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Netmaker Professional Setup

This guide explains how to set up Netmaker Professional, which offers advanced business features beyond the Community Edition. Explore the comparison and pricing details on our pricing page.

Netmaker Professional builds on the Community Edition with advanced features tailored for business needs.

Key Differences

The Community Edition (CE) offers a solid foundation for VPN deployments, including features like an integrated DNS server, relay support, full-tunnel gateways, and egress to external networks. It’s open-source and well-suited for developers and teams looking for flexibility and control in their setup.

The Professional Edition extends these capabilities with features designed for enterprise needs. It includes support for identity provider (IDP) and OAuth integrations, network traffic metrics, advanced access controls, and role-based user management. It also supports Remote Access Clients, including the Netmaker Desktop app and Mobile RAC, making secure access even more convenient.

For a detailed overview of features in both the Pro and Community Editions, check it out here.

Pro-Specific Functionalities

User Management

  • In the Community Edition (CE), only admin users can be created.

  • The Professional Edition allows the creation of non-admin users, enabling role-based access and more granular control—ideal for managing teams and remote access gateways.

Remote Access Clients

  • Seamless remote connectivity via the Netmaker Desktop app and Mobile RAC (Remote Access Client).

  • Enables secure access to your network from any laptop or mobile device—perfect for remote work scenarios.

Failovers

  • Automatically reroutes traffic through user-defined failover node when direct peer-to-peer communication is blocked, ensuring reliable connectivity even behind strict firewalls.

Enhanced Access Control Lists (ACLs)

  • Allows you to define detailed communication rules between nodes.

  • Combine with user-level permissions to enhance network security and segmentation.

Tag Management

  • Group and organize devices using custom tags.

  • Simplifies network organization and streamlines large-scale operations.

Network Metrics

  • Collects key performance data such as latency, throughput, and connection status.

  • Viewable directly in the Netmaker UI and exportable to Grafana via Prometheus for custom dashboards.

Identity Provider (IDP) Integration

  • Supports integration with external identity providers like Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), and others.

  • Allows users to authenticate using their existing organizational credentials for seamless and secure access.

OAuth Integration

  • Enables secure, password-less login using trusted OAuth providers like Google or GitHub.

Audit Logs

  • Tracks user activity and system events across key components.

  • Essential for security monitoring, compliance audits, and issue resolution.

Obtain License in Few Steps

Signup here https://account.netmaker.io/signup

Whether using a business or personal email, we recommend taking advantage of our 7-day free trial. For business emails, no credit card is required!

Enter your email address and set a password. You also have the option to continue using your Google, GitHub, or Microsoft account.

Afterward, you will receive a verification link sent to your email address.

Open your inbox and click on Verify My Email to complete the process.

Afterwards, you will be verified and redirected to the deployment page, for on-premise setups, tenants are created only upon request. To request a tenant, please fill out the form at https://www.netmaker.io/contact

Once your tenant has been created, click on Manage Tenant to view its details.

Click on the Manage button to view its details.

Set Up Your Netmaker Pro Server

Initially, you will need the License Key and Tenant ID, which can be found under the Settings tab.

Once you have your license key and tenant ID, you can get the nm-quick installer and run it.

sudo wget -qO /root/nm-quick.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gravitl/netmaker/master/scripts/nm-quick.sh && sudo chmod +x /root/nm-quick.sh && sudo /root/nm-quick.sh -p

Follow the prompts for a pro edition server and provide the License Key and Tenant ID when prompted.

Upgrade from Community Edition to Pro

You can upgrade from an existing community server to a pro server with the same script. Just fetch the latest version and run it.

sudo wget -qO /root/nm-quick.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gravitl/netmaker/master/scripts/nm-quick.sh && sudo chmod +x /root/nm-quick.sh && sudo /root/nm-quick.sh -u

Follow the prompts to setup a pro server and the script will make the necessary changes to your netmaker.env file and grab the pro docker-compose.override.yml file.

If you prefer to upgrade manually, go to your netmaker server and add the following to your netmaker.env file:

LICENSE_KEY=<license key>
NETMAKER_TENANT_ID=<tenant id>

Also change SERVER_IMAGE_TAG in netmaker.env to <version>-ee. For example: SERVER_IMAGE_TAG=v0.25.0-ee

Also change the INSTALL_TYPE from ce to pro.

Then you will need to get the docker-compose pro file from here

wget -O /root/docker-compose.override.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gravitl/netmaker/master/compose/docker-compose.pro.yml

No changes will need to be made to that file. It will use the configs listed in your netmaker.env file.

After that run the following command:

docker kill netmaker netmaker-ui && docker compose up -d

When you browse to your self-hosted Netmaker via dashboard.<YOUR_BASE_DOMAIN>, you should see the professional UI and a new Dashboard.

(Optional) Setup your server for Prometheus and Grafana

If you would like to use Netmaker’s custom Prometheus exporter and Grafana dashboard, your docker-compose.override.yml file will already have those section.

In Netmaker.env, change the following:

METRICS_EXPORTER=on
PROMETHEUS=on