How to Install OpenVPN on Ubuntu (self-hosted VPN)

Learn how to install OpenVPN on Ubuntu for free. In this tutorial, we will be using Ubuntu 20.04.
Get $200 of free DigitalOcean credits here 👉 ttt.do/OpenVPNDigitalOcean (affiliate link)
Don't want to bother with a self-hosted VPN? Use my affiliate link to install Private Internet Access 👉 ttt.do/PIA (they don't keep logs)
Code snippets and more at tonyteaches.tech/openvpn-ubuntu/
Check out my vlog channel ‪@TonyFlorida‬
#openvpn #ubuntu

[@SSmaverick]

Sent Tony an email like 2 days ago regarding this specific question and literally 2 days later this man comes out with the perfect tutorial! Appreciate your help so much dude!!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Happy to help you out!

[@thebusinesscentre]

@@TonyTeachesTech I have not mailed tony yet. But that man has helped me more than anyone. And I wish to thank him for his help! ❤

[@tabbytobias2167]

@@TonyTeachesTech you are awesome, you have basically every tutorial on every piece of tech.

[@CoachGarcia]

Where did you found his email I am trying to contact him thanks

[@VixityTheFox1]

Yo thank you so much for making this shit, saved my ass so much money.@@TonyTeachesTech

[@abdinasirmoalin2849]

Thank you very much. Your explanation made it so simple. I watched others a lot. Luckily I found your when I had to give up. The way you showed was even easier and effictive teaching than the ready-made templates. Thank you again

[@reachmind.411]

I really owe you one dude. After hours trying by other guys yours worked ! You won a new subscriber.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks for the sub!

[@snowysysadmin59]

Short, sweet and to the point. SIMPLE

[@TonyTeachesTech]

:)

[@erichart2072]

Dude, I've been trying to configure one of these for years on an old vps. Every guide I found was crap. This was perfection, had it all up and running in about 30 mins. Thank you!!!!!!!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You're welcome Eric!

[@Stev.3n]

Awesome guide. Was going to use the OVA template from them, but this worked out much better to setup it and run my unifi controller on the same server.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Glad it helped!

[@hallercory]

Man. I really appreciate your tutorial. Learned a lot and it makes managing my plex server so much easier.

[@khalidelgazzar]

Great Video. Thanks Tony😊👍

[@TK-rr1gj]

Brilliant content straight to the point, lean bacon! Love it!🤓

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks!!

[@helioradial]

Thank you for this. Much appreciated.

[@metamototomo]

Amazing! Thanks, Tony

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You're welcome!

[@dirac7233]

Very useful. Thanks 👍🏽.

[@splitee]

yo, this was a great video, very easy to follow along. Thanks! subbed btw

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks!

[@WassimBM]

Thank you Tony, that was useful and very clear :)

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Very welcome

[@jyudat4433]

thanks for this ! did this right after Canadian bill c-11 (censorship) passed on my American vps

[@josiahv92]

Great video! Bold to share your IP like that, but I like bold 👍

[@anakinskywalker6728]

very much THANK you! i spent two day reading forums, and couldn't look find a good solution. i'm just learning linux system

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You're welcome!

[@JoseRodriguez-os3qv]

amazing Tony your videos are great appreciate you

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thank you very much

[@coding3617]

@@TonyTeachesTech it is using my private ip address so i cant access it how can i fix it?

[@wuliuxiansheng1605]

I really exited that it worked when I followed what you did

[@TonyTeachesTech]

It's a good feeling :)

[@user-zp9cm4by4d]

Thanks you, clear and easy explanation

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You're welcome!

[@mortezarostami3287]

thanks man, it was great :)

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You're welcome!

[@vikrammalkan4695]

I love your video.

[@PreetBinning]

Great Video. Thanks!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Sure thing ;)

[@JustLikeHammer]

Thanks to your tutorial I do managed to setup my own VPN. It was pretty hard for me because I'm totally new to linux. Whatever Thank you man!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Glad it helped!

[@TheRuslanChanel]

Thanks, man! You helped me a lot

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Glad I could help!

[@Mikeb8134]

Thanks!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You bet!

[@genobisceglia5629]

Great video!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks

[@ahmedu921]

Hi Tony , Please can you do a video about how to automate the openVpn installation using Ansible playbook

[@thayaganthusiyanthan9708]

This great and I like your other videos to I just subbed

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks :)

[@paulhaubourdin6234]

Things have changed a bit: first off when adding the repositories you have to change the name of the ubuntu version you're using (in my case I changed "focal" to "jammy", also the default password for the openvpn (admin) user is given in the terminal when finished installing (so you cannot use "passwd openvpn" command anymore).

[@stejothepisto]

Paul, I think I might love you. Thanks

[@tigerhatestobi2890]

Hero of the people

[@RoyHess666]

found this tutorial, since I've ever managed openvpn via command line only so far. Installed openvpn-as on a freshly installed testing vm on ubuntu 20 but I cannot for the sake access the admin panel, it shows eula to accept, but sends me right back to the login screen.. what a brilliant piece of software this is. username and password are correct, accessing it from different browsers, still the same.

[@jjbesp]

Great video but I'm having some trouble getting it to work on a virtualbox VM running on my home PC. I'm using the virtual appliance provided by openvpn on their website and set it up using all defaults, but it uses the private ip. When I switch to my public ip in the access server I can no longer connect nor import profile :(

[@pwhilby]

Thanks triple T. 💪🏿

[@eduardoxmenezes]

Aha now i get it. Thanksss

[@ilona7051]

Don't forget to run as superuser (root), or use 'sudo' before every 'apt' command. You can change to superuser/root mode by running 'sudo su -' in the command line.

[@rohannema9304]

Sincerely, Thank You

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You're welcome Rohan

[@k0u0s0h0a0g0r0a0]

Good tutorial. Works for windows and macbook, but clicking on ubuntu redirects to some article, instead of downloading settings.

[@speedtnt7591]

Thanks for this amazing tutorial. how can we set it up on two vps? one inside the country and the other one in a country that we want our IP get changed? and how can we change the port?

[@emilstomehoff4465]

Hi, Tony can you make the same tutorial with the OpenVPN community edition where we have no limitation of the connections(licenses). Thank you

[@BlueDolphinBlues]

Do a video on installing open VPN without access server

[@mdatiqmazumder]

Awesome Brother..give me a suggestion or a video how can i forword my port using openvpn hosted on my vps..please

[@Erick101271]

Hi, I tried to setup the same as you discussed. But Im not getting internet when I turn-on the client app. I actually used Virtual Machine using Virtual box to setup the OpenVPN server ? Is this might be the issue?

[@jonaskofoed1470]

Hi Tony. Do you know how to set it up for Remote access?

[@elementriders3053]

Hi tony thanks for the amazing guide could you maybe assist with how do i make my vpn out in the public? once created the open vpn i've got no ping from other endpoint tjhanks

[@nurferdi8994]

hi can u help me i use Ubuntu 18.04 i want to install open vpn-as in putty and then it says unable to correct problems, you have held broken package , what should i do ?

[@adrianpadilla1425]

*correction post edit ...thank you for this tutorial I have it installed and working but one thing I need help with..when I connect to my network via vpn I can not see any printers on my connected network....any hep would be greatly appreciated

[@EpochIsEpic]

Sweet, as soon as oracle finishes setting my account up I'm installing this on one of the free servers. I'm sick of playing lost ark with the crappy speeds from free VPNS lol.

[@danejohre6657]

Great tutorial, thanks. Used it to get OpenVPN server running on a pi4 with ubuntu server.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Nice work!

[@othmankial]

hello, thanks for the video, i wanna ask where I can find that address that u inserted after @ thanks in advance

[@ysfkyya]

Thanks for the video. i have a question: i did the installation steps and when i clicked the link, This site can’t be reached. What is the reason for this error? what should I do?

[@c.m.7037]

Dont you need to implement policy and routing on the server? Like what you are allowed to access etc.

[@sajidifti]

Thank You!!!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You're welcome Saijid

[@gorazdnovsak3705]

I attempted to ask on your webpage but it looks like reCaptcha is broken. Is this also limited to 2 users as is image on OpenVPN page or is unlimited users?

[@HisLoveArmy]

Do you have any videos showing how to limit users to say just 1 server on the network?

[@jaydentechvids2620]

Thank you for the video! Do you know how to set up the vpn server to not change the ip? I want to access my linux server outside my network. For example, I want to access samba server, cockpit, and home assistant outside the network.

[@vahidmardani3885]

thank you

[@exact-itacademy1282]

Hi Tony, can you restrict access to your webserver only to pc connected to vpn server ?

[@1000left]

Another STELLAR video!!! Thank you!!!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

My pleasure!

[@Lebyy]

After running apt install openvpn-as it doesnt show me a link after installing

[@siddharthsharma871]

when you login into the openvpn UI , we saw there was line which was saying only 2 vpn connection allowed. so if wanna setup this openvpn server for my 50 member of team member. will this setup work or we have to purchase the Paid plan?

[@a1wsq]

thanks very much;

[@it-expat-china]

Thanks Tony for this great tutorial which I followed through and successfully creatd my OpenVPN access server. I just want to mentiona that as of writing this comment, it seems that this access server setup doesn't generate a user account "openvpn" anymore. Instead you are getting a new "openvpn_as" user on the Ubuntu system. Also, you'll have to open up port 943 (tcp) for the admin portal to be accessible through web browser. In addition, port 443/tcp and port 1194/udp will be used by open VPN service itself for client to connect. Hence above mentioned ports shall be open on the Ubuntu ufw and relevant security rules from the cloud hosting service provider.

[@derfinlay5854]

hi, i changed the openvpn_as user password but the web GUI says the credentials are invalid, any suggestions? Thank you.

[@rogedkone9757]

@@derfinlay5854 any fix?

[@derfinlay5854]

@@rogedkone9757 yes. Run sudo ovpn-init

[@biggiantcookie]

@@derfinlay5854 This was the solution I was looking for, Thank you!!!

[@derfinlay5854]

@@biggiantcookie sure

[@hamon3533]

Thank you so much i just started my vpn server. How can i restart the server without reinstalling?

[@Neutral621]

Hi Tony, I'd like to configure the "ovpn" file from the user access area for a Linksys WRT54G router running Fresh Tomato. I've been on it unsuccessfully for hours. Any idea how to do that?

[@Maxiwee]

I got a problem everytime I get an error saying it failed to automatically configure it and if try to do it manually it fails saying there are errors in the python script

[@HuDz1966]

With the VPN active is all data passed through the VPN now encrypted?

[@fahimshafahi4388]

my iphone can not connect to the VPN-Server when i am out of the network. how can i fix it. how to connect to my home vpn server from another network? thank you.

[@HisLoveArmy]

So my self hosted box is not working. On my client i get the error "peer certificate verification failure" I even removed my cert and added a new one and it is still not working.

[@manibarma9478]

After got url to access openvpn on browser it's not opening for me, ll traffic is opened , can you suggest here ?

[@arminbrkic841]

I did everything in tutorial but cannot connect in the end, connection timed out, nothing in logs

[@Rmly]

Finally!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

:)

[@commandcracker8635]

What Linux distel are you using?

[@atharvmukane4768]

My VPN profile is stuck on loading when trying to connect and after a while says connection timed out. Dont know what I did wrong. Please help.

[@tmati7860]

I did everything stpe by step and when I'm going to reach the admin page or even my IP address with 943 port, the page doesn't load and I get this message from browser: "This site can’t be reached"

[@saulramirez727]

Great video

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks Saul

[@m1schief10]

great video , but when I want to add oepnvpn to my repository list , it won't work , I get an error " Try `wget -- help for more option " , I triple check it , I'll do everything as you say .

[@hamonadesigns616]

But it only works for local connections . What shall i do?

[@JPabloDonayreQuintana]

How to use VPN for sharing critical data of my company ? I mean, how to setup my company website in order to access only if im using a specific VPN ?

[@CoachGarcia]

How come you didnt need to port foward port 1194 to be able connect on your open vpn ? Usually u need to do this

[@WilliamGasperi]

Mto bem explicado, obrigado

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks

[@RINEGANALQUIMISTA]

The video was excellent, BUT it does not apply to servers at home, because everything comes out as localhost ip

[@DeepThakkar]

Hi @Tony, I installed OpenVPN on Ubuntu Server, hosted on Oracle Cloud. I am able to connect to the OpenVPN using client from a windows PC, but after getting connected to the VPN, internet is not working. Please help.

[@user-em3zv2jd1y]

I have finished the admin login step and not getting how to login as a user in ubuntu

[@alanhiggins2521]

This is my first Ubuntu server/ OpenVPN set up. I have typically used the built VPN service built into my home router however i decided to build my own VPN server to access my resources at home. This video appears to be what i need to accomplish this task however since it's my first attempt, do you have a video that goes over the steps/configuration to access my LAN resources with security in mind.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

No sorry I don't have a video on that topic

[@CloudGirl]

I try install on my VDS - Ubuntu but.. I have failure message: This page is not working, web has not sent any data. When i try login to admin

[@atharvmukane4768]

I have forgot my openvpn access server admin password. Plus, when I try "passwd openvpn", It says "passwd: user 'openvpn' does not exist". Please help me solve this. Thankyou.

[@afshaarahmed2114]

if i want to access some specific domain through OpenVPN then?

[@stejothepisto]

I can only connect while I'm on my home network.. How do I fix this?

[@quanghuypham5789]

Can I use these installation steps in Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS ?

[@montala3380]

Hi, how to install SSL for openvpn access server? by default, the connect to admin and client UI is not secured

[@dorpix9974]

I went through all the steps, but when I entered the admin's IP in the browser, no page came to me

[@rafiekalibuxful]

Thanks, I just succesfully installed openvpn on ubuntu server 22.04. Can you explain how to create the config file .ovpn, which we can use for android devices. I want to connect to my vpn server at home from outside. tnx

[@farshadtalebi1849]

when I install openvpn and finish aftar type passwd openvpn show this error "user 'openvpn' does not exist' please help

[@djordje1999]

i can't pass a licence agreement.. it constantly logs me out.. type username and password, get licence agree button, just click to reload and boom im logged out again..

[@Nova-Rift]

I don't see how you got the client gui installed and showing.

[@Beardbarian46]

it doesnt show me the IP Addresses also they dont work. am i missing any command to launch the server?

[@farshadtalebi1849]

thank mr Tony.I have problem can you help me?

[@endeshaw1000]

I cannot install the dependency libssl1.1 as it was removed from the ubuntu repository due security concerns - Maybe because of the recently poped up xz-CVE? Do already a workaround for this exists?

[@FreePizza007]

And split tunnels?

[@Shredzter]

Can I do this with Kali or is this Ubuntu exclusive?