO droplets. I can connect to them without problems from the Internet.
I would like to configure the droplets so that when the communicate between themselves the VPN link will use the Private network provided by DO.
I have tried adding routes but this was not successful:
ip add route netbird_address via remote_droplet_private_address
Is it possible to achieve my goal?
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Accepted Answer
Heya, @robert429b8ca91
Yes, this should be doable. Add a route to direct traffic for Netbird addresses through the private DO network. For example:
sudo ip route add <Netbird_Address> via <Private_IP_of_Target_Droplet>
-
Replace
<Netbird_Address>with the VPN address of the remote droplet and<Private_IP_of_Target_Droplet>with its private IP. -
If your Netbird setup includes a default route (e.g., 0.0.0.0/0 via the VPN), this may override your private network routing. To avoid conflicts:
-
Exclude the DO private network range (e.g.,
10.0.0.0/8) from Netbird’s default route. -
Update your Netbird configuration to include specific routes for other network traffic.
-
Ping the private IPs of your droplets to confirm that inter-droplet communication uses the private network:
ping <Private_IP_of_Remote_Droplet>
- Use
tracerouteto check the path taken by packets:
traceroute <Netbird_Address>
You can then temporarily disable the Netbird VPN or private network on one droplet to ensure the fallback to the appropriate route.
Hope that this helps!
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