HYDRASESSION-AWARE VPN GATEWAY

SESSION-AWARE MULTI-VPN GATEWAY

Many tunnels.
One steady gateway.

Hydra distributes new IPv4 client traffic across a healthy VPN pool, keeps established flows on the path that created them, and stops instead of leaking when policy cannot be satisfied.

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  • Linux gateway
  • Session aware
  • Fail closed
Hydra three-headed dragon mascot
GATEWAY STATE
POOLHEALTHY
ROUTINGVPN ONLY
2-20active tunnels supported
1:1replacement capacity
30 / 30 / 60default active, drain, hard stop
IPv4VPN routed; IPv6 blocked
THE OPERATING IDEA

Rotate endpoints without treating sessions as disposable.

A traditional single-tunnel gateway gives every device the same exit. Hydra maintains a bounded cohort of isolated VPN tunnels and makes a health- and policy-aware decision for each new assignment.

01

Select

Choose only a healthy, non-draining endpoint that satisfies the device's active policy.

02

Stabilize

Use destination, client, and mandatory flow affinity to keep related work on a consistent path.

03

Recover

Prewarm replacements, drain planned retirements, and reconstruct owned network state after failure.

REQUEST PATH

Intent becomes one owned network path.

Hydra separates authorization, selection, marking, and forwarding. A failed decision cannot silently fall through to the ordinary WAN route.

  1. 01
    Observe the source

    Use the connected LAN prefix and the source address Hydra actually sees.

  2. 02
    Apply policy

    Start with the automatic balanced route, then honor any exact device override.

  3. 03
    Select capacity

    Filter by health, drain state, minimum floor, affinity, and required geography.

  4. 04
    Own the route

    Publish a destination mapping or store the selected path in the new flow's conntrack mark.

  5. 05
    Enter isolation

    Policy-route into one tunnel namespace, then source-NAT through its OpenVPN connection.

PER-DEVICE CONTROL

Automatic by default. Specific when needed.

Every IPv4 device on the connected LAN receives balanced VPN-only routing once the pool is ready. The self-service dashboard adds an optional override for only the requesting device.

  • Choose a country, city, or exact catalog server.
  • Lower the maximum endpoint-assignment lifetime.
  • See live queued, connecting, ready, and retry status.
  • Keep unrelated clients running while one location is prepared.
RECOMMENDEDBalanced

Keep related destinations together while spreading unrelated work across healthy exits.

STRONGEST AFFINITYClient sticky

Keep all new work from one device on one eligible endpoint for the lease.

LEAST STICKYMaximum rotation

Avoid the preceding endpoint for each new DNS assignment when another is available.

GRACE BEFORE ROTATION

Replacement first.
Then drain.

0-30ACTIVE

New assignments accepted.

30-60DRAINING

Existing tracked flows continue.

60HARD STOP

Absolute system ceiling.

OPERATIONAL ASSURANCE

Fail closed is a system behavior, not a slogan.

The control plane stays unprivileged. A narrow root worker owns network mutation, records what it changes before changing it, and restores a known baseline before accepting new work.

01

Atomic packet policy

Hydra syntax-checks the exact nftables transaction, applies it as a unit, and verifies the active signature.

02

Namespace isolation

Every OpenVPN process, TUN device, route set, and NAT boundary lives in a dedicated Linux network namespace.

03

Write-ahead ownership

Crash recovery removes only deterministic Hydra-owned routes, marks, namespaces, UFW rules, and forwarding changes.

04

One config authority

Global settings come from root-owned config.json; per-device state cannot shadow the running pool contract.

PRODUCT BOUNDARIES Ubuntu Server 26.04 IPVanish OpenVPN Existing DHCP or manual client setup IPv4 routed / IPv6 blocked
Hydra icon

BUILT-IN RESILIENCE

Recovery is part of normal operation.

Hydra isolates tunnel state, protects active sessions during planned rotation, withdraws failed members immediately, and reconstructs only the network resources it owns after interruption.

Bounded scale

Hydra supports 2-20 active tunnels plus an equal replacement cohort. Capacity stays predictable while replacement-before-drain rotation, health-aware selection, and deterministic recovery preserve the gateway contract.

READ THE DETAILS

Three views of Hydra.

01 / TECHNICAL

Request processing

Architecture, DNS, policy, routing, lifecycle, security, and recovery.

Open PDF 02 / GUIDE

End-user instructions

Dashboard controls, affinity modes, geography, status, and troubleshooting.

Open PDF 03 / OVERVIEW

Product overview

Value, deployment fit, operational assurance, and current boundaries.

Open PDF

HYDRA BY ANTIDESIGN SOFTWARE

Complex routing.
Explicit boundaries.

Hydra is a routed gateway, not a DHCP server or VPN provider. It is built for operators who want diverse egress, observable decisions, and predictable failure behavior.