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[How-To] Install OpenVPN Access Server on Debian 12 VM

Purpose

This document shows how to install OpenVPN Access Server on a Debian 12 VM. 

Prerequisites

List of prerequisites:

  • Root user or sudo user
  • Debian 12 VM

OpenVPN AS Installation

Step 1: SSH To Server

First, SSH into your VM that will have OpenVPN AS installed on it. Once you've done that, verify you can sudo by executing the following:

sudo echo hello!

When you confirm you have sudo, sudo into the root user's profile with the following, as the installation needs to be done as root:

sudo su -l

Step 2: Update and Install Tools

Run the following command to update the system, as well as install needed tools for the install to run:

apt update && apt -y install ca-certificates wget net-tools gnupg

Step 3: Add Repository for OpenVPN AS

Run the following command to add the OpenVPN AS Repository to the server's list of repos:

wget https://as-repository.openvpn.net/as-repo-public.asc -qO /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/as-repository.asc

Now run this command to verify the repo is working normally:

echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/as-repository.asc] http://as-repository.openvpn.net/as/debian bookworm main">/etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn-as-repo.list

Step 4: Install OpenVPN AS

Run the following command to install OpenVPN AS:

apt update && apt -y install openvpn-as

After Installing, you'll get a blurb of text that give information about client and admin URLs as well as login information to get started that looks something like this:


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Access Server has been successfully installed in /usr/local/openvpn_as
Configuration log file has been written to /usr/local/openvpn_as/init.log

Access Server Web UIs are available here:
Admin UI: https://192.168.102.130:943/admin
Client UI: https://192.168.102.130:943
Login as "openvpn" with "password" to continue
(password can be changed on Admin UI)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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