Categories: How To

🚀 How to Install WireGuard with Docker on Ubuntu 24.04 (wg-easy Dashboard)

Introduction

WireGuard is a fast, lightweight, and modern VPN protocol designed for simplicity and performance.
If you’re looking for a minimal yet powerful VPN solution, WireGuard with wg-easy is a great choice. It provides a clean web-based UI for managing peers — perfect for self-hosted environments, small businesses, or labs.

In this post, I’ll guide you through deploying WireGuard using Docker on Ubuntu 24.04, based on my actual setup and test server configuration.

🧩 Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following ready:

A clean Ubuntu 24.04 server
Root or sudo access
Public IP address: 199.180.134.132 (replace with your own)
Docker installed

⚙️ Step 1 – Install Docker

We’ll use Docker to simplify the deployment process.

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo bash

Verify Docker installation:

docker --version

📁 Step 2 – Create a Volume for WireGuard Configuration

Create a directory to store all configuration files and keys:

sudo mkdir -p /srv/wireguard
sudo chmod -R 755 /srv/wireguard

🔐 Step 3 – Generate Admin Password Hash

Starting from wg-easy v14, plain text passwords are no longer supported.
You must use a bcrypt hash for the admin password.

To generate it:

docker run ghcr.io/wg-easy/wg-easy:14 wgpw YOUR_PASSWORD

Replace YOUR_PASSWORD with your desired dashboard password.
Example output:

$2a$12$Rc5VfU6n9d4Wm3JTnBYB1eUPEZvs4glH73VPYuKXGmuJsYkkKXJle

Keep this hash safe — you’ll use it in the next step.

🐳 Step 4 – Deploy the WireGuard Container

Now run the container using the command below.
Replace the IP and password hash with your own values.

docker run -d \
  --name=wg-easy \
  -e WG_HOST=199.180.134.132 \
  -e PASSWORD_HASH='$2a$12$Rc5VfU6n9d4Wm3JTnBYB1eUPEZvs4glH73VPYuKXGmuJsYkkKXJle' \
  -v /srv/wireguard:/etc/wireguard \
  -p 51820:51820/udp \
  -p 51821:51821/tcp \
  --cap-add=NET_ADMIN \
  --cap-add=SYS_MODULE \
  --sysctl="net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark=1" \
  --sysctl="net.ipv4.ip_forward=1" \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/wg-easy/wg-easy:latest

🔍 Step 5 – Verify Container Status

Check if the container is running:

docker ps

You should see a container named wg-easy with a “healthy” or “up” status.

To view logs:

docker logs wg-easy

🌐 Step 6 – Access the Management Dashboard

Once the container is running, open the web interface in your browser:

👉 http://199.180.134.132:51821

From here, you can:

Create new VPN peers
Download configuration files
View or delete existing peers
Scan QR codes for mobile setup

⚙️ Step 7 – (Optional) Set Timezone

If you need to adjust timezone settings, you can add this variable to your Docker command:

-e TZ=Etc/UTC

✅ Step 8 – Test the Connection

Download the client configuration from the dashboard and import it into your WireGuard client (available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS).
Activate the connection and test your IP at https://whatismyipaddress.com.

If it shows your VPN server’s IP, your setup is working perfectly!

🧭 Conclusion

You’ve now deployed a fully functional WireGuard VPN server using Docker and wg-easy on Ubuntu 24.04.
With this setup, you can easily manage peers via a simple web UI — no manual configuration files needed.

Highlights: