February 2023 Summaries

Tailscale's February 2023 newsletter highlights several new features and developments, including the general availability of configuration audit logs, a new integration with CodeSandbox for accessing private resources, and improvements in billing management with the introduction of the Billing Admin role. The company has also made strides in supporting OAuth within the Tailscale API and reducing the binary size on macOS. The newsletter announces Tailscale Up, the first community conference, set for May 31 in San Francisco. Various community contributions are showcased, such as Tailscale packages for Turris OS and integration with Traefik Proxy. Tailscale emphasizes its adaptability across different infrastructures and shares customer stories from Instacart and Shiguredo, highlighting its efficiency and simplicity in solving networking challenges. The newsletter also touches on work-from-home security, VPN usage, and introduces a learning library for users. Additionally, Tailscale is actively hiring for new roles and encourages feedback to help enhance their product.

Tailscale is a versatile network infrastructure tool that facilitates seamless connectivity across various platforms, including cloud and on-premises environments, Kubernetes clusters, and sites with overlapping IP ranges. Its Integrations page highlights its extensive compatibility, demonstrating Tailscale's ability to work across a wide array of infrastructures, from modern frontend platforms to legacy hardware. The company emphasizes the flexibility and creativity users can apply in connecting their infrastructures, whether it's databases, servers, or development environments. To enhance this adaptability, Tailscale is developing general-purpose APIs for applications to access its network capabilities. The company invites further collaboration and exploration of new integrations through their partnership program.

In a bid to streamline billing management for large organizations, two key changes have been introduced: the creation of a new Billing Admin role and the extension of billing management capabilities to individuals with the Admin role. Billing Admins are empowered to handle all aspects of pricing plans and billing information, such as updating plans, billing emails, addresses, and tax IDs. Organizations can assign multiple individuals as Billing Admins, facilitating a separation of duties that is already possible with roles like Network Admin, IT Admin, and Auditor. Designating a Billing Admin involves a straightforward process in the admin console, and further information about user roles is available in the relevant documentation.

Tailscale is hosting its first in-person community conference, "Tailscale Up," on May 31 in San Francisco, bringing together open-source enthusiasts, hardware hackers, and Tailscale users to share insights and learn about recent projects and integrations. The conference will feature a single track of talks, sourced through an open call for proposals (CFP) that closes on March 24, inviting participants to present on topics related to network simplicity, security, and self-determination in various formats. Early-bird tickets are available for $75, with standard tickets priced at $125 starting April 29, and attendees are expected to adhere to the event's code of conduct. The conference provides a platform for networking, exploring partnership opportunities, and enhancing participants' understanding of Tailscale's offerings.

Mihai Parparita describes his efforts to reduce the binary size of Tailscale's macOS application, which initially appeared unusually large due to the inclusion of both x86_64 and arm64 slices, as well as the entire Go code base within the main app and its network extension. Upon discovering that the CLI interface was invoked through the main app, Parparita considered creating a separate static library for the CLI but realized this might not result in significant size savings. Instead, he explored utilizing the network extension as a shared library, allowing the app to load and invoke CLI functions dynamically using dlopen and dlsym. This approach led to a 35 MB reduction in the binary size from version 1.34 to 1.36, thereby improving download and update times.

Developing software in an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) like CodeSandbox often requires access to various private resources, which can be facilitated securely and efficiently through Tailscale. By integrating Tailscale with CodeSandbox, developers can securely access both on-premise and cloud resources with minimal latency, even if those resources lack public IP addresses or are behind firewalls. This setup allows for easy sharing of development environments with coworkers for activities such as code reviews or pair programming. The integration involves using a Tailscale auth key to connect the CodeSandbox environment to a tailnet, enabling fine-grained access control and visibility features. This setup also supports diverse working environments, allowing developers to work from different devices like laptops or mobile devices in varied locations while maintaining secure and controlled access.