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nylon docs

Getting Started

This guide will walk you through setting up a basic nylon network with two nodes.

graph LR
    node1(node-1<br/>10.0.0.1) <--> node2(node-2<br/>10.0.0.2)

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • Two machines with UDP port 57175 open (can configure with a different port).
  • The nylon binary downloaded on both machines from the releases page.

  1. Generate Keypairs

    Section titled “Generate Keypairs”

    On each node, generate a WireGuard keypair:

    Terminal window
    nylon key

    This will output two keys (example):

    kPoLiC4+Nh9AoQGiBmJTh+8BUqCMsa6Zdr4M0Xz5bX0=
    9Z1HGi7eip6GdQezqy3Vc7Er76ZgTfryda9wvHUgWzk=

    The first key (stdout) is your private key, and the second key (stderr) is your public key. Keep the private key safe, and note down the public key for the next step.

  2. Create Node Configuration

    Section titled “Create Node Configuration”

    On each node, create a node.yaml file. Replace <YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY> with the private key generated in step 1.

    node.yaml
    id: node-1 # Give each node a unique ID (e.g., node-1, node-2)
    key: <YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY>
    port: 57175

  3. Create Central Configuration

    Section titled “Create Central Configuration”

    The central.yaml file defines the topology of your network. Create one file and share it across all nodes.

    central.yaml
    routers:
      - id: node-1
        pubkey: <NODE_1_PUBLIC_KEY>
        endpoints:
          - "node1.example.com:57175" # could be a domain name
          - "192.168.1.2:57175" # could be a local ip
        addresses:
          - 10.0.0.1 # this is the internal nylon IP
      - id: node-2
        pubkey: <NODE_2_PUBLIC_KEY>
        endpoints:
          - "node2.example.com:57175"
        addresses:
          - 10.0.0.2
    

    # Define the connections between nodes
    graph:
      - node-1, node-2 # This means node-1 and node-2 will try to connect to each other

  4. Validate your configuration

    Section titled “Validate your configuration”

    Before launching, you can check that your config files are correct:

    Terminal window
    nylon verify central.yaml --node node.yaml

  5. Launch nylon

    Section titled “Launch nylon”

    Run nylon on both machines:

    Terminal window
    sudo nylon run -c central.yaml -n node.yaml

    After a few seconds, the nodes will discover each other and establish a secure tunnel. You should be able to ping 10.0.0.2 from node-1.

Next Steps

Section titled “Next Steps”