Server Install on Amazon Linux AMI - Can't Generate Script

bioteam-dag

I am a commercial user of OpenVPN AS but I ran into this problem today and believe I found the solution.

The problem with the error you see is that the OpenVPN script that generates the server startup files does not recognize the Amazon Linux AMI as one of the supported distributions.

The solution is to turn off the OS distro auto-detect feature in the script that makes the startup files and instead force it to treat the system as redhat-like.

Details:

You can see this better if you run the setup command in verbose mode:

/usr/local/openvpn_as/bin/ovpn-init --verbose

And when you do that the error at the end when it fails to create the startup script on the Amazon Linux AMI looks like this:

Generating init scripts...
gen init cmd= /usr/local/openvpn_as/scripts/openvpnas_gen_init (256, 'ERROR: Unknown OS distro: None: util/options:73,linux/geninit:292,linux/geninit:138,<string>:1,sagent/sagent_entry:30,linux/geninit:293,util/options:73,linux/geninit:292,linux/geninit:138,util/error:58,util/error:41')
Error: Could not generate server script.

Further digging in, it looks like the script that creates the startup files takes command line arguments:

 /usr/local/openvpn_as/scripts/openvpnas_gen_init -h
openvpnas_gen_init: option -h not recognized
Gen Init
Usage: <pgmname> OPTIONS...
Options:
  -d, --dry      Dry run (output script to stdout)
  -a, --auto     Output command to autorun init script on reboot
  -n, --noauto   Output command to disable autorun init script on reboot
  -e, --exec     Execute auto or noauto command
      --distro=  Distro family (redhat or debian). The default value is
                 auto-detected.
      --version  
      --help     Display this help and exit.

And finally, if you rerun this script manually and pass in the "--distro redhat" argument you will get a working config:

# /usr/local/openvpn_as/scripts/openvpnas_gen_init --distro redhat
writing init script to /etc/init.d/openvpnas

rsasuncion

Hi,

I was able to install Access Server in Linux AMI by removing the following lines in the _ovpn_init:

## Execute gen script...
#print "Generating init scripts..."
#GEN = "/usr/local/openvpn_as/scripts/openvpnas_gen_init"
#retv = commands.getstatusoutput( GEN )
#if DEBUG: print "gen init cmd=", GEN, retv
#if retv[0] != 0:
# print "Error: Could not generate server script."
# sys.exit(1)

## Execute gen script auto...
#print "Generating init scripts auto command..."
#GEN2 = "/usr/local/openvpn_as/scripts/openvpnas_gen_init --auto"
#retv = commands.getstatusoutput( GEN2 )
#if DEBUG: print "gen init cmd 2=", GEN2, retv
#if retv[0] != 0:
# print "Error: Could not generate server script auto."
# sys.exit(1)
#GENAUTO = retv[1]

## Execute the auto gen script...
#retv = commands.getstatusoutput( GENAUTO )
#if retv[0] != 0:
# print "Error: Could not execute command to generate startup/shutdown scripts"
# sys.exit(1)
#if DEBUG: print "gen auto cmd=", GENAUTO, retv

After running the script, I did a manual run of the gen script to generate init script (scripts/openvpnas_gen_init --distro redhat).
Would there be any complications, security and functionality wise, in the hack that I did?

Thank you,
mon

garbage man

Error installing openvpi on Amazon AMI.

create missing redhat file; vim /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.3 (Santiago)

/usr/local/openvpn_as/bin/ovpn-init --ec2 --verbose

for reference:# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Amazon Linux AMI"

configure using AS and verbose
/usr/local/openvpn/bin/

# ./ovpn-init -h
Usage: ovpn-init [options]

Options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--verbose If this argument is used, verbose output will be
generated.
--force If this argument is used, openvpn-as will be re-
initialized and all DBs will be wiped!
--batch If this argument is used, openvpn-as will run in batch
mode, and will not solicit input from the tty. You
should not use this option unless you have viewed the
EULA and agree to it (use the --view-eula option to view
the EULA). Using this option indicates your agreement
with the EULA.
--host=HOST Set the FQDN of this server for access from the internet.
--ec2 Configure using Amazon EC2 user-defined metadata
--cloudsigma Configure using CloudSigma user-defined metadata
--secondary If this argument is used, the node will be configured as
a secondary node, to be used for backup or standby
purposes.
--no_reroute_gw If this argument is used, client traffic will NOT be
routed by default through the VPN.
--no_reroute_dns If this argument is used, client DNS traffic will NOT be
routed by default through the VPN.
--no_private If this argument is used, private subnets will NOT be
accessible to clients by default.
--local_auth Use local authentication via internal DB
--license=LICENSE Optionally, specify an OpenVPN-AS license key
--no_start Don't automatically start the the Access Server daemon at
the conclusion of the script.
--view-eula View the EULA (End User License Agreement).