How To Install OpenVPN Server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install OpenVPN  Server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, OpenVPN is a robust and highly flexible open-source VPN software that uses all of the encryption, authentication, and certification features of the OpenSSL library to securely tunnel IP networks over a single UDP or TCP port.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of OpenVPN on a Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa) server.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint or elementary OS.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install OpenVPN Server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa

Step 1. First, make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running the following apt commands in the terminal.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2. Installing OpenVPN on Ubuntu 20.04.

Clone the OpenVPN-install repository, thus the installation is as simple as running the command below:

wget https://git.io/vpn -O openvpn-install.sh && bash openvpn-install.sh

You will get a couple of prompts to change or confirm default settings for the installation:

Welcome to this OpenVPN "road warrior" installer!

I need to ask you a few questions before starting the setup.
You can leave the default options and just press enter if you are ok with them.

First, provide the IPv4 address of the network interface you want OpenVPN
listening to.
IP address: 192.168.77.21

Which protocol do you want for OpenVPN connections?
1) UDP (recommended)
2) TCP
Protocol [1-2]: 1

What port do you want OpenVPN listening to?
Port: 1194

Which DNS do you want to use with the VPN?
1) Current system resolvers
2) 1.1.1.1
3) Google
4) OpenDNS
5) Verisign
DNS [1-5]: 1

Finally, tell me your name for the client certificate.
Please, use one word only, no special characters.
Client name: client

Okay, that was all I needed. We are ready to set up your OpenVPN server now.
Press any key to continue...

The Main OpenVPN server configuration file is,/etc/openvpn/server.conf you are free to tune and tweak it to your liking:

$ cat  /etc/openvpn/server.conf 
port 1194
proto udp
dev tun
sndbuf 0
rcvbuf 0
ca ca.crt
cert server.crt
key server.key
dh dh.pem
auth SHA512
tls-auth ta.key 0
topology subnet
server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0
ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
push "redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp"
push "dhcp-option DNS 8.8.8.8"
push "dhcp-option DNS 8.8.4.4"
keepalive 10 120
cipher AES-256-CBC
comp-lzo
user nobody
group nogroup
persist-key
persist-tun
status openvpn-status.log
verb 3
crl-verify crl.pem

Step 3. Generate OpenVPN user profile (.ovpn file)

We need to generate VPN Profiles to be used by the users. The same script we used for the installation will be used for this:

$ ./openvpn-install.sh 

Looks like OpenVPN is already installed.

What do you want to do?
   1) Add a new user
   2) Revoke an existing user
   3) Remove OpenVPN
   4) Exit
Select an option [1-4]: 1

Tell me a name for the client certificate.
Please, use one word only, no special characters.
Client name: meilana.maria
Generating a 2048 bit RSA private key
...+++
.............................................................................................................................+++
writing new private key to '/etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/pki/private/meilana.maria.key.8dsBMWTWPe'
-----
Using configuration from ./openssl-easyrsa.cnf
Check that the request matches the signature
Signature ok
The Subject's Distinguished Name is as follows
commonName            :ASN.1 12:'meilana.maria'
Certificate is to be certified until May  4 16:16:32 2028 GMT (3650 days)

Write out database with 1 new entries
Data Base Updated

Client josphat.mutai added, configuration is available at: /root/meilana.maria.ovpn

Step 4. Connect to OpenVPN Server from the client.

You can use the VPN client of your choice to configure the OpenVPN client on your operating system. For those who want to use the Official OpenVPN client, go to the downloads page.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed OpenVPN. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the OpenVPN server in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official OpenVPN website.