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Access your Synology NAS and its services remotely using Wireguard Easy

Important or Recent Updates
UpdateDate
New guide released06/06/2024
Swapped the WireGuard container from LinuxServer to WG-Easy as it has a nice web UI! Also swapped the example Android Client to WG Tunnel.30/08/2024
Historic updates.


What are we doing?

I already have a guide on how to set up Tailscale on your NAS for remote access. In the interest of choice and as I am currently using this method this is an alternative using WireGuard (WG-Easy).

This guide has a number of key steps. I will take you through each one, if you already followed some of my other VPN related guides you may be able to skip sections!

  • Folder Setup
  • DDNS Address
  • TUN Script
  • WireGuard Kernel Module
  • Container Setup
  • Client Setup

Let’s Begin

In this guide I will take you through the steps to things up and running in Container Manager. We will be using the new Projects (Docker Compose) feature as it will save you time vs manual setup using the normal UI.

Folder Setup

Let’s start by getting some folders set up for the containers to use. Open up File Station create the following.

Folders
/docker/projects/wg-easy-compose
/docker/wg-easy

Next we need to setup a DDNS address in order to get connected.

DDNS and SSL

Before we start, make sure you have registered for a Synology Account as we are going to be using their DDNS service. https://account.synology.com/en-uk/register/ If you already have this set up move to the next step.

DDNS (Dynamic Domain Name System)

A DDNS address allows you to get external access to WireGuard via a domain provided by Synology, this is useful on home internet connections where your ISP will change your IP address on a regular basis. This will not put the NAS login screen on the internet by default as we won’t be opening the addition DSM ports on the router.

For some great hints and tips in relation to securing your NAS set Wundertechs recent guide.

In the DSM Control panel go to ‘External Access’ and then to the ‘DDNS’ tab

Click on ‘Add’, then fill out the following sections.

SectionValue
Service ProviderSynology
HostnameThis will be the address used to identify your NAS so make it personal to you not specific to this guide.
jellyseerr.synology.me = BAD
myawesomenas.synology,me =GOOD
Email:Log into your Synology account
External Address (IPv4)This should be filled in automatically
External Address (IPv6)This should be filled in automatically if your ISP is using IPv6
Get a Cert from Let’s EncryptTick this box
Enable HeartbeatTick this box

Now press OK, DSM will apply your settings. It can take a few moments to set up and the DSM interface will refresh. You will likely receive a certificate error which you will need to accept to get back into DSM.

Setting up the TUN start up script

In order for the VPN connection to work we need to make sure the TUN Interface is available. In order to ensure it is available even after a reboot we will set up a small ‘script’.

Please note if you already have GlueTUN running you have already done this 🙂 so jump ahead

Open up Control Panel and then click on Task Scheduler


Next click on Create, Triggered Task then User Defined Script.


Enter the following:

SectionSetting
Task:VPNTUN
User:root
Event:Boot-up
EnabledTick


On the Task Settings tab copy and paste the code below in the ‘User-Defined script’ section. It will look like screenshot.

Bash
#!/bin/sh -e

insmod /lib/modules/tun.ko


You can now press OK and agree to the warning message. Next run the script which will enable the TUN device.

You can now move on to the next step.

WireGuard Kernel Module (Required)

As DSM uses an older Kernel that does not have the required WireGuard modules we need to load them separately.

BlackVoid.club have put together a Kernel Module for Synology which allows the lower level Kernel to perform WireGuard duties, make sure you drop them a thanks as this would not be possible without them!

While on first glances it looks like a long installation process the page details a number of methods. I recommend having a read taking note of warnings and also if you want to build your own module it tells you how.

The TLDR is below.

  1. Find your model of NAS under the correct DSM version section (If you are following this guide it will be 7.2) and download the pre compiled .spk file
  2. Head into Package Center and click ‘Manual Install’ on the top right and install the .spk file and untick the box to run after install
  3. Reboot
  4. SSH Into your NAS (Just like in the User Setup guide) and elevate yourself to root by typing sudo -i and entering your password
  5. Enter this command and press enter to start up the module /var/packages/WireGuard/scripts/start

You should now be able to see the WireGuard package running in Package Center. Please note while I will try my best to support in relation to this module I may have to refer you on to BlackVoid if it is a specific technical issue.

On to the next part.

Container Manager

Next we are going to set up a ‘Project’ in Container Manager. Open up Container Manager and click on Project then on the right-hand side click ‘Create’.

In the next screen we will set up our General Settings, enter the following:

SectionSetting
Project Name:wg-easy
Path:/docker/projects/wg-easy-compose
Source:Create docker-compose.yml

Next we are going to drop in our docker compose configuration, copy all the code in the box below and paste it into line ‘1’ just like the screenshot.

YAML
services:
  wg-easy:
    image: ghcr.io/wg-easy/wg-easy
    container_name: wg-easy
    environment:
      - LANG=en
      - TZ=Europe/London
      - WG_HOST= #your ddns address
      - WG_PORT=51820 #
      - WG_DEFAULT_DNS=9.9.9.9
      - UI_TRAFFIC_STATS=true
      - UI_CHART_TYPE=1 # (0 Charts disabled, 1 # Line chart, 2 # Area chart, 3 # Bar chart)
	  - PASSWORD_HASH= #your bcrypt hash
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/wg-easy:/etc/wireguard
    ports:
      - 51820:51820/udp #wireguard port
      - 51821:51821/tcp #wg-easy UI
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
      - SYS_MODULE
    sysctls:
      - net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark=1
      - net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
    restart: unless-stopped

Environment Variables

We are now going to amend some key variables which define how the WireGuard connection will be set up and behave, I have covered the key settings here to get you up and running. You can find a full list of variables on the WG-Easy GitHub.

VariableValue
LANGDefaults to ‘en’ but there are a number of languages available (see the GitHub link above)
TZYou will need to change this line to your own timezone code – you can find the correct list of ones to use on wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones
WG_HOSTChange this to the DDNS address you setup in the previous steps
WG_PORTLeave this as it is
WG_DEFAULT_DNSThis is using quad9 by default you can amend to your preferred provider if you wish, this is also where you would put your AdGuard or PiHole IP.
UI_TRAFFIC_STATSYou can turn traffic stats on or off using ‘true’ or ‘false’
UI_CHART_TYPEIf you enabled the above then change the graph type.
‘0’ Charts disabled
‘1’ Line chart
‘2’ Area chart
‘3’ Bar chart
PASSWORD_HASHThis is optional to enable a password login for the web UI – see the extra info below on how to do it. If you don’t want to enable this remove the line.
Key Edits

Generating the web password

In order to enable the password for the Web UI you need to add a Bcrypt hash of your chosen password into the compose. Go to https://bcrypt.online/ to create the hash.

Enter the password in the ‘Plain Text Input’ box and then press the ‘Generate Hash’ button. Copy the generated hash next to the PASSWORD_HASH= line.

Once you have made the edits you can click ‘Next’

You do not need to enable anything on the ‘Web portal settings’ screen click ‘Next’ again.

On the final screen click ‘Done’ which will begin the download of the container image and once downloaded it will be launched!

The image will now be downloaded and extracted. You should see ‘Code 0’ when it has finished.

Forward the WireGuard Port

Now the container is running it would be a good idea to head into your Routers settings and forward the port your set for the container (51820). Refer to the manual on how to do this, essentially the port will be forwarded to the NAS IP address.

Firewall Exceptions

(Skip if you don’t have the Firewall configured)

If you have the Synology Firewall enabled please see this additional guide for further info on exceptions and correct set up.

Client Set up

WireGuard Easy makes it super easy to set up each client. Go to the Web UI on your NAS IP port 51821

Simply click ‘New Client’ and the config details will be created automatically for you.

You have a couple of choices on how to add the config to your end device, for phones make use of a WireGuard app. For this guide I am using WG Tunnel on the Playstore, for iPhone users there is also a WireGuard app.

Open the App and Tap the + button in the bottom Right, then ‘WireGuard’ in the pop-up menu, then ‘Add from QR Code’. Scan the QR code from WG Easy.

You can now turn on the connection from within the app and when roaming away from home all your locally hosted services will just work like you are on Wi-Fi. Your internet traffic is also routed through the connection. I have found that battery impacts are negligible so leave the connection on 24/7.




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Published inDockerRemote AccessSynology

33 Comments

  1. Dave Dave

    Hi Dr. Frankestein! Thank you for the guide. I’m considering using Wireguard on my Synology instead of OpenVPN, but I’m a bit concerned on installing the WireGuard Kernel Module. Is it safe? I mean, can we trust BlackVoid.club? I’m always reluctant to install unknown software from unknown sources or ones that are not official. I don’t have the knowledge or skill to see if they are doing something malicious on the background. I wish there was a way to do it without the kernel module, or for Synology to provide the kernel module, but since there isn’t I’m here asking if BlackVoid.club is trustworthy.

    Thank you!

    • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

      Hi perfectly valid question, its entirely down to you really, if this module were malicious I would of thought it would of been called out already, the source is available on Github with a number of contributers, meaning you can build from source if you didn’t want to use the pre-built spk’s

      https://github.com/runfalk/synology-wireguard

      Its all opensource so while that by itself makes no guarentees it does mean when other devs contribute they would see anything malicious going on. If I personally had any doubts I would not even put it forward as a solution.

      I wouldn’t hold out much hope of Synology including it – they would ideally upgrade the Kernel which includes the WireGuard code (v5.6 onwards) my 1821+ is on 4.4.302+

  2. Nick Nick

    Howdy its me again!
    When I try to build the project, it returns “Error response from daemon: Get “https://ghcr.io/v2/”: net/http: request”

    • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

      Hi Nick – Not sure why you are getting the error – unfortunately wgeasy is only available via the github repository not docker hub.

      This is not an official image but try swapping the image line with this version its up to date.. image:leduong/wg-easy

      • Nick Nick

        That worked! Seems like I don’t have a good connection with ghcr.io. It could be be something with my DNS not being able to query it (using nextDNS). This happened before when I tried setting up homepage.

      • Nick Nick

        Sorry one more question.
        How would I use the configs that come from the web ui and use it for the synology? Like use the synology itself as a client.

          • Nick Nick

            No sorry. I meant the NAS that is running wg-easy. Using the same NAS as both the server and the client. How would I do that? Sorry for the confusion.

            Im currently using tailscale but I want to replace it.

            • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

              Can you give me an example of what you are intending to do sorry, I may be a bit slow at the moment as currently have a stinking cold…

              • Nick Nick

                So in the end of the guide you’ve shown how to add a phone as a client. Can I do the same on the NAS as well? On the same NAS thats running wg-easy.

                From my understanding, right now the NAS is just a server. And I won’t be able to access it without installing the configs from wg-easy. So how would I be able to use the NAS as a client?

                • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

                  Oh I see, sorry. No need to do that at all. The NAS will be fully accessible as it is providing access to itself and any other local network devices via the server aspect. So when connected via mobile or any other device remotely you can access anything on the NAS just like you were in the same room.

  3. Emerald Emerald

    Sorry for the stupid question…
    I set up qBitTorrent and gluetun in docker on my Synology using your guide. Gluetun connects to my VPN using the WireGuard Balckvoid spk linked in the guide and all is good and more or less reliable.
    On my Synology I also have the VPN Server package, and I use OpenVPN to remotely connect when I need to access files or containers on the NAS. Can I delete the Synology package and use this guide instead? Or since I’m already using WireGuard for glutetun, this guide becomes incompatible or improper?
    Wireguard should be a little more modern, and I already have the app on my phone so I could ditch the openvpn one and fee some clutter. Also, the app seems more configurable.
    Thanks for your awesome guides!

    • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

      Hi not a stupid question at all – you can swap over to WireGuard if you like, they can work just fine together I use both here. The nice thing about WireGuard is if you open the port it won’t reply to anything other that you with the key, OpenVPN is a bit more obvious the port is there.

      • Emerald Emerald

        Hi Dr, I finally got the chance to try this guide but unfortunately the container is not starting up – it stops immediately and gets in a loop, the log says “cannot find device wg0 – This usually means that your host’s kernel does not support WireGuard!” among the rest.
        Any idea why? Please see also my comment above.
        My compose file: https://paste.drfrankenstein.co.uk/?e307984bc8986af1#ENsXtwS4S4dFHQsF96u44tsW2vi8QkpgNqPKUk5uWwTD

        Thank you for even the smallest hint in the right direction!

        • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

          Hey, yaml looks good. Double-check your WireGuard kernel module is running as that will stop the container starting up. You may need to repeat the steps in the ‘WireGuard Kernel Module (Required)’ section

          • Emerald Emerald

            Thank you vey much Dr., I have been too hasty – a simple uninstall&reinstall with a couple of reboots in-between seems to have fixed it! It’s amazing how fast it connects compared to OpenVPN, it’s literally instant!
            Keep up the good work!

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