Understanding the Client Web UI
The Access Server Client Web UI is a web interface provided by the Access Server software. You can access it via a browser and sign in with user credentials to download OpenVPN Connect and connection profiles. OpenVPN Connect downloads include bundled connection profiles to connect with your Access Server immediately after installation.
When a user installs OpenVPN Connect on a remote PC and connects with their profile, the software creates a secure connection over the internet. Through this connection, the user accesses the private business network as if they're on-site; this is your virtual private network (VPN). The server, running the Access Server software, verifies the credentials and security of incoming connections before establishing them.
This guide details accessing the Client Web UI, available options, and security.
Access Server hosts two web interfaces, the Admin Web UI and the Client Web UI.
The Admin Web UI provides a web interface for administrators to manage the VPN server.
The Client Web UI provides a web interface for your end users. They can access it as follows:
Open a browser and navigate to their Client Web UI with a hostname or IP address.
Sign in with their user credentials — these include a username and password and can integrate with PAM, LDAP, RADIUS, or SAML, as well as multi-factor authentication.
Once they've accessed the Client Web UI, they can do the following:
Download bundled OpenVPN Connect apps.
Download connection profiles.
Manage their user profiles.
Change their user password.
As mentioned, Access Server hosts the web interface for the Client Web UI. Its software includes the pages covered in the sections under The Client Web UI. This web page is hosted on its server and accessible by the public IP address and a custom hostname if defined.
Access Server defaults access to the Client Web UI through web service forwarding. Access Server does this so both the OpenVPN TCP daemon(s) and the web servers can run on the same default port, 443, the HTTPS default port. When a web browser hits the OpenVPN TCP daemon, Access Server forwards those internally to the appropriate web services, the Admin Web UI or the Client Web UI.
You can configure a hostname or custom domain name for accessing your web servers. That way, users can enter a domain name for the Client Web UI rather than using the public IP address. For example, if your server runs on the IP address 192.0.2.16, you can configure a hostname in the Admin Web UI for users to enter rather than remembering the IP address.
https://vpn.yourbusiness.com/
We recommend setting this up with a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).