WireGuard VPN + Traefik Reverse Proxy Setup

Architecture

Internet → VPS → WireGuard tunnel → Home Server → Traefik → Containers

Files Structure

wireguard/
├── vps/
│   ├── wg0.conf          # WireGuard config for VPS
│   ├── setup.sh          # Setup script for VPS
│   └── ports.sh          # Iptables update script for new ports
├── home/
│   ├── docker-compose.yml
│   ├── wireguard-config/
│   │   └── wg0.conf      # WireGuard config for home
│   ├── traefik/
│   │   ├── traefik.yml   # Traefik static config
│   │   └── dynamic.yml   # Traefik dynamic config
└── README.md

Step 1: Setup VPS (Debian)

Copy the vps/ folder to your VPS
Run the setup script:
```
chmod +x setup.sh
sudo ./setup.sh
```
The script will output your VPS keys. Save them:
- VPS Private Key → put in vps/wg0.conf
- VPS Public Key → put in home/wireguard-config/wg0.conf
Copy the updated wg0.conf to /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf
Wait for Step 2 to get the home public key before starting WireGuard

Step 2: Setup Home Server (Arch)

Copy the home/ folder to your home server

Generate WireGuard keys:

wg genkey | tee privatekey | wg pubkey > publickey
cat privatekey  # → put in home/wireguard-config/wg0.conf
cat publickey   # → put in vps/wg0.conf on VPS

Edit home/wireguard-config/wg0.conf:
- Replace HOME_PRIVATE_KEY with your private key
- Replace VPS_PUBLIC_KEY with the VPS public key from Step 1
Start the containers:
```
docker compose up -d
```

Step 3: Finish VPS Setup

On VPS, edit /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf:
- Replace HOME_PUBLIC_KEY with your home server's public key
Start WireGuard:
```
sudo systemctl start wg-quick@wg0
```
Test the tunnel:
```
ping 10.0.0.2
```

Step 4: Point Your Domain to VPS

Create DNS A records pointing to your VPS IP:

exampledomain.com      → VPS_IP
*.exampledomain.com    → VPS_IP   (wildcard for subdomains)

Step 5: Configure connections to your Containers

Add Traefik configurations to dynamic.yml, the file comes with a simple example:

routers:
    example-app: #Define service name
        # Rules define the domain and/or subdomain you want to use
        rule: "Host(`exampledomain.com`) || Host(`subdomain.exampledomain.com`)"
        entryPoints:
            - web # use HTTP
            - websecure # use HTTPS
        example-app: blog

services:
    example-app: #Service name
        loadBalancer:
            servers:
                - url: "http://example-docker:80" #Docker IP/name and port to have DNS redirect to

See dynamic.yml for a complete example and use it for configuration.

Useful Commands

VPS

# Check WireGuard status
sudo wg show

# View iptables rules
sudo iptables -t nat -L -n -v

# Restart WireGuard
sudo systemctl restart wg-quick@wg0

Home Server

# View logs
docker compose logs -f

# Restart services
docker compose restart

# Check WireGuard status inside container
docker exec wireguard wg show

Troubleshooting

Tunnel not connecting

Check both public keys are correct
Ensure VPS firewall allows UDP 51820
Check PersistentKeepalive is set (for NAT traversal)

Traefik not getting certificates

Ensure port 80 is forwarded through VPS
Check DNS is pointing to VPS IP
View Traefik logs: docker compose logs traefik

Traffic not reaching home server

Test tunnel: ping 10.0.0.2 from VPS
Check iptables: sudo iptables -t nat -L PREROUTING -n -v
Ensure ip_forward is enabled: cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

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