Installing OpenVPN Access Server (ovpn-as) on Debian 9

Mauliawan Santosa
Sep 5, 2018 · 2 min read

This tutorial assumes that you have a server with Debian 9 installed and working internet connection, also you gain full access to it (root).
1. First, login to your server using any methods that you are comfortable with

2. Download ovpn-as package directly from OpenVPN download page as shown below:

For Debian 9 64-bit:
$ wget http://swupdate.openvpn.org/as/openvpn-as-2.5.2-Debian9.amd_64.deb

For Debian 9 32-bit:
$ wget http://swupdate.openvpn.org/as/openvpn-as-2.5.2-Debian9.i386.deb

3. Install ovpn-as package that have been downloaded, using Debian package manager (dpkg) command.

For Debian 9 64-bit:
$ sudo dpkg -i openvpn-as-2.5.2-Debian9.amd_64.deb

For Debian 9 32-bit:
$ sudo dpkg -i openvpn-as-2.5.2-Debian9.i386.deb

4. When the installation is finished, normally, ovpn-as installation will tell you the ip address you can use to access the admin and client UI.

5. But not so fast, you need to reconfigure the ovpn-as manually before accessing it via web interface. This is because ovpn-as by default is not listening to all interface.

6. So, the solution is to configure ovpn-as to listen to all interface on the server. To do this, execute this command below:

$ sudo /usr/local/openvpn_as/bin/ovpn-init

7. Follow the instruction. When you are prompted to specify the network interface and IP address to be used by the admin web UI, select the option of all interface.

8. Finish the configuration until you got the exact same message as when the first installation succeed.

9. To access the admin UI, you will need username and password. By default, ovpn-as username is openvpn.

10. Change the password of openvpn using command below:

$ sudo passwd openvpn

11. Now, you can access the admin and client UI using the ip address of your server. Don’t forget to provide the access port and use https.

12. Here is the admin UI interface:

Admin UI

13. Here is the client UI interface:

Client UI

14. At this step, you need to access the admin UI and create a client user.

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