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I have an *.ovpn file that works if I type in

sudo openvpn client.ovpn

Now I would like to start up openvpn when I boot the computer. It's a headless version of ubuntu if that matters. 12.04 64bit.

I copied filename.ovpn to /etc/openvpn but it's not starting, even if I run

service openvpn start

How can I do this?


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5 Answers

On Ubuntu any VPN configuration you place in a file named /etc/openvpn/$NAME.conf will be automatically started.

So, all you have to do is copy your client.ovpn to /etc/openvpn/client.conf. I suggest you also use absolute paths in your client.conf for any keys, scripts and so on.

Of course, you might want to double check the /etc/default/openvpn file. By default it will autostart all VPNs, but the AUTOSTART value could have been changed to none, or to be a list of the specific configurations you want automatically started.

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I tried that. All values were commented out and the documentation stated that the default was all. –  waspinator Dec 17 '12 at 15:23
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The client config must have the extension .conf and not .ovpn. Changing client.ovpn to client.conf in /etc/openvpn should work

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It would be nice to have a un hacker way of doing it, but this will have to do for now.

1) Create file myopenvpn in /etc/init/

nano /etc/init/myopenvpn

2) Insert into myopenvpn and save:

# OpenVPN autostart on boot upstart job

start on runlevel [2345]
stop on runlevel [!2345]


exec /usr/sbin/openvpn --status /var/run/openvpn.client.status 10 --cd /etc/openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/client.conf --syslog openvpn

SOURCE: http://www.hackerway.ch/2012/12/11/how-to-auto-start-openvpn-client-in-debian-6-and-ubuntu-12-04/#comment-79

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You'll have to put this information inside the initialization scripting for openvpn in /etc/init.d. AND aqd appropriate symlinks to the appropriate run level based /etc/rc.d files so that it starts and stops.

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I did it on a CentOS box with the following command inserted into /etc/rc.local:

openvpn --config /path/to/file.ovpn &

The commands in that file are executed after every multi-user runlevel finishes booting and unlike adding it to a startup script it will not slow down your boot if the VPN takes long to setup, but some people would call this a hack.

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This isn't the Right Way to handle this, especially since Debian already has an initscript which does this. –  mgorven May 24 '13 at 20:12
That's why I added that some people consider this a hack. This is not elegant but does the trick. –  Pedro Brito May 24 '13 at 20:14
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