How to Install Firezone UI for WireGuard VPN on Debian 13

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Firezone acts as a frontend to both the WireGuard kernel module and the netfilter kernel subsystem. It creates a WireGuard interface and a "firezone" netfilter table and adds appropriate routes to the routing table.

In this article, we are going to learn how to install Firezone UI for WireGuard VPN (version 1.x) on Debian 13 using Docker Compose. So, let's get started.

Pre-requisites

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• A system with Debian 13 installed and running.
• root access to the system.
• Server with a minimum of 1 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM (2 GB recommended).
• A domain with DNS records pointing to your server's IP address.
• Ports 80 and 443 open.

Update the system

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apt update && apt upgrade -y

Install dependencies

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apt install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release git

Add Docker GPG key

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curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg \
  | gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg

@@ Add Docker repository

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echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] \
  https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
  $(lsb_release -cs) stable" \
  > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list

Install Docker

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apt update
apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
systemctl enable --now docker

Install Docker Compose plugin

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apt install -y docker-compose-plugin
docker compose version

Clone Firezone repository

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git clone https://github.com/firezone/firezone.git
cd firezone/deploy/docker

Configure environment

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cp .env.example .env
nano .env

Set:

EXTERNAL_URL=https://vpn.example.com
DEFAULT_ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@example.com
DEFAULT_ADMIN_PASSWORD=StrongPasswordHere

Start Firezone

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docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Run database migrations

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docker compose exec web bin/migrate

Check Firezone version

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docker compose exec web firezone version

Access Firezone

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Open your browser and go to:

https://vpn.example.com

Login with your admin credentials from .env.