Assuming one of your client want to secure connection to their server. The client has configured OpenVPN server on their network and provided you client configuration file. In that case you only need to install OpenVPN client application to your system and connect to remote vpn network.
This tutorial will help you to install OpenVPN client software and connect to remote vpn network.
Prerequisites
- You must have running OpenVPN server on remote
- Must have OpenVPN client configuration file
Step 1 – Install OpenVPN Client
First of all, log in to your client machine and install the OpenVPN package with the following command:
sudo apt update sudo apt install openvpn -y
Step 2 – Connect to OpenVPN Server
Copy your client configuration file on the machine and run the following command to connect to the OpenVPN server:
openvpn --config client.ovpn
You should see the following output:
Sat Feb 29 15:39:18 2020 TCP/UDP: Preserving recently used remote address: [AF_INET]69.87.218.145:1194 Sat Feb 29 15:39:18 2020 Socket Buffers: R=[212992->212992] S=[212992->212992] Sat Feb 29 15:39:18 2020 UDP link local: (not bound) Sat Feb 29 15:39:18 2020 UDP link remote: [AF_INET]69.87.218.145:1194 Sat Feb 29 15:39:18 2020 TLS: Initial packet from [AF_INET]69.87.218.145:1194, sid=6d27e1cb 524bd8cd Sat Feb 29 15:39:18 2020 VERIFY OK: depth=1, CN=Easy-RSA CA Sat Feb 29 15:39:18 2020 VERIFY OK: depth=0, CN=tecadmin-server Sat Feb 29 15:39:18 2020 Control Channel: TLSv1.3, cipher TLSv1.3 TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, 2048 bit RSA Sat Feb 29 15:39:18 2020 [tecadmin-server] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]69.87.218.145:1194 Sat Feb 29 15:39:19 2020 SENT CONTROL [tecadmin-server]: 'PUSH_REQUEST' (status=1) Sat Feb 29 15:39:19 2020 PUSH: Received control message: 'PUSH_REPLY,redirect-gateway def1,dhcp-option DNS 208.67.222.222,dhcp-option DNS 208.67.220.220,route 10.8.0.1,topology net30,ping 20,ping-restart 60,ifconfig 10.8.0.6 10.8.0.5,peer-id 0,cipher AES-256-GCM' Sat Feb 29 15:39:19 2020 OPTIONS IMPORT: timers and/or timeouts modified Sat Feb 29 15:39:19 2020 OPTIONS IMPORT: --ifconfig/up options modified Sat Feb 29 15:39:19 2020 OPTIONS IMPORT: route options modified
Step 3 – Verify Connection
After a successfull connection, OpenVPN will assign an IP address to your system. You can check it with the following command:
ip a show tun0
Output:
4: tun0:mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UNKNOWN group default qlen 100 link/none inet 10.8.0.6 peer 10.8.0.5/32 scope global tun0 valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever inet6 fe80::7226:57b1:f101:313b/64 scope link stable-privacy valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
You can also check the OpenVPN server log to verify the connection status:
tail -f /var/log/openvpn.log
You should see the following output:
Fri Feb 21 15:39:18 2020 45.58.34.83:37445 Control Channel: TLSv1.3, cipher TLSv1.3 TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, 2048 bit RSA Fri Feb 21 15:39:18 2020 45.58.34.83:37445 [client] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]45.58.34.83:37445 Fri Feb 21 15:39:18 2020 client/45.58.34.83:37445 MULTI_sva: pool returned IPv4=10.8.0.6, IPv6=(Not enabled) Fri Feb 21 15:39:18 2020 client/45.58.34.83:37445 MULTI: Learn: 10.8.0.6 -> client/45.58.34.83:37445 Fri Feb 21 15:39:18 2020 client/45.58.34.83:37445 MULTI: primary virtual IP for client/45.58.34.83:37445: 10.8.0.6 Fri Feb 21 15:39:19 2020 client/45.58.34.83:37445 PUSH: Received control message: 'PUSH_REQUEST' Fri Feb 21 15:39:19 2020 client/45.58.34.83:37445 SENT CONTROL [client]: 'PUSH_REPLY,redirect-gateway def1,dhcp-option DNS 208.67.222.222,dhcp-option DNS 208.67.220.220,route 10.8.0.1,topology net30,ping 20,ping-restart 60,ifconfig 10.8.0.6 10.8.0.5,peer-id 0,cipher AES-256-GCM' (status=1) Fri Feb 21 15:39:19 2020 client/45.58.34.83:37445 Data Channel: using negotiated cipher 'AES-256-GCM' Fri Feb 21 15:39:19 2020 client/45.58.34.83:37445 Outgoing Data Channel: Cipher 'AES-256-GCM' initialized with 256 bit key Fri Feb 21 15:39:19 2020 client/45.58.34.83:37445 Incoming Data Channel: Cipher 'AES-256-GCM' initialized with 256 bit key
Conclusion
All done, Your system is connected to the remote OpenVPN network. Now, you don’t required public IP of the remote network machines, You can now access remote network systems with there LAN ip directly.
2 Comments
Useful!
thank you. Easy to follow. Practical.