myvpn

What is this?

A crude script to setup and use your own OpenVPN server.

How to setup?

Server setup

Clone this repo. Run ./myvpn-setup with following shell variables:

1. REMOTE_HOSTNAME: IP address of remote machine where you want to install OpenVPN server
2. REMOTE_USER: Username you want to run OpenVPN as, on the remote machine
3. REMOTE_CONFIG_DIR: Directory on the remote machine (will be created) where you want to keep the server configuration file and key of OpenVPN server
4. LOCAL_CONFIG_DIR: Directory on your local machine (must be a valid writeable directory) where you want to keep client configuration file and key of OpenVPN client
5. VPN_SERVER_NAME: Just a name for your VPN

For example:

REMOTE_HOSTNAME=142.93.6.4  REMOTE_USER=root  REMOTE_CONFIG_DIR=/root/myvpn  LOCAL_CONFIG_DIR=/Users/manu/myvpn  VPN_SERVER_NAME=myvpn_toronto_5  ./myvpn-setup

Above command will install and setup OpenVPN server on the remote machine. Also, it will create a $VPN_SERVER_NAME.conf at $LOCAL_CONFIG_DIR.

Note: Server setup has been tested on Ubuntu 18 and 20. It may work on Debian.

Client setup

1. Install a client for OpenVPN on your local machine (such as Tunnelblick).
2. Create a connection using $VPN_SERVER_NAME.conf (in case of Tunnelblick, you'll drag-and-drop $VPN_SERVER_NAME.conf onto VPN Details window).

How to use?

Starting

When you want to use VPN:

1. Go to directory $LOCAL_CONFIG_DIR on your local machine. Run ./start-$VPN_SERVER_NAME.sh script (this will start the OpenVPN server at remote machine).
2. Connect to above server using your VPN client.

Stopping

When you're done using VPN:

1. Disconnect from remote on your VPN client.
2. Go to directory $LOCAL_CONFIG_DIR on your local machine. Run ./stop-$VPN_SERVER_NAME.sh script.