I recently retired my OpenVPN Turnkey appliance and needed to get my VPN solution up and running again. I decided to go with installing OpenVPN Access Server on a clean install of Ubuntu Server to create a stable and lightweight Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access my network.
I chose to go with OpenVPN AS because it’s using the OpenVPN I know and trust, but it also has the value-added feature of an administrative server used for user and access management.
Setup is straight forward after a few small prerequisites are established.
Requirements:
- Ubuntu Server – Running the latest version and updates. I am using 16.04.2-as my base
- Root or possibly sudo access
Software:
Download the latest release of the OpenVPN AS Server
https://openvpn.net/index.php/access-server/download-openvpn-as-sw.html
The direct Ubuntu installs here
The following steps can be used to download and install:
- Download the install package: wget http://swupdate.openvpn.org/as/openvpn-as-2.1.9-Ubuntu16.amd_64.deb
- Install the downloaded package: dpkg -i openvpn-as-2.1.9-Ubuntu16.amd_64.deb
- Change the password for the openvpn user: passwd openvpn
When the installation has completed, the Access Server web UIs will be available here:
Admin UI: https://<yourip>:943/admin
Client UI: https://<yourip>:943/
And just like that you now can take better control over your privacy, security.
Note: I did not go over the configuration of OpenVPN AS, I may do this in another post. I just wanted to run through the steps of getting this software installed.
Here is a short video on ‘what a VPN is’ – Thank you Qusai
[youtube id=”_wQTRMBAvzg” width=”600″ height=”350″]