How To Set Up and Configure an OpenVPN Server on Ubuntu 20.04

Introduction

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) allows you to traverse untrusted networks as if you were on a private network. It gives you the freedom to access the internet safely and securely from your smartphone or laptop when connected to an untrusted network, like the WiFi at a hotel or coffee shop.

When combined with HTTPS connections, this setup allows you to secure your wireless logins and transactions. You can circumvent geographical restrictions and censorship, and shield your location and any unencrypted HTTP traffic from untrusted networks.

OpenVPN is a full featured, open-source Transport Layer Security (TLS) VPN solution that accommodates a wide range of configurations. In this tutorial, you will set up OpenVPN on an Ubuntu 20.04 server, and then configure it to be accessible from a client machine.

Prerequisites

To follow this tutorial, you will need:

• One Ubuntu 20.04 server with a sudo non-root user and a firewall enabled. To set this up, you can follow our Initial Server Setup with Ubuntu 20.04 tutorial. We will refer to this as the OpenVPN Server throughout this guide.
• A separate Ubuntu 20.04 server set up as a private Certificate Authority (CA), which we will refer to as the CA Server throughout this guide. After executing the steps from the Initial Server Setup Guide on this server, you can follow steps 1 to 3 of our guide on How To Set Up and Configure a Certificate Authority (CA) on Ubuntu 20.04 to accomplish that.

In addition to that, you’ll need a client machine which you will use to connect to your OpenVPN Server. In this guide, we’ll call this the OpenVPN Client. For the purposes of this tutorial, it’s recommended that you use your local machine as the OpenVPN client.

With these prerequisites in place, you are ready to begin setting up and configuring an OpenVPN Server on Ubuntu 20.04.

Step 1 — Installing OpenVPN and Easy-RSA

The first step in this tutorial is to install OpenVPN and Easy-RSA. Easy-RSA is a public key infrastructure (PKI) management tool that you will use on the OpenVPN Server to generate a certificate request that you will then verify and sign on the CA Server.

To start off, update your OpenVPN Server’s package index and install OpenVPN and Easy-RSA. Both packages are available in Ubuntu’s default repositories, so you can use apt for the installation:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openvpn easy-rsa

Next you will need to create a new directory on the OpenVPN Server as your non-root user called ~/easy-rsa:

mkdir ~/easy-rsa

Now you will need to create a symlink from the easyrsa script that the package installed into the ~/easy-rsa directory that you just created:

ln -s /usr/share/easy-rsa/* ~/easy-rsa/

Finally, ensure the directory’s owner is your non-root sudo user and restrict access to that user using chmod:

sudo chown sammy ~/easy-rsa
chmod 700 ~/easy-rsa

Once these programs are installed and have been moved to the right locations on your system, the next step is to create a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) on the OpenVPN server so that you can request and manage TLS certificates for clients and other servers that will connect to your VPN.

Step 2 — Creating a PKI for OpenVPN

Before you can create your OpenVPN server’s private key and certificate, you need to create a local Public Key Infrastructure directory on your OpenVPN server. You will use this directory to manage the server and clients’ certificate requests instead of making them directly on your CA server.

To build a PKI directory on your OpenVPN server, you’ll need to populate a file called vars with some default values. First you will cd into the easy-rsa directory, then you will create and edit the vars file using nano or your preferred text editor.

cd ~/easy-rsa
nano vars

Once the file is opened, paste in the following two lines:

set_var EASYRSA_ALGO "ec"
set_var EASYRSA_DIGEST "sha512"

These are the only two lines that you need in this vars file on your OpenVPN server since it will not be used as a Certificate Authority. They will ensure that your private keys and certificate requests are configured to use modern Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) to generate keys and secure signatures for your clients and OpenVPN server.

Configuring your OpenVPN & CA servers to use ECC means when a client and server attempt to establish a shared symmetric key, they can use Elliptic Curve algorithms to do their exchange. Using ECC for a key exchange is significantly faster than using plain Diffie-Hellman with the classic RSA algorithm since the numbers are much smaller and the computations are faster.

Once you have populated the vars file you can proceed with creating the PKI directory. To do so, run the easyrsa script with the init-pki option. Although you already ran this command on the CA server as part of the prerequisites, it’s necessary to run it here because your OpenVPN server and CA server have separate PKI directories:

./easyrsa init-pki

Note that on your OpenVPN server there is no need to create a Certificate Authority. Your CA server is solely responsible for validating and signing certificates. The PKI on your VPN server is only used as a convenient and centralized place to store certificate requests and public certificates.

After you’ve initialized your PKI on the OpenVPN server, you are ready to move on to the next step, which is creating an OpenVPN server certificate request and private key.

Step 3 — Creating an OpenVPN Server Certificate Request and Private Key

Now that your OpenVPN server has all the prerequisites installed, the next step is to generate a private key and Certificate Signing Request (CSR) on your OpenVPN server. After that you’ll transfer the request over to your CA to be signed, creating the required certificate. Once you have a signed certificate, you’ll transfer it back to the OpenVPN server and install it for the server to use.

To start, navigate to the ~/easy-rsa directory on your OpenVPN Server as your non-root user:

cd ~/easy-rsa

Now you’ll call the easyrsa with the gen-req option followed by a Common Name (CN) for the machine. The CN can be anything you like but it can be helpful to make it something descriptive. Throughout this tutorial, the OpenVPN Server’s CN will be server. Be sure to include the nopass option as well. Failing to do so will password-protect the request file which could lead to permissions issues later on.

./easyrsa gen-req server nopass

Output
Common Name (eg: your user, host, or server name) [server]:
 
Keypair and certificate request completed. Your files are:
req: /home/sammy/easy-rsa/pki/reqs/server.req
key: /home/sammy/easy-rsa/pki/private/server.key

This will create a private key for the server and a certificate request file called server.req. Copy the server key to the /etc/openvpn/server directory:

sudo cp /home/sammy/easy-rsa/pki/private/server.key /etc/openvpn/server/

After completing these steps, you have successfully created a private key for your OpenVPN server. You have also generated a Certificate Signing Request for the OpenVPN server. The CSR is now ready for signing by your CA. In the next section of this tutorial you will learn how to sign a CSR with your CA server’s private key.

Step 4 — Signing the OpenVPN Server’s Certificate Request

In the previous step you created a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) and private key for the OpenVPN server. Now the CA server needs to know about the server certificate and validate it. Once the CA validates and relays the certificate back to the OpenVPN server, clients that trust your CA will be able to trust the OpenVPN server as well.

On the OpenVPN server, as your non-root user, use SCP or another transfer method to copy the server.req certificate request to the CA server for signing:

scp /home/sammy/easy-rsa/pki/reqs/server.req sammy@your_ca_server_ip:/tmp

If you followed the prerequisite How To Set Up and Configure a Certificate Authority (CA) on Ubuntu 20.04 tutorial, the next step is to log in to the CA server as the non-root user that you created to manage your CA. You’ll cd to the ~/easy-rsa directory where you created your PK and then import the certificate request using the easyrsa script:

cd ~/easy-rsa
./easyrsa import-req /tmp/server.req server

Output
. . .
The request has been successfully imported with a short name of: server
You may now use this name to perform signing operations on this request.

Next, sign the request by running the easyrsa script with the sign-req option, followed by the request type and the Common Name. The request type can either be client or server. Since we’re working with the OpenVPN server’s certificate request, be sure to use the server request type:

./easyrsa sign-req server server

In the output, you’ll be prompted to verify that the request comes from a trusted source. Type yes then press ENTER to confirm:

Output
You are about to sign the following certificate.
Please check over the details shown below for accuracy. Note that this request
has not been cryptographically verified. Please be sure it came from a trusted
source or that you have verified the request checksum with the sender.
 
Request subject, to be signed as a server certificate for 3650 days:
 
subject=
commonName = server
 
 
Type the word 'yes' to continue, or any other input to abort.
Confirm request details: yes
. . .
Certificate created at: /home/sammy/easy-rsa/pki/issued/server.crt

Note that if you encrypted your CA private key, you’ll be prompted for your password at this point.

With those steps complete, you have signed the OpenVPN server’s certificate request using the CA server’s private key. The resulting server.crt file contains the OpenVPN server’s public encryption key, as well as a signature from the CA server. The point of the signature is to tell anyone who trusts the CA server that they can also trust the OpenVPN server when they connect to it.

To finish configuring the certificates, copy the server.crt and ca.crt files from the CA server to the OpenVPN server:

scp pki/issued/server.crt sammy@your_vpn_server_ip:/tmp
scp pki/ca.crt sammy@your_vpn_server_ip:/tmp

Now back on your OpenVPN server, copy the files from /tmp to /etc/openvpn/server:

sudo cp /tmp/{server.crt,ca.crt} /etc/openvpn/server

Now your OpenVPN server is nearly ready to accept connections. In the next step you’ll perform some additional steps to increase the security of the server.

Step 5 — Configuring OpenVPN Cryptographic Material

For an additional layer of security, we’ll add an extra shared secret key that the server and all clients will use with OpenVPN’s tls-crypt directive. This option is used to obfuscate the TLS certificate that is used when a server and client connect to each other initially. It is also used by the OpenVPN server to perform quick checks on incoming packets: if a packet is signed using the pre-shared key, then the server processes it; if it is not signed, then the server knows it is from an untrusted source and can discard it without having to perform additional decryption work.

This option will help ensure that your OpenVPN server is able to cope with unauthenticated traffic, port scans, and Denial of Service attacks, which can tie up server resources. It also makes it harder to identify OpenVPN network traffic.

To generate the tls-crypt pre-shared key, run the following on the OpenVPN server in the ~/easy-rsa directory:

cd ~/easy-rsa
openvpn --genkey --secret ta.key

The result will be a file called ta.key. Copy it to the /etc/openvpn/server/ directory:

sudo cp ta.key /etc/openvpn/server

With these files in place on the OpenVPN server you are ready to create client certificates and key files for your users, which you will use to connect to the VPN.

Step 6 — Generating a Client Certificate and Key Pair

Although you can generate a private key and certificate request on your client machine and then send it to the CA to be signed, this guide outlines a process for generating the certificate request on the OpenVPN server. The benefit of this approach is that we can create a script that will automatically generate client configuration files that contain all of the required keys and certificates. This lets you avoid having to transfer keys, certificates, and configuration files to clients and streamlines the process of joining the VPN.

We will generate a single client key and certificate pair for this guide. If you have more than one client, you can repeat this process for each one. Please note, though, that you will need to pass a unique name value to the script for every client. Throughout this tutorial, the first certificate/key pair is referred to as client1.

Get started by creating a directory structure within your home directory to store the client certificate and key files:

mkdir -p ~/client-configs/keys

Since you will store your clients’ certificate/key pairs and configuration files in this directory, you should lock down its permissions now as a security measure:

chmod -R 700 ~/client-configs

Next, navigate back to the EasyRSA directory and run the easyrsa script with the gen-req and nopass options, along with the common name for the client:

cd ~/easy-rsa
./easyrsa gen-req client1 nopass

Press ENTER to confirm the common name. Then, copy the client1.key file to the ~/client-configs/keys/ directory you created earlier:

cp pki/private/client1.key ~/client-configs/keys/

Next, transfer the client1.req file to your CA Server using a secure method:

scp pki/reqs/client1.req sammy@your_ca_server_ip:/tmp

Now log in to your CA Server. Then, navigate to the EasyRSA directory, and import the certificate request:

cd ~/easy-rsa
./easyrsa import-req /tmp/client1.req client1

Next, sign the request the same way as you did for the server in the previous step. This time, though, be sure to specify the client request type:

./easyrsa sign-req client client1

When prompted, enter yes to confirm that you intend to sign the certificate request and that it came from a trusted source:

Output
Type the word 'yes' to continue, or any other input to abort.
Confirm request details: yes

Again, if you encrypted your CA key, you’ll be prompted for your password here.

This will create a client certificate file named client1.crt. Transfer this file back to the server:

scp pki/issued/client1.crt sammy@your_server_ip:/tmp

Back on your OpenVPN server, copy the client certificate to the ~/client-configs/keys/ directory:

cp /tmp/client1.crt ~/client-configs/keys/

Next, copy the ca.crt and ta.key files to the ~/client-configs/keys/ directory as well, and set the appropriate permissions for your sudo user:

cp ~/easy-rsa/ta.key ~/client-configs/keys/
sudo cp /etc/openvpn/server/ca.crt ~/client-configs/keys/
sudo chown sammy.sammy ~/client-configs/keys/*

With that, your server and client’s certificates and keys have all been generated and are stored in the appropriate directories on your OpenVPN server. There are still a few actions that need to be performed with these files, but those will come in a later step. For now, you can move on to configuring OpenVPN.

Step 7 — Configuring OpenVPN

Like many other widely used open-source tools, OpenVPN has numerous configuration options available to customize your server for your specific needs. In this section, we will provide instructions on how to set up an OpenVPN server configuration based on one of the sample configuration files that is included within this software’s documentation.

First, copy the sample server.conf file as a starting point for your own configuration file:

sudo cp /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/sample-config-files/server.conf.gz /etc/openvpn/server/
sudo gunzip /etc/openvpn/server/server.conf.gz

Open the new file for editing with the text editor of your choice. We’ll use nano in our example:

sudo nano /etc/openvpn/server/server.conf

We’ll need to change a few lines in this file. First, find the HMAC section of the configuration by searching for the tls-auth directive. This line will be enabled by default. Comment it out by adding a ; to the beginning of the line. Then add a new line after it containing the value tls-crypt ta.key only:

;tls-auth ta.key 0 # This file is secret
tls-crypt ta.key

Next, find the section on cryptographic ciphers by looking for the cipher lines. The default value is set to AES-256-CBC, however, the AES-256-GCM cipher offers a better level of encryption, performance, and is well supported in up-to-date OpenVPN clients. We’ll comment out the default value by adding a ; sign to the beginning of this line, and then we’ll add another line after it containing the updated value of AES-256-GCM:

;cipher AES-256-CBC
cipher AES-256-GCM

Right after this line, add an auth directive to select the HMAC message digest algorithm. For this, SHA256 is a good choice:

auth SHA256

Next, find the line containing a dh directive, which defines Diffie-Hellman parameters. Since we’ve configured all the certificates to use Elliptic Curve Cryptography, there is no need for a Diffie-Hellman seed file. Comment out the existing line that looks like dh dh2048.pem or dh dh.pem. The filename for the Diffie-Hellman key may be different than what is listed in the example server configuration file. Then add a line after it with the contents dh none:

;dh dh2048.pem
dh none

Next, we want OpenVPN to run with no privileges once it has started, so we need to tell it to run with a user nobody and group nogroup. To enable this, find and uncomment the user nobody and group nogroup lines by removing the ; sign from the beginning of each line:

user nobody
group nogroup

(Optional) Push DNS Changes to Redirect All Traffic Through the VPN

The settings above will create the VPN connection between your client and server, but will not force any connections to use the tunnel. If you wish to use the VPN to route all of your client traffic over the VPN, you will likely want to push some extra settings to the client computers.

To get started, find and uncomment the line containing push "redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp". Doing this will tell your client to redirect all of its traffic through your OpenVPN Server. Be aware that enabling this functionality can cause connectivity issues with other network services, like SSH:

push "redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp"

Just below this line, find the dhcp-option section. Again, remove the ; from the beginning of both of the lines to uncomment them:

push "dhcp-option DNS 208.67.222.222"
push "dhcp-option DNS 208.67.220.220"

These lines will tell your client to use the free OpenDNS resolvers at the listed IP addresses. If you prefer other DNS resolvers you can substitute them in place of the highlighted IPs.

This will assist clients in reconfiguring their DNS settings to use the VPN tunnel as the default gateway.

(Optional) Adjust the Port and Protocol

By default, the OpenVPN server uses port 1194 and the UDP protocol to accept client connections. If you need to use a different port because of restrictive network environments that your clients might be in, you can change the port option. If you are not hosting web content on your OpenVPN server, port 443 is a popular choice since it is usually allowed through firewall rules.

To change OpenVPN to listen on port 443, open the server.conf file and find the line that looks like this:

port 1194

Edit it so that the port is 443:

# Optional!
port 443

Oftentimes, the protocol is restricted to that port as well. If so, find the proto line below the port line and change the protocol from udp to tcp:

# Optional!
proto tcp

If you do switch the protocol to TCP, you will need to change the explicit-exit-notify directive’s value from 1 to 0, as this directive is only used by UDP. Failing to do so while using TCP will cause errors when you start the OpenVPN service.

Find the explicit-exit-notify line at the end of the file and change the value to 0:

# Optional!
explicit-exit-notify 0

If you have no need to use a different port and protocol, it is best to leave these settings unchanged.

(Optional) Point to Non-Default Credentials

If you selected a different name during the ./easyrsa gen-req server command earlier, modify the cert and key lines in the server.conf configuration file so that they point to the appropriate .crt and .key files. If you used the default name, server, this is already set correctly:

cert server.crt
key server.key

When you are finished, save and close the file.

You have now finished configuring your OpenVPN general settings. In the next step, we’ll customize the server’s networking options.

Step 8 — Adjusting the OpenVPN Server Networking Configuration

There are some aspects of the server’s networking configuration that need to be tweaked so that OpenVPN can correctly route traffic through the VPN. The first of these is IP forwarding, a method for determining where IP traffic should be routed. This is essential to the VPN functionality that your server will provide.

To adjust your OpenVPN server’s default IP forwarding setting, open the /etc/sysctl.conf file using nano or your preferred editor:

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

Then add the following line at the bottom of the file:

net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

Save and close the file when you are finished.

To read the file and load the new values for the current session, type:

sudo sysctl -p

Output
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

Now your OpenVPN server will be able to forward incoming traffic from one ethernet device to another. This setting makes sure the server can direct traffic from clients that connect on the virtual VPN interface out over its other physical ethernet devices. This configuration will route all web traffic from your client via your server’s IP address, and your client’s public IP address will effectively be hidden.

In the next step you will need to configure some firewall rules to ensure that traffic to and from your OpenVPN server flows properly.

Step 9 — Firewall Configuration

So far, you’ve installed OpenVPN on your server, configured it, and generated the keys and certificates needed for your client to access the VPN. However, you have not yet provided OpenVPN with any instructions on where to send incoming web traffic from clients. You can stipulate how the server should handle client traffic by establishing some firewall rules and routing configurations.

Assuming you followed the prerequisites at the start of this tutorial, you should already have ufw installed and running on your server. To allow OpenVPN through the firewall, you’ll need to enable masquerading, an iptables concept that provides on-the-fly dynamic network address translation (NAT) to correctly route client connections.

Before opening the firewall configuration file to add the masquerading rules, you must first find the public network interface of your machine. To do this, type:

ip route list default

Your public interface is the string found within this command’s output that follows the word “dev”. For example, this result shows the interface named eth0, which is highlighted below:

Output
default via 159.65.160.1 dev eth0 proto static

When you have the interface associated with your default route, open the /etc/ufw/before.rules file to add the relevant configuration:

sudo nano /etc/ufw/before.rules

UFW rules are typically added using the ufw command. Rules listed in the before.rules file, though, are read and put into place before the conventional UFW rules are loaded. Towards the top of the file, add the highlighted lines below. This will set the default policy for the POSTROUTING chain in the nat table and masquerade any traffic coming from the VPN. Remember to replace eth0 in the -A POSTROUTING line below with the interface you found in the above command:

#
# rules.before
#
# Rules that should be run before the ufw command line added rules. Custom
# rules should be added to one of these chains:
#   ufw-before-input
#   ufw-before-output
#   ufw-before-forward
#
 
# START OPENVPN RULES
# NAT table rules
*nat
:POSTROUTING ACCEPT [0:0]
# Allow traffic from OpenVPN client to eth0 (change to the interface you discovered!)
-A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/8 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
COMMIT
# END OPENVPN RULES
 
# Don't delete these required lines, otherwise there will be errors
*filter
. . .

Save and close the file when you are finished.

Next, you need to tell UFW to allow forwarded packets by default as well. To do this, open the /etc/default/ufw file:

sudo nano /etc/default/ufw

Inside, find the DEFAULT_FORWARD_POLICY directive and change the value from DROP to ACCEPT:

DEFAULT_FORWARD_POLICY="ACCEPT"

Save and close the file when you are finished.

Next, adjust the firewall itself to allow traffic to OpenVPN. If you did not change the port and protocol in the /etc/openvpn/server.conf file, you will need to open up UDP traffic to port 1194. If you modified the port and/or protocol, substitute the values you selected here.

In case you forgot to add the SSH port when following the prerequisite tutorial, add it here as well:

sudo ufw allow 1194/udp
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH

After adding those rules, disable and re-enable UFW to restart it and load the changes from all of the files you’ve modified:

sudo ufw disable
sudo ufw enable

Your server is now configured to correctly handle OpenVPN traffic. With the firewall rules in place, we can start the OpenVPN service on the server.

Step 10 — Starting OpenVPN

OpenVPN runs as a systemd service, so we can use systemctl to manage it. We will configure OpenVPN to start up at boot so you can connect to your VPN at any time as long as your server is running. To do this, enable the OpenVPN service by adding it to systemctl:

sudo systemctl -f enable openvpn-server@server.service

Then start the OpenVPN service:

sudo systemctl start openvpn-server@server.service

Double check that the OpenVPN service is active with the following command. You should see active (running) in the output:

sudo systemctl status openvpn-server@server.service

Output
● openvpn-server@server.service - OpenVPN service for server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/openvpn-server@.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2020-04-29 15:39:59 UTC; 6s ago
       Docs: man:openvpn(8)
             https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/wiki/Openvpn24ManPage
             https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/wiki/HOWTO
   Main PID: 16872 (openvpn)
     Status: "Initialization Sequence Completed"
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 1137)
     Memory: 1.0M
     CGroup: /system.slice/system-openvpn\x2dserver.slice/openvpn-server@server.service
             └─16872 /usr/sbin/openvpn --status /run/openvpn-server/status-server.log --status-version 2 --suppress-timestamps --c>
. . .
. . .
Apr 29 15:39:59 ubuntu-20 openvpn[16872]: Initialization Sequence Completed

We’ve now completed the server-side configuration for OpenVPN. Next, you will configure your client machine and connect to the OpenVPN Server.

Step 11 — Creating the Client Configuration Infrastructure

Creating configuration files for OpenVPN clients can be somewhat involved, as every client must have its own config and each must align with the settings outlined in the server’s configuration file. Rather than writing a single configuration file that can only be used on one client, this step outlines a process for building a client configuration infrastructure which you can use to generate config files on-the-fly. You will first create a “base” configuration file then build a script which will allow you to generate unique client config files, certificates, and keys as needed.

Get started by creating a new directory where you will store client configuration files within the client-configs directory you created earlier:

mkdir -p ~/client-configs/files

Next, copy an example client configuration file into the client-configs directory to use as your base configuration:

cp /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/sample-config-files/client.conf ~/client-configs/base.conf

Open this new file using nano or your preferred text editor:

nano ~/client-configs/base.conf

Inside, locate the remote directive. This points the client to your OpenVPN server address — the public IP address of your OpenVPN server. If you decided to change the port that the OpenVPN server is listening on, you will also need to change 1194 to the port you selected:

. . .
# The hostname/IP and port of the server.
# You can have multiple remote entries
# to load balance between the servers.
remote your_server_ip 1194
. . .

Be sure that the protocol matches the value you are using in the server configuration:

proto udp

Next, uncomment the user and group directives by removing the ; sign at the beginning of each line:

# Downgrade privileges after initialization (non-Windows only)
user nobody
group nogroup

Find the directives that set the ca, cert, and key. Comment out these directives since you will add the certs and keys within the file itself shortly:

# SSL/TLS parms.
# See the server config file for more
# description. It's best to use
# a separate .crt/.key file pair
# for each client. A single ca
# file can be used for all clients.
;ca ca.crt
;cert client.crt
;key client.key

Similarly, comment out the tls-auth directive, as you will add ta.key directly into the client configuration file (and the server is set up to use tls-crypt):

# If a tls-auth key is used on the server
# then every client must also have the key.
;tls-auth ta.key 1

Mirror the cipher and auth settings that you set in the /etc/openvpn/server/server.conf file:

cipher AES-256-GCM
auth SHA256

Next, add the key-direction directive somewhere in the file. You must set this to “1” for the VPN to function correctly on the client machine:

key-direction 1

Finally, add a few commented out lines to handle various methods that Linux based VPN clients will use for DNS resolution. You’ll add two similar, but separate sets of commented out lines. The first set is for clients that do not use systemd-resolved to manage DNS. These clients rely on the resolvconf utility to update DNS information for Linux clients.

; script-security 2
; up /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf
; down /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf

Now add another set of lines for clients that use systemd-resolved for DNS resolution:

; script-security 2
; up /etc/openvpn/update-systemd-resolved
; down /etc/openvpn/update-systemd-resolved
; down-pre
; dhcp-option DOMAIN-ROUTE .

Save and close the file when you are finished.

Later in Step 13 - Installing the Client Configuration step of this tutorial you will learn how to determine how DNS resolution works on Linux clients and which section to uncomment.

Next, we’ll create a script that will compile your base configuration with the relevant certificate, key, and encryption files and then place the generated configuration in the ~/client-configs/files directory. Open a new file called make_config.sh within the ~/client-configs directory:

nano ~/client-configs/make_config.sh

Inside, add the following content:

#!/bin/bash
 
# First argument: Client identifier
 
KEY_DIR=~/client-configs/keys
OUTPUT_DIR=~/client-configs/files
BASE_CONFIG=~/client-configs/base.conf
 
cat ${BASE_CONFIG} \
    <(echo -e '<ca>') \
    ${KEY_DIR}/ca.crt \
    <(echo -e '</ca>\n<cert>') \
    ${KEY_DIR}/${1}.crt \
    <(echo -e '</cert>\n<key>') \
    ${KEY_DIR}/${1}.key \
    <(echo -e '</key>\n<tls-crypt>') \
    ${KEY_DIR}/ta.key \
    <(echo -e '</tls-crypt>') \
    > ${OUTPUT_DIR}/${1}.ovpn

Save and close the file when you are finished.

Before moving on, be sure to mark this file as executable by typing:

chmod 700 ~/client-configs/make_config.sh

This script will make a copy of the base.conf file you made, collect all the certificate and key files you’ve created for your client, extract their contents, append them to the copy of the base configuration file, and export all of this content into a new client configuration file. This means that, rather than having to manage the client’s configuration, certificate, and key files separately, all the required information is stored in one place. The benefit of using this method is that if you ever need to add a client in the future, you can run this script to quickly create a new config file and ensure that all the important information is stored in a single, easy-to-access location.

Please note that any time you add a new client, you will need to generate new keys and certificates for it before you can run this script and generate its configuration file. You will get some practice using this script in the next step.

Step 12 — Generating Client Configurations

If you followed along with the guide, you created a client certificate and key named client1.crt and client1.key, respectively, in Step 6. You can generate a config file for these credentials by moving into your ~/client-configs directory and running the script you made at the end of the previous step:

cd ~/client-configs
./make_config.sh client1

This will create a file named client1.ovpn in your ~/client-configs/files directory:

ls ~/client-configs/files

Output
client1.ovpn

You need to transfer this file to the device you plan to use as the client. For instance, this could be your local computer or a mobile device.

While the exact applications used to accomplish this transfer will depend on your device’s operating system and your personal preferences, a dependable and secure method is to use SFTP (SSH file transfer protocol) or SCP (Secure Copy) on the backend. This will transport your client’s VPN authentication files over an encrypted connection.

Here is an example SFTP command which you can run from your local computer (macOS or Linux). This will copy the client1.ovpn file we’ve created in the last step to your home directory:

sftp sammy@openvpn_server_ip:client-configs/files/client1.ovpn ~/

Here are several tools and tutorials for securely transferring files from the OpenVPN server to a local computer:

• WinSCP
• How To Use SFTP to Securely Transfer Files with a Remote Server
• How To Use Filezilla to Transfer and Manage Files Securely on your VPS

Step 13 — Installing the Client Configuration

This section covers how to install a client VPN profile on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. None of these client instructions are dependent on one another, so feel free to skip to whichever is applicable to your device.

The OpenVPN connection will have the same name as whatever you called the .ovpn file. In regards to this tutorial, this means that the connection is named client1.ovpn, aligning with the first client file you generated.

Windows

Installing

Download the OpenVPN client application for Windows from OpenVPN’s Downloads page. Choose the appropriate installer version for your version of Windows.

After installing OpenVPN, copy the .ovpn file to:

C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config

When you launch OpenVPN, it will automatically locate the profile and make it available.

You must run OpenVPN as an administrator each time it’s used, even by administrative accounts. To do this without having to right-click and select Run as administrator every time you use the VPN, you must preset this from an administrative account. This also means that standard users will need to enter the administrator’s password to use OpenVPN. On the other hand, standard users can’t properly connect to the server unless the OpenVPN application on the client has admin rights, so the elevated privileges are necessary.

To set the OpenVPN application to always run as an administrator, right-click on its shortcut icon and go to Properties. At the bottom of the Compatibility tab, click the button to Change settings for all users. In the new window, check Run this program as an administrator.

Connecting

Each time you launch the OpenVPN GUI, Windows will ask if you want to allow the program to make changes to your computer. Click Yes. Launching the OpenVPN client application only puts the applet in the system tray so that you can connect and disconnect the VPN as needed; it does not actually make the VPN connection.

Once OpenVPN is started, initiate a connection by going into the system tray applet and right-clicking on the OpenVPN applet icon. This opens the context menu. Select client1 at the top of the menu (that’s your client1.ovpn profile) and choose Connect.

A status window will open showing the log output while the connection is established, and a message will show once the client is connected.

Disconnect from the VPN the same way: Go into the system tray applet, right-click the OpenVPN applet icon, select the client profile and click Disconnect.

macOS

Installing

Tunnelblick is a free, open source OpenVPN client for macOS. You can download the latest disk image from the Tunnelblick Downloads page. Double-click the downloaded .dmg file and follow the prompts to install.

Towards the end of the installation process, Tunnelblick will ask if you have any configuration files. Answer I have configuration files and let Tunnelblick finish. Open a Finder window and double-click client1.ovpn. Tunnelblick will install the client profile. Administrative privileges are required.

Connecting

Launch Tunnelblick by double-clicking the Tunnelblick icon in the Applications folder. Once Tunnelblick has been launched, there will be a Tunnelblick icon in the menu bar at the top right of the screen for controlling connections. Click on the icon, and then the Connect client1 menu item to initiate the VPN connection. If you are using custom DNS settings with Tunnelblick, you may need check “Allow changes to manually-set network settings” in the advanced configuration dialog.

Linux

Installing

If you are using Linux, there are a variety of tools that you can use depending on your distribution. Your desktop environment or window manager might also include connection utilities.

The most universal way of connecting, however, is to just use the OpenVPN software.

On Ubuntu or Debian, you can install it just as you did on the server by typing:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openvpn

On CentOS you can enable the EPEL repositories and then install it by typing:

sudo dnf install epel-release
sudo dnf install openvpn

Configuring Clients that use systemd-resolved

First determine if your system is using systemd-resolved to handle DNS resolution by checking the /etc/resolv.conf file:

cat /etc/resolv.conf

Output
# This file is managed by man:systemd-resolved(8). Do not edit.
. . .

nameserver 127.0.0.53
options edns0

If your system is configured to use systemd-resolved for DNS resolution, the IP address after the nameserver option will be 127.0.0.53. There should also be comments in the file like the output that is shown that explain how systemd-resolved is managing the file. If you have a different IP address than 127.0.0.53 then chances are your system is not using systemd-resolved and you can go to the next section on configuring Linux clients that have an update-resolv-conf script instead.

To support these clients, first install the openvpn-systemd-resolved package. It provides scripts that will force systemd-resolved to use the VPN server for DNS resolution.

sudo apt install openvpn-systemd-resolved

One that package is installed, configure the client to use it, and to send all DNS queries over the VPN interface. Open the client’s VPN file:

nano client1.ovpn

Now uncomment the following lines that you added earlier:

script-security 2
up /etc/openvpn/update-systemd-resolved
down /etc/openvpn/update-systemd-resolved
down-pre
dhcp-option DOMAIN-ROUTE .

Configuring Clients that use update-resolv-conf

If your system is not using systemd-resolved to manage DNS, check to see if your distribution includes an /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf script instead:

ls /etc/openvpn

Output
update-resolv-conf

If your client includes the update-resolv-conf file, then edit the OpenVPN client configuration file that you transferred earlier:

nano client1.ovpn

Uncomment the three lines you added to adjust the DNS settings:

script-security 2
up /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf
down /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf

If you are using CentOS, change the group directive from nogroup to nobody to match the distribution’s available groups:

group nobody

Save and close the file.

Connecting

Now, you can connect to the VPN by just pointing the openvpn command to the client configuration file:

sudo openvpn --config client1.ovpn

This should connect you to your VPN.

systemd-resolve --status tun0

Output
Link 22 (tun0)
. . .
         DNS Servers: 208.67.222.222
                      208.67.220.220
          DNS Domain: ~.

iOS

Installing

From the iTunes App Store, search for and install OpenVPN Connect, the official iOS OpenVPN client application. To transfer your iOS client configuration onto the device, connect it directly to a computer.

The process of completing the transfer with iTunes is outlined here. Open iTunes on the computer and click on iPhone > apps. Scroll down to the bottom to the File Sharing section and click the OpenVPN app. The blank window to the right, OpenVPN Documents, is for sharing files. Drag the .ovpn file to the OpenVPN Documents window.

Now launch the OpenVPN app on the iPhone. You will receive a notification that a new profile is ready to import. Tap the green plus sign to import it.

Connecting

OpenVPN is now ready to use with the new profile. Start the connection by sliding the Connect button to the On position. Disconnect by sliding the same button to Off.

Android

Installing

Open the Google Play Store. Search for and install Android OpenVPN Connect, the official Android OpenVPN client application.

You can transfer the .ovpn profile by connecting the Android device to your computer by USB and copying the file over. Alternatively, if you have an SD card reader, you can remove the device’s SD card, copy the profile onto it and then insert the card back into the Android device.

Start the OpenVPN app and tap the FILE menu to import the profile.

Then navigate to the location of the saved profile (the screenshot uses /storage/emulated/0/openvpn) and select your .ovpn file. Tap the IMPORT button to finish importing this profile.

Connecting Once the profile is added, you will see a screen like this:

To connect, tap the toggle button close to the profile you want to use. You’ll see real time stats of your connection and traffic being routed through your OpenVPN server:

To disconnect, just tap the toggle button on the top left once again. You will be prompted to confirm that you want to disconnect from your VPN.

Step 14 — Testing Your VPN Connection (Optional)

Once everything is installed, a simple check confirms everything is working properly. Without having a VPN connection enabled, open a browser and go to DNSLeakTest.

The site will return the IP address assigned by your internet service provider and as you appear to the rest of the world. To check your DNS settings through the same website, click on Extended Test and it will tell you which DNS servers you are using.

Now connect the OpenVPN client to your Droplet’s VPN and refresh the browser. A completely different IP address (that of your VPN server) should now appear, and this is how you appear to the world. Again, DNSLeakTest’s Extended Test will check your DNS settings and confirm you are now using the DNS resolvers pushed by your VPN.

Step 15 — Revoking Client Certificates

Occasionally, you may need to revoke a client certificate to prevent further access to the OpenVPN server.

To do so, follow the example in the prerequisite tutorial on How to Set Up and Configure a Certificate Authority on Ubuntu 20.04 under the Revoking a Certificate section.

Once you have revoked a certificate for a client using those instructions, you’ll need to copy the generated crl.pem file to your OpenVPN server in the /etc/openvpn/server directory:

sudo cp /tmp/crl.pem /etc/openvpn/server/

Next, open the OpenVPN server configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/openvpn/server/server.conf

At the bottom of the file, add the crl-verify option, which will instruct the OpenVPN server to check the certificate revocation list that we’ve created each time a connection attempt is made:

crl-verify crl.pem

Save and close the file.

Finally, restart OpenVPN to implement the certificate revocation:

sudo systemctl restart openvpn-server@server.service

The client should no longer be able to successfully connect to the server using the old credential.

To revoke additional clients, follow this process:

1. Revoke the certificate with the ./easyrsa revoke client_name command
2. Generate a new CRL
3. Transfer the new crl.pem file to your OpenVPN server and copy it to the /etc/openvpn/server/ directory to overwrite the old list.
4. Restart the OpenVPN service.

You can use this process to revoke any certificates that you’ve previously issued for your server.

Conclusion

You should now have a fully operational virtual private network running on your OpenVPN Server. You can browse the web and download content without worrying about malicious actors tracking your activity.

There are several steps you could take to customize your OpenVPN installation even further, such as configuring your client to connect to the VPN automatically or configuring client-specific rules and access policies. For these and other OpenVPN customizations, you should consult the official OpenVPN documentation.

To configure more clients, you only need to follow steps 6 and 11-13 for each additional device. To revoke access to clients, follow step 15.