Install Tailscale on an AWS VM

You can install the Tailscale client on an AWS EC2 VM to connect it to your Tailscale network (known as a tailnet) and configure common features such as subnet routers, exit nodes, and app connectors.

Installation

1. (Optional) Go to the Keys page of the admin console and select Generate auth key to create an authentication key. This allows you to add the VM to the tailnet automatically without needing to manually authenticate using your credentials.

2. SSH into your EC2 VM.

3. Install Tailscale using the following command:

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

4. Start the Tailscale client using one of the following commands:

   • If you want to use an auth key, use the command sudo tailscale up --auth-key=foo where foo is they auth key string that you generated in the first step.
   • If you do not want to use an auth key, use the command sudo tailscale up, copy and paste the provided URL into your web browser, then authenticate to your tailnet with your credentials.

5. In the Machines page of the admin console, verify that the VM is connected to the tailnet. If the VM you added is a server, you may want to consider disabling key expiry to prevent the need to periodically re-authenticate.

Next steps

• SSH into your VM using Tailscale SSH.
• Advertise an exit node to route traffic in your tailnet.
• Use an existing exit node in your tailnet.
• Configure a subnet router to relay access in your network, including resources where Tailscale cannot be installed.
• Configure an app connector to route application-specific traffic from the tailnet through a selected device that serves as an app connector.