Sold by: Lynxroute
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This product has charges associated with it for hardening, security configuration, and support.
Headscale is the open-source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control plane - run a private WireGuard-based mesh VPN without sending coordination metadata or auth flows through Tailscale's hosted infrastructure. Unlike bare Headscale AMIs that ship without a default user, no pre-auth key, and the gRPC/metrics interfaces exposed, this Lynxroute build is ready out of the box: noise key per instance, default user and reusable pre-auth key created at first boot, gRPC and Prometheus metrics bound to loopback, and a CIS Level 1 hardened Ubuntu 24.04 LTS base.
BSD-3-Clause license - fully auditable, no vendor lock-in.
Overview
This is a repackaged software product wherein additional charges apply for hardening, security configuration, and support.
WHAT IS HEADSCALE
Headscale is an open-source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale coordination server. It speaks the same control protocol as Tailscale's hosted SaaS, so any standard tailscale client (Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android) can register against it and join a private WireGuard-based mesh VPN.
By running your own control plane you keep node metadata, auth flows, and ACL evaluation inside your own AWS account - none of it transits controlplane.tailscale.com. Headscale supports MagicDNS, ACLs, pre-auth keys, ephemeral nodes, route advertisement, and tag-based authorization. BSD-3-Clause license, written in Go, single statically linked binary.
WHAT THIS AMI ADDS
Security hardening:
- Noise protocol private key generated per instance at first boot - never reused across deployments
- Default user and reusable 24-hour pre-auth key created automatically at first boot - operator runs tailscale up and is on the network
- gRPC API and Prometheus metrics bound to 127.0.0.1 only - never reachable from outside the instance
- UFW firewall pre-configured - only the Tailscale endpoint (TCP 8080) is exposed; SSH on 22 only
- fail2ban, AppArmor
- CVE scan - every image is scanned for vulnerabilities before release
OS hardening (CIS Level 1):
- CIS Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Level 1 benchmark applied via ansible-lockdown
- auditd, SSH hardening, Kernel hardening, IMDSv2 enforced
Compliance artifacts:
- SBOM - CycloneDX 1.6 at /etc/lynxroute/sbom.json
- CIS Conformance Report at /etc/lynxroute/cis-report.html
- CIS Tailored Profile at /usr/share/doc/lynxroute/CIS_TAILORED_PROFILE.md
Highlights
- Security baked in: noise key per instance, default user + reusable pre-auth key generated at first boot, gRPC and Prometheus metrics bound to loopback only - unlike bare Headscale AMIs where you have to run `headscale users create`, mint keys, and remember to keep the gRPC/metrics interfaces off the public network yourself
- CIS Level 1 hardened Ubuntu 24.04 LTS: auditd, fail2ban, AppArmor, SSH key-only, IMDSv2 enforced. CVE-scanned before every release. SBOM (CycloneDX) and CIS Conformance Report included.
- Self-hosted Tailscale control plane: own the auth flow and node coordination metadata, no traffic to controlplane.tailscale.com. BSD-3-Clause license - fully auditable, no vendor lock-in, ever.
Details
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Delivery method
Delivery option
64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Latest version
Operating system
Ubuntu 24.04
Deployed on AWS
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Pricing
Free trial
Try this product free for 5 days according to the free trial terms set by the vendor. Usage-based pricing is in effect for usage beyond the free trial terms. Your free trial gets automatically converted to a paid subscription when the trial ends, but may be canceled any time before that.
Pricing is based on actual usage, with charges varying according to how much you consume. Subscriptions have no end date and may be canceled any time.
Additional AWS infrastructure costs may apply. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate your infrastructure costs.
If you are an AWS Free Tier customer with a free plan, you are eligible to subscribe to this offer. You can use free credits to cover the cost of eligible AWS infrastructure. See AWS Free Tier for more details. If you created an AWS account before July 15th, 2025, and qualify for the Legacy AWS Free Tier, Amazon EC2 charges for Micro instances are free for up to 750 hours per month. See Legacy AWS Free Tier for more details.
Dimension | Cost/hour |
|---|---|
t3.small Recommended | $0.03 |
t3.micro | $0.03 |
m6i.large | $0.05 |
t3.large | $0.05 |
t3.medium | $0.05 |
Dimensions summary
You pay by the hour based on the EC2 instance size you choose to run this hardened control plane image. Five instance options are available: t3.micro, t3.small, t3.medium, t3.large, and m6i.large. These differ in compute and memory capacity, so pricing scales with the size you pick. You run the same pre-hardened Ubuntu image on each; only the underlying instance capacity changes. Choose a smaller instance for lighter workloads or a larger one for heavier demand. Billing runs through AWS, and you add standard AWS infrastructure charges on top of the hourly software rate.
Top-of-mind questions for buyers
Every instance runs the same pre-hardened Ubuntu 24.04 LTS image. It includes CIS Level 1 hardening, CVE scanning, and a bundled SBOM and CIS Conformance Report. Unique credentials generate at first boot. Only the underlying compute and memory capacity changes between the five options.
The software rate meters running instance-hours only. A fully stopped instance does not accrue the hourly software charge. Stopped instances may still incur standard AWS storage fees for the attached volume, billed separately by AWS.
You choose one instance size at launch, and the hourly rate matches that size. Moving to a larger or smaller instance means running the same image on a different instance type. The software carries no per-user or per-node metering beyond the instance-hour rate.
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We do not offer refunds for this product. AWS infrastructure charges (EC2, EBS, data transfer) are billed separately by AWS and are not refundable by us.
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Delivery details
64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
An AMI is a virtual image that provides the information required to launch an instance. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances are virtual servers on which you can run your applications and workloads, offering varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. You can launch as many instances from as many different AMIs as you need.
Version release notes
Updated to version 0.29.2.
Additional details
Usage instructions
- Launch instance (t3.small recommended)
- Open Security Group - allow TCP 8080 from the networks where your Tailscale clients live
- SSH: ssh -i key.pem ubuntu@<PUBLIC_IP>
- Read credentials: sudo cat /root/headscale-credentials.txt
- On a Tailscale client, register against the server URL printed in the credentials file: tailscale up --login-server=http://<PUBLIC_IP>:8080 --authkey=<KEY_FROM_CREDENTIALS>
- Verify on the server: sudo headscale nodes list
A default user (id=1) and a reusable pre-auth key valid for 24 hours are created at first boot. Issue a fresh key any time: sudo headscale preauthkeys create --user 1 --reusable --expiration 24h
Manage users, nodes, and routes: sudo headscale users list sudo headscale nodes list sudo headscale routes list
Credentials are saved to /root/headscale-credentials.txt at first boot. For production, place an HTTPS reverse proxy (Nginx + Let's Encrypt or ALB + ACM) in front of port 8080 and set server_url in /etc/headscale/config.yaml to the public HTTPS URL before any client registers.
Resources
Vendor resources
Support
Vendor support
Visit us online: https://lynxroute.com
For Headscale documentation: https://headscale.net For Headscale upstream issues: https://github.com/juanfont/headscale/issues For AWS infrastructure issues:
AWS infrastructure support
AWS Support is a one-on-one, fast-response support channel that is staffed 24x7x365 with experienced and technical support engineers. The service helps customers of all sizes and technical abilities to successfully utilize the products and features provided by Amazon Web Services.
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