Deploying on CentOS / Red Hat Enterprise Linux#

For simple one server deployments and tests, we have a deploy script available you can run on a fresh CentOS (or Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 7 installation. It will configure all components and will be ready for use after running!

An additional script is available after deployment:

Use Let’s Encrypt for automatic web server certificate management;

Requirements#

Clean CentOS (or Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 7 installation with all updates installed;
For Red Hat Enterprise Linux the system should be registered at Red Hat with the subscription manager (not required for CentOS);
SELinux MUST be enabled (CentOS SELinux);
Have a STATIC IPv4 and IPv6 address configured on your external interface;
Network equipment/VM platform allows access to the very least tcp/80, tcp/443, udp/1194 and tcp/1194 for basic functionality, the deploy script will take care of the host firewall;
Working DNS entry for your VPN server, e.g. vpn.example.org.

We test only with the official CentOS Minimal ISO and the official Cloud images. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux we test with the official Red Hat Enterprise Linux ISO, e.g. rhel-server-7.5-x86_64-dvd.iso.

If you have a more complicated setup, we recommend to manually walk through the deploy script and follow the steps.

Base Deploy#

Perform these steps on the host where you want to deploy:

$ curl -L -O https://codeberg.org/eduVPN/deploy/archive/v2.tar.gz
$ tar -xzf v2.tar.gz
$ cd deploy

Run the script (as root):

$ sudo -s
# ./deploy_centos.sh

Specify the hostname you want to use for your VPN server. The recommended hostname SHOULD already be the one you want to use… If not, set the hostname correctly first.

NOTE: you can NOT use localhost as a hostname, nor an IP address!

NOTE: by default there is NO firewall for the traffic between VPN client and VPN server. So if you have SSH running on your server, the clients will be able to connect to it when you don’t take additional steps! Look here.

NOTE: if you want to use the development repository, use:

# VPN_DEV_REPO=1 ./deploy_centos.sh

Update#

See INSTALL_UPDATES.

Configuration#

VPN#

See PROFILE_CONFIG on how to update the VPN server settings.

Authentication#

Username & Password#

By default there is a user demo and admin with a generated password for portal access. Those are printed at the end of the deploy script.

If you want to update/add users you can use the vpn-user-portal-add-user. Provide an existing account to update the password:

$ sudo vpn-user-portal-add-user
User ID: foo
Setting password for user "foo"
Password: 
Password (repeat):

You can configure which user(s) is/are an administrator by setting the adminUserIdList option in /etc/vpn-user-portal/config.php, e.g.:

'adminUserIdList' => ['admin'],

LDAP#

It is easy to enable LDAP authentication. This is documented separately. See LDAP.

RADIUS#

It is easy to enable RADIUS authentication. This is documented separately. See RADIUS.

SAML#

It is easy to enable SAML authentication for identity federations, this is documented separately. See SAML.

2FA#

It is possible to enable 2FA with TOTP.

ACLs#

If you want to restrict the use of the VPN a bit more than on whether someone has an account or not, e.g. to limit certain profiles to certain (groups of) users, see ACL.

Optional#

Web Server Certificates#

By default a self-signed certificate is used for the web server. You can install your own certificates, and tweak /etc/httpd/conf.d/vpn.example.org.conf to point to them, or use Let’s Encrypt using the script mentioned below.

Let’s Encrypt#

Run the script (as root) from the documentation folder:

$ sudo -s
# ./lets_encrypt_centos.sh

Make sure you use the exact same DNS name you used when running deploy_centos.sh!

After completing the script, the certificate will be installed and the system will automatically replace the certificate before it expires.

If you also want to allow clients to connect with the VPN over tcp/443, see Port Sharing.

Let’s Connect! Branding#

See BRANDING.