GCP Frequently Asked Questions

Getting started

Visit our OpenVPN Support Center, where you can submit a support ticket.

Follow the steps in our GCP Quick Start Guide.

To access the Admin Web UI for your OpenVPN Access Server, point your web browser to the ephemeral IP address assigned to your instance and sign in with the admin user. You can find your ephemeral IP address as the External IP address listed under the Network interfaces details for your VM Instance on your Google compute engine.

You can download the OpenVPN Connect app from your Client Web UI. You can also download OpenVPN Connect directly from our site and import connection profiles.

Try the general Frequently Asked Questions page for questions regarding licensing, renewals, purchases, and administration.

Connectivity

To connect to your GCP instance, refer to the documentation on Google Cloud's site: Connect to Linux VMs.

For your first time signing into the Admin Web UI, use the temporary password provided after launching. We recommend you then change the password:

  1. Sign in to the Admin Web UI.
  2. Click User Management > User Permissions.
  3. Click More Settings next to the admin user.
  4. Enter the new password in the password field.
  5. Click Save and Update Running User.

The URL displays with the admin and temporary password after you’ve finished launching the instance. If you need to find it again, from your VM instance details page within your Google Cloud Console, you need the external (or ephemeral) IP address listed under the Network interfaces section. You can then use that to navigate to the UI in your web browser by entering https://[ephemeral-IP]:943/admin. Using the IP address still works even after you’ve set it up with a specific hostname.

GCP Configuration

Refer to Google’s site for Reserving a static external IP address.

We recommend that you choose at least small (1 shared vCPU) as the size of your instance.

The default timezone of a GCP instance is set to UTC. If you would like to change this setting, run the following commands in SSH:

apt update
apt install tzdata

During the installation of tzdata, it asks you for the region and time zone you would like, then set those values for you.

OpenVPN Access Server Configuration

For more information about OpenVPN Access Server, refer to the user manual.

Using a customized hostname for the web interfaces provides your users and admins with a better experience. Rather than entering an IP address, you can enter a hostname such as https://vpn.example.com. Refer to setting up your OpenVPN Access Server hostname for steps.

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