As part of our initiative to strengthen network security and optimize internal communication, we recently transitioned our VPN infrastructure to WireGuard. This move, combined with full automation using Ansible, has significantly streamlined how we manage secure access across our Linode-hosted environment.

Why We Chose WireGuard Over Traditional VPNs

After assessing various VPN technologies including OpenVPN and IPSec we selected WireGuard due to its:

• Performance: Kernel-level operation and modern cryptographic protocols offer exceptional speed and low overhead.

• Simplicity: Compared to OpenVPN’s often verbose configuration, WireGuard uses straightforward key-pair-based peer definitions.

• Security: With a minimal codebase (~4,000 lines), WireGuard reduces the surface area for vulnerabilities.

• Automation Friendliness: WireGuard’s declarative configuration model aligns perfectly with infrastructure-as-code practices.

Linode: Our Hosting Foundation

We run our infrastructure on Linode, a cloud provider known for simplicity, reliability, and flexibility. Its native support for Ubuntu and Debian distributions gave us confidence that WireGuard would run stably and securely on our virtual servers.

Automating VPN Deployment with Ansible

Our primary goal was to automate every aspect of WireGuard setup from server configuration to client provisioning and peer lifecycle management. Here's how we achieved that with Ansible.

1. Installing and Configuring the VPN Server

Setting up the WireGuard server was our first step and arguably one of the most important. Rather than manually installing packages and adjusting system configurations on each host, we chose to automate the entire process. Our goal was to make it repeatable, idempotent, and robust.

One of the initial challenges was ensuring that all prerequisites were reliably present on a variety of server configurations. We had to account for systems with partial installations, outdated package caches, or restrictive permissions. We also had to enable IP forwarding and ensure it persisted across reboots.  A small but crucial step in enabling VPN traffic to pass through the server. Automating this setup meant we could deploy to multiple servers with confidence and reduce human error.

2. Key Generation and Secure Storage

A critical part of WireGuard’s security lies in its cryptographic key pairs. We automated the generation of private and public keys, ensuring they were created securely, stored with strict file permissions, and never exposed or logged in any way. This might sound simple on paper, but it required us to carefully handle the generation output and prevent re-generating keys if they already existed (to avoid breaking existing client configs).

We also enforced secure storage policies, such as restricting access to the key files at the file system level. Our automation includes validation steps to ensure that keys are present, correct, and have not been overwritten accidentally.

3. Managing Client Peers

Managing client peers dynamically was a key priority.  We didn’t want to manually edit wg0.conf for each new client or peer. We built automation to add new peers to the server configuration based on metadata defined for each client, such as their public key and assigned IP address.

The challenge here was to maintain a reliable mapping between clients and their IP allocations and to ensure updates did not unintentionally override or remove existing peers. We developed a system that tracked which clients were active and synchronized the running WireGuard configuration accordingly, enabling near real-time changes to the network topology.

4. Automatically Revoking Access for Disabled Clients

Equally important to onboarding new peers was the ability to revoke access automatically. For example, if a client was disabled or removed from our system, their VPN access had to be revoked without manual intervention.

To achieve this, we built checks to compare the current list of active peers with the intended list. If a peer was found in the live configuration but marked as disabled, it was cleanly removed. One of the difficulties here was avoiding race conditions or accidental removal during re-runs, which we addressed through careful ordering and condition checks.

5. Lifecycle Safety & Idempotence

Automation can be dangerous if it isn't safe to rerun. To ensure repeatability, we implemented safety checks such as marker files to detect whether a system had already been provisioned. This helped prevent duplication of actions (e.g., regenerating keys or overwriting configurations) and made the automation truly idempotent.

We also used status flags and verification routines to keep everything in sync across server and client configurations. This gave us the confidence to re-apply changes without disrupting existing clients, a must-have in production environments.

Outcome and Benefits

• VPN setup time reduced to minutes

• Seamless client onboarding

• Disabled users are automatically removed

• Increased performance and reliability

Conclusion

WireGuard has allowed us to build a leaner, faster, and safer VPN infrastructure on Linode, with Ansible as our automation backbone. The result is a system that is secure by design, scalable by configuration, and easy to manage for our DevOps teams.