Tailscale funnel

[TOC]

Overview

Tailscale Funnel is an excellent, free way to bypass CGNAT and expose a local service to the public internet. It handles the reverse proxying, TLS certificate provisioning (via Let's Encrypt), and public DNS routing for you.

Steps

Phase 1: Prepare the Proxmox LXC (Enable TUN)

1. SSH into your Proxmox Host (do not enter the container yet).

2. Open the configuration file for your LXC container (ID 101):

   nano /etc/pve/lxc/101.conf
   

3. Update lxc container configuration file: add the following two lines to the bottom of the file. This passes the tun device from the host to the container (if you are on an older Proxmox 6 setup, use cgroup instead of cgroup2):

   lxc.cgroup2.devices.allow: c 10:200 rwm
   lxc.mount.entry: /dev/net/tun dev/net/tun none bind,create=file
   

4. Save and exit (Ctrl+X, Y, Enter), then restart the container to apply the changes:

   pct reboot 101
   

Phase 2: Install and Authenticate Tailscale

1. Enter your LXC container's console:

   pct enter 101
   

2. Install Tailscale using their automated script:

   curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
   

3. Start Tailscale:

   tailscale up
   

4. Click the link provided in the terminal to authenticate the BookStack node to your Tailscale account.

Phase 3: Enable Funnel in your Tailscale Admin Console

Tailscale disables public Funnels by default for security. You must authorize it in your Tailnet settings.

1. Go to the Tailscale Admin Console in your web browser.

2. Go to the DNS tab and ensure both MagicDNS and HTTPS Certificates are enabled.

3. Go to the Access Controls tab. Scroll down to the "nodeAttrs" section (or add it if it's missing) and grant the funnel attribute to your devices. It should look like this:

   "nodeAttrs": [
       {
           "target": ["autogroup:member"],
           "attr":   ["funnel"]
       }
   ],
   

4. Save the Access Controls.

Phase 4: Start the Tailscale Funnel

Back in your LXC container's terminal:

1. Determine the local port BookStack is running on (typically 80 if served via Nginx/Apache without local SSL).

2. Route public internet traffic to that local port, running the process in the background (--bg):

   tailscale funnel --bg 80
   

3. Check the status of your Funnel to get your new public web address:

   tailscale funnel status
   

[!NOTE] You will see an output with a URL like: https://your-node.tailnet-name.ts.net.

Phase 5: Update BookStack's Configuration

BookStack uses absolute URLs for CSS, images, and internal links. If you don't update BookStack to recognize its new public URL, the site will look broken and you won't be able to log in.

1. Navigate to your BookStack directory inside the container (usually /var/www/bookstack or /opt/bookstack).

2. Edit the .env configuration file:

   nano .env
   

3. Find the APP_URL variable and update it to exactly match your new Tailscale URL (make sure it starts with https:// and has no trailing slash):

   APP_URL=https://your-node.tailnet-name.ts.net
   

4. Save and exit, then clear BookStack's cache to force the changes:

   php artisan config:clear
   php artisan cache:clear
   

[!TIP] For a visual walkthrough of the container preparation steps, Configuring Tailscale on an unprivileged Proxmox LXC explains how the TUN device passthrough works under the hood.

FAQ

Customize tailscale funnel subdomain

You cannot change the subdomain inside Tailscale Funnel dynamically. Tailscale automatically generates the Funnel URL using the exact hostname of the machine (or LXC container) and your unique Tailscale network name (tailnet).

To change docker to something else (e.g., app.bee-custom.ts.net), you must change the hostname of the LXC container itself:

1. Log into your Proxmox Host (root@nuc).

2. Run this command to change the hostname (replace 100 with your container ID):

   pct set 100 --hostname your-new-name
   

3. Restart the container for Tailscale to pick up the new name:

   pct reboot 100
   

Running Multiple Funnels on the Same Machine

Tailscale allows you to route to multiple internal services on the same machine using two different methods

Method 1: Use Different Public Ports (Easiest)

Tailscale Funnel supports traffic incoming on ports 443, 8443, and 10000. You can run up to 3 distinct funnels simultaneously by mapping them to different public ports: [1, 8]

• Service 1 (Port 443 -> local 9000):

  tailscale funnel --bg --https=443 9000
  

• Service 2 (Port 8443 -> local 9001):

  tailscale funnel --bg --https=8443 9001
  

• Service 3 (Port 10000 -> local 9002):

  tailscale funnel --bg --https=10000 9002
  

Method 2: Use URL Paths (Best for Keeping Port 443) [6]

If you want everything on standard HTTPS (port 443), you can route multiple services using distinct URL sub-paths instead of port numbers:

tailscale funnel --bg --set-path=/app1 127.0.0.1:9000
tailscale funnel --bg --set-path=/app2 127.0.0.1:9001

[!NOTE] Ensure your web applications can handle sub-paths; some web apps assume they are always running at the root / path.