SSHVPN Setup

Goal §

Use campus VPN to access network resources without needing captive portal login.

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OpenVPN Setup §

Installed OpenVPN:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openvpn

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Config Files §

Placed files in:

/etc/sshvpn/
├── config.ovpn
├── creds.txt

Get your .ovpn file from the VPN Portal

creds.txt format:

username
password

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Running VPN Manually §

sudo openvpn --config /etc/sshvpn/config.ovpn --auth-user-pass /etc/sshvpn/creds.txt

Observed:

• connects successfully
• blocks terminal (foreground process)

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systemd Service §

Created service:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/sshvpn.service

Basic structure:

[Unit]
Description=OpenVPN SSH VPN
After=network.target
 
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/openvpn --config /etc/sshvpn/config.ovpn --auth-user-pass /etc/sshvpn/creds.txt
Restart=always
User=root
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

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Enable and Start §

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable sshvpn
sudo systemctl start sshvpn

Check status:

sudo systemctl status sshvpn

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Wrapper Command §

Created script:

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/sshvpn

#!/bin/bash
CONFIG="/etc/sshvpn/config.ovpn"
 
get_gateway() {
    ip route | grep default | awk '{print $3}' | head -n 1
}
 
case "$1" in
    start)
        echo "Starting VPN..."
        sudo systemctl start sshvpn
        echo "VPN started"
        ;;
        
    stop)
        sudo systemctl stop sshvpn
        echo "VPN stopped"
        ;;
        
    restart)
        echo "Restarting VPN..."
        sudo systemctl restart sshvpn
        echo "VPN restarted"
        ;;
        
    status)
        sudo systemctl status sshvpn
        ;;
        
    update)
        if [ -z "$2" ]; then
            echo "Usage: sshvpn update <path-to-ovpn>"
            exit 1
        fi
        sudo cp "$2" "$CONFIG"
        sudo chmod 600 "$CONFIG"
        echo "VPN config updated at $CONFIG"
        echo "Please restart your VPN"
        ;;
        
    showconfig)
        echo "Current config location:"
        echo "$CONFIG"
        ;;
        
    *)
        echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|status|update|showconfig}"
        ;;
        
esac

Basic usage:

sshvpn start
sshvpn stop
sshvpn restart
sshvpn status

Internally uses:

systemctl start sshvpn
systemctl stop sshvpn

Updating config file:

sshvpn update <path-to-ovpn>
sshvpn restart

Updating the config will copy the config file to /etc/sshvpn/ for more safety.

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Observations §

• VPN connects successfully
• Internet works without captive portal login
• Traffic routed through VPN

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Issues §

• SSH connection drops when VPN starts
• Routing changes break existing connections
• Difficult to manage remotely once VPN is active

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Notes §

• systemd simplifies managing VPN
• credentials must be stored securely
• foundation for later networking experiments