Connecting to a TAK Server

A TAK Server carries detections to users who are not on the unit’s local network segment and lets many units feed one picture. Configuration is a short edit to the DragonSync config file plus the server’s certificates.

Before you start

• The unit has a network path to the server — Ethernet, Wi-Fi client, or cellular. On the hotspot alone it has none.
• You have the server hostname, port, and protocol from your TAK Server administrator.
• For TLS, you have either a PKCS#12 bundle with its password or PEM client certificate, key, and CA files.

Edit the configuration

Open /home/dragon/DragonSync/config.ini and set these under [SETTINGS], substituting your values. Use one of the two TLS blocks, not both.

tak_host = tak.example.com
tak_port = 8089
tak_protocol = TCP

# TLS using a PKCS#12 bundle
tak_tls_p12 = /home/dragon/certs/client.p12
tak_tls_p12_pass = yourpassword

# Or TLS using PEM files
tak_tls_certfile = /home/dragon/certs/client.crt
tak_tls_keyfile = /home/dragon/certs/client.key
tak_tls_cafile = /home/dragon/certs/ca.crt

tak_tls_skip_verify = false

Common ports: TCP 8089 streaming, TCP 8443 TLS, UDP 6969 multicast.

Place the certificates and apply

mkdir -p /home/dragon/certs
cp client.p12 /home/dragon/certs/
chmod 600 /home/dragon/certs/*
sudo systemctl restart dragonsync
nc -zv tak.example.com 8089

If the Console is installed, certificates can be uploaded and dragonsync restarted from its Config tab instead of the command line. See Installing the WarDragon Console.

Important Leave tak_tls_skip_verify set to false. If the connection then fails, the certificate authority file is usually missing or wrong — fix the certificate, do not disable verification.

Confirming it works

1. nc -zv above returns succeeded. If it fails, the unit cannot reach the server: check the network path and any firewall between them.
2. The output log shows a connection and no TLS errors:

journalctl -u dragonsync | grep -i tak

3. The unit’s marker and any detections appear on a TAK client connected to the same server.

Multicast keeps working

Adding a TAK Server does not turn multicast off. Local TAK devices on the hotspot or LAN continue to receive detections directly; see Sending detections to ATAK, iTAK, and WinTAK by multicast.

Note Back up config.ini and the certificate folder before any software update; see Software and SDR firmware updates.

Related

• WarDragon User Guide, Section 8.2 — TAK Server
• WarDragon User Guide, Section 10.6 — TAK troubleshooting
• WarDragon User Guide, Appendix A.2 — file locations