Using OpenVPN with systemd

Question

Ok, so I've been searching the web for solutions to this problem with no answers seeming to work for me. Hopefully someone can help me. I'm only trying to configure the OpenVPN Client.

I'm running CrunchBang Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 Debian 3.2.60-1+deb7u1 x86_64 GNU/Linux and I just switched over to using systemd. The changeover went smooth enough but now I can't get my OpenVPN client to come up using systemd I've tried following these configuration tutorials, but nothing works.

• http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Openvpn
• http://d.stavrovski.net/blog/how-to-install-and-set-up-openvpn-in-debian-7-wheezy
• And looked at a bunch of other different guides.

I can bring up the tunnel from the command line with openvpn /etc/openvpn/vpn.conf. So I know the config file is good, it was working with sysvinit just fine so I'm not surprised. I then attempt to just do a status with systemctl status openvpn@vpn.service resulting in:

$ sudo systemctl status openvpn@vpn.service
  openvpn@vpn.service
Loaded: error (Reason: No such file or directory)
Active: inactive (dead)

I realized that I need to do some setup for services. I want to be prompted for a password so I followed this guide to create an openvpn@.service in /etc/systemd/system/. But restarting the OpenVPN service still doesn't prompt for a password.

$ sudo service openvpn restart
[ ok ] Restarting openvpn (via systemctl): openvpn.service.

The Fedora tutorials go through the steps of creating symbolic links, but don't create any of the .service files in the walk-throughs.

What piece am I missing? Do I need to create an openvpn@vpn.service? If so, where exactly do I place it? I feel like it shouldn't be this difficult, but I can't seem to find any solution that works for me. I'm happy to provide any more information that's needed.

Solution

-rw-r--r--  1 root root   319 Aug  7 10:42 openvpn@.service

[Unit]
Description=OpenVPN connection to %i
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/openvpn --daemon ovpn-%i --status /run/openvpn/%i.status 10 --cd /etc/openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/%i.conf
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
WorkingDirectory=/etc/openvpn

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
openvpn@.service (END)

Symlink:

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   36 Aug  7 10:47 openvpn@vpn.service -> /lib/systemd/system/openvpn@.service

Prompt For Password

Everything is working now, except for being prompted for a password to connect. I've attempted this solution. I tweaked the file from above just a bit, and added an Expect script like in the example. Working like a charm! My files are below.

Modified lines from the above /lib/systemd/system/openvpn@.service

ExecStart=/usr/sbin/openvpn --daemon ovpn-%i --status /run/openvpn/%i.status 10 --cd /etc/openvpn --management localhost 5559 --management-query-passwords --management-forget-disconnect --config /etc/openvpn/%i.conf
ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/expect /lib/systemd/system/openvpn_pw.exp

Expect script /lib/systemd/system/openvpn_pw.exp. Make sure to do the following:

• chmod +x on the script.
• Have telnet installed

Code of the expect script:

#!/usr/bin/expect
set pass [exec /bin/systemd-ask-password "Please insert Private Key password: "]

spawn telnet 127.0.0.1 5559
expect "Enter Private Key Password:"
send "password 'Private Key' $pass\r"
expect "SUCCESS: 'Private Key' password entered, but not yet verified"
send "exit\r"
expect eof

It should be noted that the above solution does log your password entered in plaintext in the following logs in /var/log/syslog and /var/log/daemon.log

Answer 1

I think the Debian OpenVPN setup with systemd is currently a tad bit broken. To get it to work on my machines I had to:

1. Create /etc/systemd/system/openvpn@.service.d (the directory), and place in it a new file with this:

   [Unit]
   Requires=networking.service
   After=networking.service

   I called my file local-after-ifup.conf. It needs to end with .conf. (This is the bit that's currently a tad bit broken.)

2. Create a file in /etc/tmpfiles.d (I called mine local-openvpn.conf) with the contents:

   # Type Path         Mode UID  GID  Age Argument
   d      /run/openvpn 0755 root root  -  -

   This is Debian bug 741938 (fixed in 2.3.3-1).

3. Create a symlink into multi-user.target.wants (easiest way is systemctl enable openvpn@CONF_NAME.service) E.g., if you have /etc/openvpn/foo.conf, you'd use openvpn@foo.service.

4. If you also have the SysV init script showing up in systemd, disable it. This is Debian bug 700888 (fixed in 2.3.3-1).

NOTE: 2.3.3-1 or later is not yet in testing, though it is in unstable.

Answer 2

This type of unit file is an Instantiated Service - more details are available here

The following is the unit file for openvpn on CentOS 7:

[Unit]
Description=OpenVPN Robust And Highly Flexible Tunneling Application On %I
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
PrivateTmp=true
Type=forking
PIDFile=/var/run/openvpn/%i.pid
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/openvpn --daemon --writepid /var/run/openvpn/%i.pid --cd /etc/openvpn/ --config %i.conf

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

and it resides as /usr/lib/systemd/system/openvpn@service. The %i in the file is replaced with the string after the @ in the unit name.

As the config file is at /etc/openvpn/myopenvpn.conf then the service is started with:

systemctl start openvpn@myopenvpn.service

Answer 3

1. Place all openvpn *.conf files into /etc/openvpn/.

2. Edit /etc/default/openvpn. Uncomment this:

   AUTOSTART="all"
   

3. Run systemctl daemon-reload.

4. Run service openvpn start.

Answer 4

You need to create the service file by enabling openvpn@<configuration>.service.

For example, if the configuration file is /etc/openvpn/client.conf, the service name is openvpn@client.service.

From the Arch Wiki

Answer 5

The proper solution would be, to make use of systemd's systemd-ask-password/"Password Agents", which provides a systemd builtin way to funnel passwords/passphrases to services.

You'll need OpenVPN 2.3.0 or newer to do this.

Answer 6

The openvpn@.service has evolved greatly between Debians 8 and 9. The original package for Jessie for example fails to systemctl reload openvpn@. To fix these the Stretch version introduces 10 new directives in the systemd-file including PIDFile= to make reload work again.

For Stretch users, I'd suggest going for the backport, and if not possible to do that, at least get the systemd-file from https://packages.debian.org/jessie-backports/openvpn and extract debian/openvpn@.service into /etc/systemd/system/openvpn@.service and enjoy better functionality and security.

Answer 7

On a fresh Jessie_8.0.0 installation I did:

1. copy the old /etc/openvpn/cluster.conf (plus *.key and *.crt) files from wheezy
2. uncommented AUTOSTART="all" in /etc/default/openvpn - I think this had no effect
3. /lib/systemd/system-generators/openvpn-generator cluster
4. systemctl restart openvpn@cluster.service

Now the tunnel is up - I will see what will happen after a reboot, but I can't reboot in this moment

Answer 8

I had better luck using openvpn's --auth-user-pass option to reference a config file instead of using the expect script, i.e.:

ExecStart=/usr/sbin/openvpn --daemon ovpn-%i --status /run/openvpn/%i.status 10 --cd /etc/openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/%i.conf --auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/credentials.txt

where /etc/openvpn/credentials.txt is a text file that has my username on line 1 and my password is on line 2.

Obviously if you can't store your credentials in plain text this is not a good solution, but it works for my purposes.