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Tutorial: How to Configure Access Server

Abstract

An overview of OpenVPN Access Server: Client UI, Admin Web UI, and command line interface (CLI).

Overview

This tutorial provides an overview of the Access Server Client Web UI, Admin Web UI, and command line interface (CLI). Once you are familiar with these, these links provide more information on configuring your server:

Configuration resources

Use these links to configure Access Server. They provide information about finalizing the initial configuration, purchasing a subscription, adding users, and more:

The Client Web UI

Access Server provides web services to run Admin and Client Web UIs. The Client Web UI provides your users with pre-configured VPN clients, simplifying connecting to your VPN server.

To access the Client Web UI, use either the IP address or hostname of your Access Server. For example:

  • https://192.0.2.123/

  • https://vpn.businessname.com/

The IP address is the external IP address of your server. A custom hostname can be set up using the Admin Web UI and a DNS ‘A’ record. You can follow the steps to set up a custom hostname here: Tutorial: Setting up your Access Server Hostname

This Client Web UI provides an interface for your users to sign in and retrieve pre-configured downloads of OpenVPN Connect. Users can download and install OpenVPN Connect with a personalized and bundled user profile configuration or download a configuration profile to import into any VPN client that supports .ovpn.

Note

In our documentation, we use example IPv4 addresses and subnets reserved for documentation, such as 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, and 203.0.113.0/24.

Ensure you replace them with valid IPv4 addresses and subnets for your network(s).

The Admin Web UI

The Admin Web UI is available at the same IP address or hostname the Client Web UI uses but at the /admin path. For example:

  • https://192.0.2.123/admin

  • https://vpn.businessname.com/admin

Once you finish the setup, the credentials and address for the web interface are printed on screen:

Note

Access Server versions older than 2.10 do not automatically generate a password. On older versions you set the password manually by typing passwd openvpn on the command line.

The root user credentials can’t be used to sign in to the Admin Web UI.

User manuals

Refer to these helpful user manuals for product details:

The command-line interface (CLI)

You can use the CLI to manage all Access Server VPN settings. And the CLI enables you to use more advanced functions that aren’t available through the Admin Web UI.

Access to the CLI is typically established through an SSH session to your server or directly on your server’s console. On the CLI, you can create custom shell scripts to automate tasks such as creating new users with custom settings or implementing custom authentication options.

Here are some helpful tutorials for using the CLI:

In this section: