How to create a OpenVPN server?

How to install OpenVPN server in Ubuntu?

How can I install OpenVPN server in Ubuntu?

Is it possible to run OpenVPN server on Ubuntu 14.04? I want to install OpenVPN server in Ubuntu. I want to connect a mobile and desktop using LAN. Is it possible to do that?

Yes, it is possible to install OpenVPN server in Ubuntu. To begin with, download the OpenVPN server source code from the official website. Once downloaded, extract the archive file using Archive Manager. Then go ahead and open terminal.

To make OpenVPN server available for all users, you need to edit /etc/openvpn/server.conf file. In this file, change the following line of code:
# If you just change the file, you have to. # re-run 'service openvpn restart' to load the configuration. # changes. Persist config. Now run the following command to start the OpenVPN service: sudo service openvpn start. For more details, refer to the documentation on OpenVPN.org.

How to create a OpenVPN server?

Before you go crazy creating a VPN server you should understand first the basics and where to start from.

In this tutorial I will show you the basics of OpenVPN Server including client-side configuration files for OpenVPN, client-to-server connection and how to restart OpenVPN on Ubuntu.

What is an OpenVPN Server? OpenVPN is a virtual private network solution that was originally developed by Cisco Systems. OpenVPN is a open source software implementation that allows secure connections between two or more computers or devices over a public network such as the Internet. OpenVPN provides a secure communications tunnel through the public Internet to allow computer users on untrusted networks to access trusted services on other computer users' private networks. With OpenVPN the security is in the software, the encryption/decryption is encrypted in the VPN tunnel. Each computer has a client-side (end-point) configuration file that defines each computer's network address, the location of a remote server, and an encryption method. Client-side configurations reside on both the OpenVPN server and client computers. The clients encrypt all data before it is sent across the VPN tunnel. An OpenVPN server acts as an intermediary between the remote network and a client's computer, translating the encrypted traffic from the remote network into a form that is understood by the client.

OpenVPN Server can be setup with 3 methods, all of which I will show below. Simple method. The simplest way is to install OpenVPN on your server and then configure your computer to connect to your VPN server. Once installed you can simply type openvpn /path/to/openvpn-config-file and your server will start up and listen for the openvpn configuration file /path/to/openvpn-config-file.

Example config file. Here is a example config file, this is used for the simple method. Dev tun. Proto udp. Remote vpn.your-domain.com 1194

Resolv-retry infinite. Nobind. Persist-key. Persist-tun. Key-direction 1. Remote-cert-tls server. Ca ca.

How to run OpenVPN as a service Ubuntu?

With Ubuntu you can also run OpenVPN as a service.

After installation, you just need to follow these simple steps.

Create a new service which will run OpenVPN on start up. This is called openvpn-service. We have made this service automatically start at boot time with sudo systemctl enable openvpn-service (as long as you have the necessary permissions)

Open a terminal. In the newly created service folder we have openvpn. You need to stop this service with sudo systemctl disable openvpn-service. And stop the OpenVPN daemon. To do that execute sudo /etc/init.d/openvpn stop .

(if you do not have permissions to run this command you need to execute sudo su, navigate to the service folder and run this command there). This will stop the daemon and it won't continue to run anymore. You need to kill all OpenVPN processes with the command sudo killall -15 openvpn .

That should be it. After reboot, the OpenVPN server will start at boot time automatically.

Update OpenVPN configuration. To update your OpenVPN configuration you need to update it by following these steps. Make sure you are connected to the VPN when executing this commands. If not, reconnect!

You can do it with the following commands: sudo openvpn --config /home/user/.ovpn Or

Sudo openvpn --config /home/user/test.ovpn For more information check OpenVPN official documentation. Bonus tip: You can also edit /etc/openvpn.conf by using another command instead of editing the file itself. To do that edit this file with your favorite editor. On the last line add:

Script-security 2. Then save the file and exit. After that you can see it has been updated properly by executing sudo openvpn.

Bonus tip: You can test if you have updated your OpenVPN correctly by executing the command echotest in terminal. Edit files outside the home. Sometimes we may want to edit the configuration file outside the home, eg for security reasons. That is not really a problem. Executing sudo openvpn --config /your/file/path should work fine.