Hamachi VPN client

Product support
1

Hi,

Has anyone had any luck installing Hamachi VPN (https://vpn.net) client as a container? I have been trying different docker containers (https://github.com/jbcom/hamachi-vpn & https://github.com/gfjardim/docker-containers/tree/master/hamachi) they seem to build fine but do not run as expected. ie the Hamachi service not running, too many instances of it running, not logging in.

Still fairly new to containers/Docker etc. I was hoping someone here has had some luck using it in the Balena environment.

Thanks,

2

Could you post your compose file that you’re using? Also, which device are you targeting?

4

Hi,

The one I’ve had more luck with is:

version: "3"
services:
  hamachi:
    build: hamachi
    container_name: hamachi
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - config:/var/lib/logmein-hamachi:rw
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime
    privileged: true
    network_mode: "host"
    environment:
      - ACCOUNT=<ACCOUNT EMAIL>

From https://github.com/jbcom/hamachi-vpn.

I’ve been testing on my Mac, but ideally, I’d like to run it on a Raspberry Pi 3 alongside Screenly.

5

As for getting it to work on the Mac’s docker, I cannot say; it’s best to consult the author of the binaries for that.

What I can say though, the links you provided show the Hamachi binary coming from x64 which is Intel based, and will not run on a Pi 3. Unless they offer an ARM/AARCH64 binary then you will be out of luck.

You mentioned that you’d had issues running this, so are you referring to running in in macOS instead of on balenaOS?

7

Hi,
Thanks for the quick responses btw.
They do provide an armhf.deb version. Albeit a beta (it has been for years), I have installed it on numerous Raspberry Pis, but direct onto the Raspbian OS without issue.
Yes I was running/testing on the Mac as a proof of concept to see if Hamachi would actually run and connect to the VPN network before running in the balenaOS.
I was hoping to find someone who had come across this before and it be an easy fix.

8

I do not see any obvious reason why it wouldn’t work; what is your use-case though; are you planning to access services on the Pi over the VPN, because that’s possible via balenaCloud as standard.

10

My use case it to monitor the uptime and ping on that container using Nagios as I have this already set up to monitor all my other 60+ devices (Windows PCs, Windows Servers, Linux Servers, Lighting Control Systems). But as I do not have an external IP for the Balena device I want to install Hamachi, as I have that also installed on my other devices.

11

Would using our public device URL feature to access a HTTP service on the device be of use? I am not sure how you have Nagios configured, but if it can do a simple HTTP call, then a service running a basic HTTP endpoint would allow this to work :+1:

13

I have tried the public device URL, Nagios requires an IP for a PING and host check.
I can check that there is a webpage running on the public device URL, but getting a big red alert when checking for a PING.
I’ll keep persevering with the github docker files and see how far I get. I have a dev Screenly setup that i can clone and play with, I’ll try direct in balena and see what happens.

14

Yeah, ICMP Ping won’t work via the public URL as it’s a HTTPS based service. Good luck with the Hamachi though :+1: