Using the OpenVPN Access Server Virtual Appliance VMware Version

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Using the OpenVPN Access Server Virtual Appliance For VMware Version

Release with Access Server v1.3.5

Introduction

OpenVPN Access Server is available as a VMware virtual appliance for deployment on Windows. To use the virtual appliance, you must download the virtual machine and run it with VMware software (such as VMware Workstation, VMware Server, VMware Player or VMware Fusion). Note that the freeVMware Player application for Windows can be downloaded from:

http://www.vmware.com/download/player/

 

Upgrading the Access Server Software on an AS v1.1.*, v1.2.* or v1.3.* Virtual Appliance

If you installed the Virtual Appliance Beta Release with Access Server v1.1.* , v1.2.* or v1.3.*, you can upgrade the Access Server software to the new v1.3.4 version by issuing these commands at the Virtual Appliance shell prompt:

wget URL_of_new_package

dpkg -i openvpn-as-1.3.5-Ubuntu8.i386.deb

Where the URL_of_new_package is obtained using the Access Server Downloads page and choosing the package for the Ubuntu8 32-bit platform (requires logging in to the website using your registered account). Use the full URL path including http:// in the wget command.

The package is updated while preserving the configuration (including license information and all keys/certificates) from the previous Access Server installation.

 

Downloading and Running the Virtual Machine

Once VMware Player (or another VMware software distribution) has been installed, download the OpenVPN Access Server virtual appliance. The virtual appliance is distributed as a .ZIP archive file and may be obtained from.

"Download Here" link at the top of this page (Login Required. Register and create a FREE account)

After downloading the virtual appliance ZIP file, expand the ZIP file into the desired directory. On Windows, you can expand the ZIP archive by right-clicking on the file and selecting "Extract All".

To load the extracted virtual machine into your VMware software, you can either

1. Locate the "OpenVPN-AS-Appliance.vmx" file in the extracted folder and double-click on this file.
   or
2. Run your VMware software, select Open, and select the "OpenVPN-AS-Appliance.vmx" file in the extracted folder.

Start the virtual machine if it does not start automatically (as with VMware Player). Next, click inside the appliance window to select it for input. (When the appliance window is selected, the mouse pointer will vanish. Press Control-ALT to return to your computer.)

Initial Setup of Access Server

The first time the virtual appliance boots, you will be queried for some information. First, you must agree to the End User License Agreement (EULA). Next, you will be asked to enter some basic settings that the OpenVPN Access Server needs to initialize itself. These settings may be safely defaulted by pressing 'Enter'.

At the end of the boot sequence, the appliance window will turn to a blue background and show the URL of the appliance management interface. Enter this URL into a browser to continue the setup. You will likely receive a browser warning about the web server SSL certificate not being recognized. You can safely ignore these warnings.

On the appliance management interface, enter the username and password for the appliance. The initial credentials are:

Username: root
Password: openvpnas

See the Virtual Appliance section of the FAQ for information on how to change the root password.

Once logged in, you will be directed to the "System Information" page which gives you basic control over the virtual appliance. You can reboot, shut down, or change the network settings of the appliance.

The next step is to log into the OpenVPN Access Server Admin Web UI. On the "System Information" page, click on the "AS Admin Login" link located in the upper right corner of the page. You will receive another certificate-related browser warning at this point; that warning can also be ignored. At the Access Server Admin Web UI login page, enter the same username and password you entered previously for the appliance management interface.

Once logged in to the Access Server Admin Web UI, follow the instructions in the "Welcome to the Access Server Admin UI" information box to complete configuration of the Access Server.