Setup OpenVPN client on Raspberry Pi

OpenVPN uses certificates to authenticate the server and clients. Therefore, the client needs to have a valid client certificate. This certificate needs to be issued by the CA server that also issued the certificate of the OpenVPN server. In my case, this server is installed together with the OpenVPN server on the AWS EC2 instance. The process to create the client certificate is the same as with the server certificate, only the certificate type must be client, or: TLS Web Client Authentication. This is done by specifying the client parameter in the generate certificate request command.

Depending whether or not easy-rsa or any other tool to generate a certificate request is available on the client, the request can be generated directly on the client. The vantage by creating the request on the client is that the private key will stay on the client. In my example, I’ll make use of the already available infrastructure on the OpenVPN server and generate the client request and certificate on the server and copy later the generated artifacts over to the client.

Create client certificate

Log in to the CA (OpenVPN) server and issue a client certificate request. The name of the client will be client1. Note that you can use a different name, like the FQDN of the client.

cd /etc/openvpn/easyrsa
sudo ./easyrsa gen-req client1

As with the server certificate, give a passphrase and common name.

Next: sign the client1 certificate by the CA.

sudo ./easyrsa sign-req client client1

You need to confirm the signing request by entering yes and informing the pass phrase of the CA certificate.

The client certificate is now issued.

• Private key: easy-rsa/pki/private/client1.key
• Public certificate: easy-rsa/pki/issued/client1.crt

Move these files to the OpenVPN client.

OpenVPN client Installation

The client going to connect to the OpenVPN server running on AWS EC2 is a Raspberry Pi. The RP uses a Debian based Linux, therefore apt is used to install software. On the RP, install OpenVPN. Easy-rsa is not needed, as the CA is running on the EC2 instance.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openvpn

Client Certificates

Create a openvpn directory. Can be in /etc/ or in your user’s home. Put the client’s public certificate and privte key there. To use HMCA for additional security, copy the ta.key file from the server there too.

Configuration

Copy the OpenVPN sample client configuration to your openvpn directory and edit the file client.conf.

cd openvpn
cp /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/sample-config-files/client.conf .

Adjust the following lines to point to the correct server (AWS EC2) and local certificates and key. Example:

• remote server.domain.com 1194
• ca /home/tobias/openvpn/ca.crt
• cert /home/tzobias/openvpn/client.crt
• key /home/tobias/openvpn/client.key
• tls-auth /home/tobias/openvpn/ta.key 1

The tls-auth parameter is needed in case the server is configured to use HCMA. The shared key ta.key from the server is needed for this to work.

Start OpenVPN client

To start the OpenVPN as client, run the executable and pass the path to the configuration file as parameter.

openvpn ./client.conf

You need to provide the pass phrase of the client1 private key.

The client will automatically connect to the OpenVPN server defined in the client.conf file (remote parameter) and the given port (1194). Make sure that on AWS EC2, this port is accessible for the client.

Result

If all works, the client connects to the server and gets an internal IP assigned.