Installing OpenVPN
OpenVPN source code and Windows installers can be downloaded here. Recent releases (2.2 and later) are also available as Debian and RPM packages; see the OpenVPN wiki for details.
For security, it's a good idea to verify the file release signature after downloading.
The OpenVPN executable should be installed on both server and client machines, since the single executable provides both client and server functions.
Linux notes (using RPM packages)
If you are using a Linux distribution which supports RPM packages (SuSE, Fedora, Redhat, etc.), it's best to install using this mechanism. The easiest method is to find an existing binary RPM file for your distribution. You can also build your own binary RPM file:
rpmbuild -tb openvpn-[version].tar.gz
Once you have the .rpm file, you can install it with the usual
rpm -ivh openvpn-[details].rpm
or upgrade an existing installation with
rpm -Uvh openvpn-[details].rpm
Installing OpenVPN from a binary RPM package has these dependencies:
openssl
lzo
pam
Furthermore, if you are building your own binary RPM package, there are several additional dependencies:
openssl-devel
lzo-devel
pam-devel
See the openvpn.spec file for additional notes on building an RPM package for Red Hat Linux 9 or building with reduced dependencies.
Linux notes (without RPM)
If you are using Debian, Gentoo, or a non-RPM-based Linux distribution, use your distro-specific packaging mechanism such as apt-get on Debian or emerge on Gentoo.
It is also possible to install OpenVPN on Linux using the universal ./configure method. First expand the .tar.gz file:
tar xfz openvpn-[version].tar.gz
Then cd to the top-level directory and type:
./configure make make install
macOS Notes
Angelo Laub and Dirk Theisen have developed an OpenVPN GUI for macOS.
Other OSes
Some notes are available in the INSTALL file for specific operating systems. In general, the
./configure make make install
method can be used, or you can search for an OpenVPN port or package that is specific to your OS/distribution.