Ubuntu OpenVPN Server and Industrial VPN Router OpenVPN Client :

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Dear Admin ,

I am trying to configure Server Client in OpenVPN where :

Server is UBUNTU Linux 14.04 and Client is a Hardware ( Industrial VPN Router eWON )

The client is showing the healthy VPN Connection but the Server is unable to ping the client . I am attaching the files ( server.ovpn & client.ovpn ) :

SERVER.CONF

#################################################
#Sample OpenVPN 2.0 config file for
#multi-client server.
#This file is for the server side #
# of a many-clients <-> one-server #
# OpenVPN configuration. #
# #
# OpenVPN also supports #
# single-machine <-> single-machine #
# configurations (See the Examples page #
# on the web site for more info). #
# #
# This config should work on Windows #
# or Linux/BSD systems. Remember on #
# Windows to quote pathnames and use #
# double backslashes, e.g.: #
# “C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config\foo.key” #
# #
# Comments are preceded with ‘#’ or ‘;’ #
#################################################

# Which local IP address should OpenVPN
# listen on? (optional)
;local a.b.c.d

# Which TCP/UDP port should OpenVPN listen on?
# If you want to run multiple OpenVPN instances
# on the same machine, use a different port
# number for each one. You will need to
# open up this port on your firewall.
port 443

# TCP or UDP server?
;proto udp
proto tcp

# “dev tun” will create a routed IP tunnel,
# “dev tap” will create an ethernet tunnel.
# Use “dev tap0” if you are ethernet bridging
# and have precreated a tap0 virtual interface
# and bridged it with your ethernet interface.
# If you want to control access policies
# over the VPN, you must create firewall
# rules for the the TUN/TAP interface.
# On non-Windows systems, you can give
# an explicit unit number, such as tun0.
# On Windows, use “dev-node” for this.
# On most systems, the VPN will not function
# unless you partially or fully disable
# the firewall for the TUN/TAP interface.
;dev tap
dev tun

# Windows needs the TAP-Win32 adapter name
# from the Network Connections panel if you
# have more than one. On XP SP2 or higher,
# you may need to selectively disable the
# Windows firewall for the TAP adapter.
# Non-Windows systems usually don’t need this.
;dev-node MyTap

# SSL/TLS root certificate (ca), certificate
# (cert), and private key (key). Each client
# and the server must have their own cert and
# key file. The server and all clients will
# use the same ca file.
#
# See the “easy-rsa” directory for a series
# of scripts for generating RSA certificates
# and private keys. Remember to use
# a unique Common Name for the server
# and each of the client certificates.
#
# Any X509 key management system can be used.
# OpenVPN can also use a PKCS #12 formatted key file
# (see “pkcs12” directive in man page).
ca ca.crt
cert server.crt
key server.key # This file should be kept secret

# Diffie hellman parameters.
# Generate your own with:
# openssl dhparam -out dh1024.pem 1024
# Substitute 2048 for 1024 if you are using
# 2048 bit keys.
dh dh2048.pem

# Configure server mode and supply a VPN subnet
# for OpenVPN to draw client addresses from.
# The server will take 10.8.0.1 for itself,
# the rest will be made available to clients.
# Each client will be able to reach the server
# on 10.8.0.1. Comment this line out if you are
# ethernet bridging. See the man page for more info.
server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0

# Maintain a record of client <-> virtual IP address
# associations in this file. If OpenVPN goes down or
# is restarted, reconnecting clients can be assigned
# the same virtual IP address from the pool that was
# previously assigned.
ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt

# Configure server mode for ethernet bridging.
# You must first use your OS’s bridging capability
# to bridge the TAP interface with the ethernet
# NIC interface. Then you must manually set the
# IP/netmask on the bridge interface, here we
# assume 10.8.0.4/255.255.255.0. Finally we
# must set aside an IP range in this subnet
# (start=10.8.0.50 end=10.8.0.100) to allocate
# to connecting clients. Leave this line commented
# out unless you are ethernet bridging.
;server-bridge 10.8.0.4 255.255.255.0 10.8.0.50 10.8.0.100

# Configure server mode for ethernet bridging
# using a DHCP-proxy, where clients talk
# to the OpenVPN server-side DHCP server
# to receive their IP address allocation
# and DNS server addresses. You must first use
# your OS’s bridging capability to bridge the TAP
# interface with the ethernet NIC interface.
# Note: this mode only works on clients (such as
# Windows), where the client-side TAP adapter is
# bound to a DHCP client.
;server-bridge

# Push routes to the client to allow it
# to reach other private subnets behind
# the server. Remember that these
# private subnets will also need
# to know to route the OpenVPN client
# address pool (10.8.0.0/255.255.255.0)
# back to the OpenVPN server.
;push “route 192.168.10.0 255.255.255.0”
;push “route 192.168.20.0 255.255.255.0”

# To assign specific IP addresses to specific
# clients or if a connecting client has a private
# subnet behind it that should also have VPN access,
# use the subdirectory “ccd” for client-specific
# configuration files (see man page for more info).

# EXAMPLE: Suppose the client
# having the certificate common name “Thelonious”
# also has a small subnet behind his connecting
# machine, such as 192.168.40.128/255.255.255.248.
# First, uncomment out these lines:
;client-config-dir ccd
;route 192.168.40.128 255.255.255.248
# Then create a file ccd/Thelonious with this line:
# iroute 192.168.40.128 255.255.255.248
# This will allow Thelonious’ private subnet to
# access the VPN. This example will only work
# if you are routing, not bridging, i.e. you are
# using “dev tun” and “server” directives.

# EXAMPLE: Suppose you want to give
# Thelonious a fixed VPN IP address of 10.9.0.1.
# First uncomment out these lines:
;client-config-dir ccd
;route 10.9.0.0 255.255.255.252
# Then add this line to ccd/Thelonious:
# ifconfig-push 10.9.0.1 10.9.0.2

# Suppose that you want to enable different
# firewall access policies for different groups
# of clients. There are two methods:
# (1) Run multiple OpenVPN daemons, one for each
# group, and firewall the TUN/TAP interface
# for each group/daemon appropriately.
# (2) (Advanced) Create a script to dynamically
# modify the firewall in response to access
# from different clients. See man
# page for more info on learn-address script.
;learn-address ./script

# If enabled, this directive will configure
# all clients to redirect their default
# network gateway through the VPN, causing
# all IP traffic such as web browsing and
# and DNS lookups to go through the VPN
# (The OpenVPN server machine may need to NAT
# or bridge the TUN/TAP interface to the internet
# in order for this to work properly).
push “redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp”

# Certain Windows-specific network settings
# can be pushed to clients, such as DNS
# or WINS server addresses. CAVEAT:
# http://openvpn.net/faq.html#dhcpcaveats
# The addresses below refer to the public
# DNS servers provided by opendns.com.
push “dhcp-option DNS 208.67.222.222”
push “dhcp-option DNS 208.67.220.220”

# Uncomment this directive to allow different
# clients to be able to “see” each other.
# By default, clients will only see the server.
# To force clients to only see the server, you
# will also need to appropriately firewall the
# server’s TUN/TAP interface.
client-to-client

# Uncomment this directive if multiple clients
# might connect with the same certificate/key
# files or common names. This is recommended
# only for testing purposes. For production use,
# each client should have its own certificate/key
# pair.
#
# IF YOU HAVE NOT GENERATED INDIVIDUAL
# CERTIFICATE/KEY PAIRS FOR EACH CLIENT,
# EACH HAVING ITS OWN UNIQUE “COMMON NAME”,
# UNCOMMENT THIS LINE OUT.
duplicate-cn

# The keepalive directive causes ping-like
# messags to be sent back and forth over
# the link so that each side knows when
# the other side has gone down.
# Ping every 10 seconds, assume that remote
# peer is down if no ping received during
# a 120 second time period.
keepalive 10 120

# For extra security beyond that provided
# by SSL/TLS, create an “HMAC firewall”
# to help block DoS attacks and UDP port flooding.
#
# Generate with:
# openvpn --genkey --secret ta.key
#
# The server and each client must have
# a copy of this key.
# The second parameter should be ‘0’
# on the server and ‘1’ on the clients.
;tls-auth ta.key 0 # This file is secret

# Select a cryptographic cipher.
# This config item must be copied to
# the client config file as well.
;cipher BF-CBC # Blowfish (default)
;cipher AES-128-CBC # AES
;cipher DES-EDE3-CBC # Triple-DES

# Enable compression on the VPN link.
# If you enable it here, you must also
# enable it in the client config file.
comp-lzo

# The maximum number of concurrently connected
# clients we want to allow.
;max-clients 100

# It’s a good idea to reduce the OpenVPN
# daemon’s privileges after initialization.
#
# You can uncomment this out on
# non-Windows systems.
user nobody
group nogroup

# The persist options will try to avoid
# accessing certain resources on restart
# that may no longer be accessible because
# of the privilege downgrade.
persist-key
persist-tun

# Output a short status file showing
# current connections, truncated
# and rewritten every minute.
status openvpn-status.log

# By default, log messages will go to the syslog (or
# on Windows, if running as a service, they will go to
# the “\Program Files\OpenVPN\log” directory).
# Use log or log-append to override this default.
# “log” will truncate the log file on OpenVPN startup,
# while “log-append” will append to it. Use one
# or the other (but not both).
;log openvpn.log
;log-append openvpn.log

# Set the appropriate level of log
# file verbosity.
#
# 0 is silent, except for fatal errors
# 4 is reasonable for general usage
# 5 and 6 can help to debug connection problems
# 9 is extremely verbose
verb 3

# Silence repeating messages. At most 20
# sequential messages of the same message
# category will be output to the log.
;mute 20

CLIENT.OVPN

##############################################
# Sample client-side OpenVPN 2.0 config file #
# for connecting to multi-client server. #
# #
# This configuration can be used by multiple #
# clients, however each client should have #
# its own cert and key files. #
# #
# On Windows, you might want to rename this #
# file so it has a .ovpn extension #
##############################################

# Specify that we are a client and that we
# will be pulling certain config file directives
# from the server.
client

# Use the same setting as you are using on
# the server.
# On most systems, the VPN will not function
# unless you partially or fully disable
# the firewall for the TUN/TAP interface.
;dev tap
dev tun

# Windows needs the TAP-Win32 adapter name
# from the Network Connections panel
# if you have more than one. On XP SP2,
# you may need to disable the firewall
# for the TAP adapter.
;dev-node MyTap

# Are we connecting to a TCP or
# UDP server? Use the same setting as
# on the server.
;proto udp
proto tcp

# The hostname/IP and port of the server.
# You can have multiple remote entries
# to load balance between the servers.
remote 125.19.78.182 443
;remote my-server-2 1194

# Choose a random host from the remote
# list for load-balancing. Otherwise
# try hosts in the order specified.
;remote-random

# Keep trying indefinitely to resolve the
# host name of the OpenVPN server. Very useful
# on machines which are not permanently connected
# to the internet such as laptops.
resolv-retry infinite

# Most clients don’t need to bind to
# a specific local port number.
nobind

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

# Try to preserve some state across restarts.
persist-key
persist-tun

# If you are connecting through an
# HTTP proxy to reach the actual OpenVPN
# server, put the proxy server/IP and
# port number here. See the man page
# if your proxy server requires
# authentication.
;http-proxy-retry # retry on connection failures
;http-proxy [proxy server] [proxy port #]

# Wireless networks often produce a lot
# of duplicate packets. Set this flag
# to silence duplicate packet warnings.
;mute-replay-warnings

# 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 usr/ca.crt
cert usr/SSMANKU.crt
key usr/SSMANKU.key

# Verify server certificate by checking
# that the certicate has the nsCertType
# field set to “server”. This is an
# important precaution to protect against
# a potential attack discussed here:
# http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm
#
# To use this feature, you will need to generate
# your server certificates with the nsCertType
# field set to “server”. The build-key-server
# script in the easy-rsa folder will do this.
ns-cert-type server

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

# Select a cryptographic cipher.
# If the cipher option is used on the server
# then you must also specify it here.
;cipher x

# Enable compression on the VPN link.
# Don’t enable this unless it is also
# enabled in the server config file.
comp-lzo

# Set log file verbosity.
verb 3

# Silence repeating messages
;mute 20

ERROR IN THE CLIENT :

Options error: Unrecognized option or missing parameter(s) in [PUSH-OPTIONS]:5: topology (2.0.9)

Options error: unknown --redirect-gateway flag: bypass-dhcp

PUSH: Received control message: ‘PUSH_REPLY,redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp,dhcp-option DNS 208.67.222.222,dhcp-option DNS 208.67.220.220,route 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0,topology net30,ping 10,ping-restart 120,ifconfig 10.8.0.10 10.8.0.9’

Please Assist !

Thanks

There is a setting on the eWON that discards pings by default on the WAN side. You can change this setting in the comcfg.txt file.
image
Default is “3” which discards pings. Change to “1” or “2” to reply to pings.

Hi Kyle ,

Thanks for the reply . I checked the setting for WANItf Prot . Its 1 there .

Thanks

I’m sorry, I mis-typed. Default is 1 and discards pings. Please change to 2 or 3.

Now in ewon real time logs following error is remaining :-

echo “deb http://swupdate.openvpn.net/apt <OSRELEASE> main” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/swupdate.openvpn.net.list

And I cannot ping the ewon VPN IP Address 10.8.0.6 from the ubuntu server .

Please assist !

Thanks

Using our device with 3rd party software (anything other than eCatcher or eFive) is currently not supported, however we do have plans to release instructions for configuring with OpenVPN in the future. I would refer you to your local distributor in the meantime. Was this device purchased in India?

Hi @ssmanku1699,

Here is the first draft of our instructions for connecting the eWON with an OpenVPN server instead of eCatcher. We have successfully tested these in a lab setting (using VirtualBox as in the instructions) and on Microsoft Azure, but there was some troubleshooting involved that may not be fully described in the document. You should expect to do some troubleshooting depending on your local environment and keep in mind that we are still in the early stages of testing this configuration. We don’t recommend using this configuration as-is in a production environment, and significant security hardening should be done before deploying.

openVPN App Note Rev1.pdf (268.1 KB)

client.ovpn (251 Bytes)
server.conf (11.0 KB)
vars (8.2 KB)

Kyle

Thanks so much Kyle . I will try out to configure exactly the way mentioned in your shared docs . If I stuck somewhere , get back to you .

1 Like

Hi kyle,
I tried to connect eWON with third party software. For that i refer document following by openVPN App Note Rev1.pdf. I am using amazon server as ubuntu server. But when i run scp command to transfer server.req to my local CA machine it gives me error like permission denied(publickey,password).

Please do needful help,thank you in advance.

When you run the scp command on what? The eWON or the server?

When i run scp command for transferring the file from my machine to server(Amazon ubuntu server) it is running. But when i use scp command for transferring the file from my server (Amazon ubuntu server) to machine,it gives me error like permission denied (publickey,password).

Hi Kyle,

when i start openvpn server with following command systemctl start openvpn@server
it gives me error like

OpenSSL: error:0B080074:x509 certificate routines:X509_check_private_key:key values mismatch

Cannot load private key file /etc/openvpn/server.key

Error: private key password verification failed

Exiting due to fatal error

How can i resolve this?

Thank you in advance

The scp issue is a permissions issue. When you say your machine, is this a Linux or Windows PC? Either way you need to give write permission to the Amazon server to write to your machine.

This OpenSSL error is happening because you put a password on your private key. Please create a new key without a password.

Thank you so much kyle. If I stuck somewhere , get back to you .

Hi kyle,

I done all the configurations according to openVPN App Rev1 Document. But after completing all the steps i found in ewon summary page the status of the vpn is not configured.

one confusion is what should i select in Setup>System>Communications>Networking>VPN Connection>Outgoing

There is one option in outgoing page named Connect to…What should I select in that configuration.

Other EWON/VPN Server/Efive VPN Server

For better understanding I attached one image of this page.

Thank you in advance

I"m sorry about the delay…

Remote VPN WAN… looks correct (Defined Manually)

Connect to … should be VPN Server and contain your Keys.

Did you check the Logs? Are your keys right or is it not connecting to the VPN server?

Yes, my keys are right but it does not connect to the VPN Server. After adding certificates files in Flexy /usr directory, you mention in last step reboot the flexy. On reboot page what should i select None/Enable Remote Wizard.

I tested with None and click on reboot. After rebooting the flexy i go to summary page and checked VPN Status. It is still show Not configured.

Please tell me the above step that i have performed is okay or not.

Hi kyle,
I have attached one document regarding difficulties found in flexy.

Please revert me. Thank you in advance.

Findind difficulties in flexy.docx (256 KB)

None. You just need to reboot or power cycle the Flexy.

In the Word doc you sent you say, “After putting that configuration files in flexy GUI, I have facing one difficulty that when I refresh the browser page, my private key will automatically changed.” The key has not changed, it is just hashed so that it is not showing in “plain text” for security reasons.

You are missing the following line from you server.conf file:

ns-cert-type client

If this does not help, can you please share the logs from both the Server and clients.

Thank you,

Kyle