ZeroTier Summer 2021 Update

Adam Ierymenko
August 3, 2021

***tl;dr  We’ve been releasing numerous features while continuing work on ZeroTier 2.0 ***

Quite a while ago we published some information about features that were coming in version 2.0 with the intent of releasing relatively soon thereafter. As most of our users know, this didn’t happen.

As we developed 2.0 and at the same time fixed and improved the 1.x branch, version 2.0 began to become a little bit too large and too much of a divergence. At the same, time a number of business-related tasks, COVID, and new feature demands distracted us and stretched out the 2.0 timeline.

Since it is taking too long, we decided to change our strategy. Instead of doing 2.0 as a monolith, we decided to back-port and/or independently release some of its planned features. We’re doing this in keeping with an increase in our release cadence, shooting for smaller releases at least every month instead of huge releases every 3-6 months.

Here are a few of the things we’ve done recently and what’s coming soon. Version 2.0 is still under development, but we’re not making as many things dependent on it as before.

Feature releases

Organization mode

ZeroTier Central now enables organization owners to consolidate all users under a single organization structure. Read more.

SDK update

We released an updated SDK (libzt) with new language wrappers and documentation. SDK readme.

ZeroNSD (BETA)

zeronsd is a new, standalone DNS server that integrates with ZeroTier Central. Here is the ZeroNSD quickstart guide

DNS Configuration Push

It is now possible to set DNS servers at the network controller that will be applied to the host upon joining the network, provided the host approves this by allowing managed DNS. Read more.

Multi-path with load balancing (BETA)

Bug fixes and improvements to multipath in the *dev-multipath *branch.

Documentation for self-hosted controllers

As part of our initiative to make ZT easier to use, our team authored new self-hosted documentation

Synology DSM 7 package update

Due to Synology breaking the pre-existing integration, we released a fix for Synology DSM 7.

Coming Soon

Version 1.8

Includes bug fixes and a much better entirely rewritten desktop client for Windows and Mac. We hope to eventually release it for Linux too.

**SSO integration for endpoint authentication (ALPHA) **

The engineering team has been hard at work building Single Sign-On integration features for desktop clients, and we’re starting with OpenID Connect.

Terraform plugin

Our Terraform plugin has been released, with a blog post Coming Soontm.

ZT experience improvements

ZT Central updates

We constantly update ZT Central to make it more user-friendly and efficient to use. Recent changes include UI improvements, communication opt-in, and feature integration.

Checkout experience

Now it is easier to buy ZeroTier. In addition, you can now manage your organization’s billing details via the billing portal.

New documentation

Last, but not least, the team launched and is continually updating our documentation site docs.zerotier.com.

Have you seen it yet?

Staying in the loop

If you have questions about ZT or if you want to share your ZT knowledge with others, we invite you to participate on our Community Board. If you wish to contribute to ZT or need to report an issue, check out our Github

Earlier this year, we began our opt-in email communications program. This means we don’t contact you unless you want to hear from us (and thankfully tens of thousands of you do). If you’re a ZT user and you wish to receive these updates, log into ZeroTier Central, and on the Account tab, click the Email Notifications box.

If you prefer to follow us on social – we regularly post updates on TwitterLinkedIn, and Facebook.

ICYMI – Great ZeroTier things

Here is a sampling of some of the videos, projects, and articles we’ve noticed using/mentioning/listing ZeroTier.

YouTube

Hands-on with ZeroTier SD-WAN for Cloud Connectivity

How Does ZeroTier Actually Work?

Hack From Anywhere! – ZeroTier Remote Access

Blue Iris Secure Remote Access Using ZeroTier

Software Defined Networks with ZeroTier | Urdu

How to make a Minecraft server without port forwarding

Github

zero-ui Community-developed UI for self-hosted ZeroTier controller

bash-cli-zt

Discord ZeroTier bot

holo-router

Home Assistant Community Add-on: ZeroTier One

Awesome ZeroTier

Articles

creative.space’s ZeroTier VPN Integration Simplifies Storage Access Complexity for Remote Workflows

How do I create a VPN/SD-WAN with Zerotier and Teltonika?

Creating a Site-to-Site VPN with ZeroTier and BGP

A consumer-grade SD-WAN solution to improve mobile internet

Wireless (in)security in Canberra CBD

Install Zerotier CLI Linux

Setting up a Pi for remote Internet connection monitoring

Oh also, we recently hit 7.1k stars on Github. Thank you to all.