How to access applications on .local domain through VPN

Discuss Advanced use case
1

Hi guys, I’d like to do the simplest, access the YH applications remotely through VPN. I have been trying with the zerotier VPN and I can access successfully YH admin page at VPN IP 192.168.195.xx , but when trying to open an application, I am directed to customdomain.local/application_name. YH documentation mentions that i should be able to access the .local domains of the applications through VPN.
I have no expertise about DNS configs, so please if possible elaborate through steps.

Hardware: Raspberry pi3
Access: Can access webpage admin and ssh both locally at yunohost.local/yunohost/admin/ and 192.168.195.xx/yunohost/admin/ , can access application at customdomain.local
No errors seem to appear in logs.There is no tweaking. Have searched around the forum, didnt find something that could help me do the simple scenario.

2

Can you point to this piece of documentation ?

3

Domains | Yunohost Documentation → Local domains (only reachable in your local network)

“Starting from YunoHost v4.3, domains ending by .local are fully supported, in addition to the default yunohost.local. They do not use the DNS protocol, but the mDNS one (also known as Zeroconf, Bonjour), which allows them to be published with no specific configuration but exclusively on your local network or VPN.”

My networking skills are not that good so i am not sure how to approach the issue.

4

Welcome!

Erf, it should state “some VPN”. Basically, the technical requirement is that the VPN supports multicast: that’s the case for ZeroTier, that is not the case for WireGuard for instance.

Back to your issue, I do not see the problem from your description of it.
Here is a setup that should be working:

  • You are on Windows, or an OS which can listen to the Bonjour/mDNS protocol. On Linux distributions, make sure avahi-daemon is installed and running.
  • ZeroTier is installed on your YunoHost server, and it is connected to a ZeroTier network you manage. You know its IP address on the network, let’s call it 10.0.0.1.
  • Your computer has ZeroTier installed, and is connected to the same ZeroTier network.
  • You can ping 10.0.0.1 from your computer
  • customdomain.local is registered on the server
  • An application is installed on customdomain.local/application_name and can be reached from the browser.

Walk us through your issue, step by step. :slight_smile: