General process

OpenVPN is disabled by default.

When OpenVPN is enabled by root360 for specific users, they are able to connect to the bastion host using a TLS-secured private tunnel. When addionally MFA is active for the environment a valid token must be provided upon connect.

Following steps are required to enable and use OpenVPN:

1. check and accept preconditions

2. request activation of OpenVPN and optionally MFA

3. activate MFA if it is enabled

4. obtain the VPN client config, install and configure OpenVPN client

5. establish VPN connection

1. Preconditions

• MFA preconditions, if MFA is enabled for the target environment

2. Request activation of OpenVPN

Request activation of OpenVPN for a dedicated environment via change request at https://support.root360.cloud.

3. activate MFA (if enabled)

Follow the steps for MFA activation.

4. Install and configure OpenVPN client

4.1 Windows

1. Download the OpenVPN Windows installer

2. Install the client software (make sure to tick "EasyRSA 2 Certificate Management Scripts"  )

3. Create a Certificate Signing Request (see additional infos below) and send the resulting CSR file to root360 via https://share.root360.cloud/

4. Get the OpenVPN client config file including the signed certificate from root360

5. Copy the content of your private key into the config file (into the key section)

   <key> -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY----- ... -----END PRIVATE KEY----- </key>

   
   
   

6. Copy the secret VPN config file into directory C:\Users\<your-user>\OpenVPN\config

4.2 Linux

1. Install the OpenVPN client and easy-rsa using your package manager

2. Create a Certificate Signing Request (see additional infos below) and send the resulting CSR file to root360 via https://share.root360.cloud/

3. Get the OpenVPN client config file including the signed certificate from root360

4. Copy the content of your private key into the config file (into the key section)

   <key> -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY----- ... -----END PRIVATE KEY----- </key>

   
   
   

5. Copy the secret VPN config file into a directory of your choice

5. Establish connection

5.1 Windows

1. Start the programm OpenVPN GUI

2. Double-click the OpenVPN GUI systray icon (lower right desktop corner) to start the connection

3. Enter your username and the MFA token

5.2 Linux - Manual Start

1. Run OpenVPN client

   openvpn --config /path/to/secret_vpn_config

   
   
   

2. Enter your username and the MFA token

6. Additional info

6.1 Create CSR

1. see example code below for your operating system:

   • make sure to replace <username> with your name in format <first-digit-of-prename>_<surname> (e.g. j_doe) AND prepend the current date in format YYYYMMDD (e.g. 20200103): j_doe_20200103

   • make sure to set valid values for at least Organization Name (your company), Name and Email Address (your email address registered in root360 support portal) as these information will be checked

   • we recommend to secure your certificate with a strong password:

     • at least one lower-case character

     • at least upper-case character

     • at least one digit

     • at least 8 characters

     • optionally with symbols

2. copy the content of keys\<your-name>.csr into https://share.root360.cloud/

3. send the share link into the ticket requesting OpenVPN activation

6.1.1 Sample commands for Windows

6.1.2 Sample commands for Linux

While running this command the following warning might be printed and can be ignored: