OpenVPN + Linode = Selfhosted VPN

Creating a selfhosted VPN is actually quite easy, at least with linode (not sponsored). I will try to summarize how I selfhosted a VPN, and the problems I faced.

Server Setup

I used a Linode Video to get started. I will go skim through the steps regardless.

  • click on “Create a Linode” (or something, I forgot)
  • From the marketplace select OpenVPN
  • Fill in necessary fields
  • Choose the OS and type of server you want, I chose a Nanode(the cheapest one).

Once the Linode is created and initialized, the openVPN Access Server can be accessed using the ip address of the created VM. In the browser you have type

https://YOUR_LINODE_IP:943/admin

This is to connect to the OpenVPN server as admin. This link will not open in a “incognito”/“private” tab.

Here I faced my first problem. I found out the admin OpenVPN Access Server username is different from the one I entered during the creation of the Server, and openVPN doesn’t even ask for your password. The default username is “openvpn” and the password is in your server. Ssh into your server by copying the “SSH Access” link.

Now since you have access to your server on the terminal, you have to find the stackscript.log file on the server. I simply did

cat /var/log/stackscript.log | grep -i password

NOTE: for older versions of openvpn, you just do

passwd openvpn

to change the password. I am not sure if this works on the latest versions.

This might be different for you depending on the OS, I have the Ubutu 22.04 LTS.

Once logged in as admin, you have to go to “User Management” > “User Permissions” and add a new user. This is for the user to connect to this openVPN server. Set a username and password, with all other default settings.

The server setup is complete at this point. Next we just have to setup the clients.

Now you can type

https://YOUR_LINODE_IP:943/?src=connect

to go to user login, this is different from admin login. Use the username and password created to login. These are a bunch of options for the clients depending on OS.

Setting up the client

This part is important for using the VPN on your devices. I will only cover linux (Linux Mint) and Android here because these are the ones I have setup.

Android

First Install the application for OpenVPN; either “OpenVPN Access” or “OpenVPN for android”. OpenVPN mentions “OpenVPN for android” as the application for “Advanced” users, The setup is simple for both.

From the user login in your browser download the “Connection Profile” just below the OS options given. Once you have the .ovpn Connection Profile file on your phone just click it. It will call an intent for the app you have installed, just click the OpenVPN app and add the profile. I have tried this on 2 phones with 2 different apps, and it worked without much hassle.

Linux

For Linux Mint you can use the openvpn CLI tool. Similar to the android setup. You need the “Connection Profile” file from the user login.

  • For “auto-login” Use

openvpn --config YOUR_CONNECTION_PROFILE.ovpn

  • For “user-locked” Use

openvpn --config YOUR_CONNECTION_PROFILE.ovpn --auth-user-pass

There is further setup in linux for setting up the whole thing. But, with this you can start using your vpn on your system.

It would be preferrable to have openvpn3 which is mentioned in the setup. But, I was unable to have it setup in my “Linux Mint Ulyana” Laptop. I might update this part if I figure something out.

That’s all.

As you might have noticed I am using Linode to create a selfhosted VPN. This is because as soon as I hosted this blog on Digital Ocean, I tried to Login to Linode. It seems they don’t have a habit of sending confirmation/acknowledgement emails or anything. But, I didn’t get the free credits for some reason. So, It didn’t matter where I hosted this blog.

Anyways I want to make the blogs better with some images and gifs. I also want to change the theme for this blog, because currently it is super bland and basic looking. I used the default theme provided by hugo. This might change in few weeks.