[CentOS] OpenVPN VPS - Getting Started Guide

Overview

Welcome to your new OpenVPN VPS, VIP! We’re happy to have you aboard! Your new VPS with OpenVPN will enable you to travel the world wide web through private tunnels and create connections to other servers, VPS’ and services ensuring security, productivity and more!

Your VPN includes two concurrent users. More users can be created but only two can be simultaneously connected to your VPS VPN Server.

 

Getting Started with OpenVPN on VPS

 

Purchase / Installation

If you added OpenVPN to your order during signup, skip down to “Logging into OpenVPN as an Administrator” 

You can install OpenVPN from your myhosting.com onCloud™ Control Panel using the following steps:

1. Log into onCloud™ at http://manage.myhosting.com 
2. Select your VPS subscription from the dropdown menu at the top of your screen if it’s not already selected.
3. Click “Buy Additional Resources” under the Store section
4. Find OpenVPN, set it to “on” and click Next
5. Complete the order and OpenVPN should begin provisioning right away!

This may take some time, you can refresh the page periodically to check the status of the installation. Once installation is complete, you will more than likely need to restart your VPS. You can do this from the “VPS Management” homescreen (click Stop and Start again once available).

 

Logging into OpenVPN as an Administrator

Your OpenVPN VPS will send you all the login details you need via a secondary welcome email specific to OpenVPN. If you did not receive this, see instructions below:

1. Visit: https://your-IP-here:943/admin/ eg: https://168.144.1.1:943/admin/ 
2. Login as: openvpn
3. Use the following password: same as the original VPS root login (you can change this at any time but it must be done manually)

 

Creating your first OpenVPN tunnel connection

By default, we’ve configured OpenVPN to allow connection using any user on your VPS using the OpenVPN client software. It’s a basic configuration which assigns the VPS IP address to as your connections’ IP. Essentially, your client machine will appear as coming from the IP of your VPS. To connect for the first time, follow the steps below:

1. Download a copy of the OpenVPN client:

• Windows OpenVPN Client
  
• Android OpenVPN App
• iPhone OpenVPN App
• Mac OpenVPN Client
• Linux OpenVPN Client

2.  Install it.
3.  Run the application and fill out server hostname/ipaddress with the :port.
   
4. Click connect, login as:
   user: openvpn
   password: your openvpn admin password per the above section.Visit http://ipchicken.com and you should see the web recognize the VPSs IP as yours, and the application showing data traffic.

 

Best Practices and First Steps

 

Securing your VPN Server

It is highly recommended you limit access to your VPN by users you specifically allow through your OpenVPN administration portal. To do this:

1. Log into your admin OpenVPN portal as per the above section.
2. Click “User Permissions” under “User Management”
3. Put a check beside “Deny access to all users not listed above”
4. Click “Save Settings”
5. Then add any users you want to provide access to into this list. NOTE: Most should not be set with Admin privileges so leave that option unchecked unless you specifically want them to be able to access this admin portal.

 

Adding VPN Users through myhosting.com onCloud Control Panel:

It's now even easier to manage your OpenVPN VPS! myhosting.com provides tools within your onCloud Control Panel to create and manage OpenVPN users on your VPS!

1. Log into your onCloud Control Panel: https://manage.myhosting.com
2. Click the "OpenVPN" tab
   If you do not see this tab, ensure your VPS subscription is selected from the dropdown on the top right of the panel. Also ensure you have already purchased OpenVPN from your billing panel (see instructions at the top of this article).
3. Click the "OpenVPN Accounts" sub-tab
4. Click "Add User"
5. Follow the on-screen wizard to complete the user creation!

Adding VPN Users Manually

Customers who wish to do so may create users manually. Instructions for this are here: 

 

Additional Users, Licensing and Details

Your VPN includes two concurrent users free of charge. More users can be created but only two can be simultaneously connected to your VPS VPN Server. If you require additional concurrent users to be connected at a given time you will need to purchase a new license key from OpenVPN directly.

If you log into your VPS OpenVPN administration portal (as an administrator) and click “License” under “Configuration” you will see:

1. Your current license details and limits
2. A link to purchasing new keys “Access Server Downloads”
3. The “New licensing key” installation tool

After purchasing a new licensing from the “Access Server Downloads” page on the OpenVPN site, you can install it on this page and the features will be available instantly!

 

iPhone/iPad iOS Support

You can now use the official OpenVPN app for both iPhone iOS and Android! Get the apps here:

• Download iPhone OpenVPN Client App: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/openvpn-connect/id590379981?mt=8
  See our setup guide here: 
• Download Android OpenVPN Client App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.openvpn.openvpn&hl=en
  See our setup guide here: 

Alternatively, you can also use the built in PPTP server that also comes with our OpenVPN service.This server is configured separately of OpenVPN but allows you to connect to your VPS server using a Mobile Device and achieve the very same functionality! If you have the option, it is highly recommended you use your OpenVPN client whenever possible as it provides increased security through encryption and is a generally more secure protocol.

See Setup a PPTP VPN for iOS Support >>

 

Troubleshooting

 

Help, my VPN server won’t start, and I get the following error:

Error:

process started and then immediately exited: ['Fri Sep 14 09:14:22 2012 Cannot open TUN/TAP dev /dev/as0t0: No such file or directory (errno=2)']

service failed to start or returned error status

If you receive the above error, then either the “VPN support” application has not been enabled on your VPS or your VPS still needs a reboot since installing the “VPN Support” package. Essentially, it means it is unable to connect to the virtual drivers to start up a tunnel service.

If you’re sure you have installed “VPN Support”, simply reboot and try again.

If you’re not sure, you can check/add the “VPN Support” application resource from your myhosting.com onCloud™ control panel (http://manage.myhosting.com). Log in, ensure you’re OpenVPN subscription is selected from the dropdown and click "Buy Additional Resources" (don’t worry, this new resource won’t cost anything). Click Next to check resources available for this subscription. Here you should see a category of options labeled “Enable VPS Features” under this heading, find “VPN Support” and set it to “On” and click Next. Finally, click Place Order and things should begin provisioning shortly.

If you go back to the “VPS Management” tab, you should shortly see that a new feature is installing, when it’s finished, reboot your VPS and try again!