keepalive - command not found

criskrit

Hello. I am a total newbie with OpenVPN so please excuse the rudimentary questions. I want my VPN tunnels to stay alive and I read that I should use the keepalive command. So I launched a PuTTY session to the OpenVPN server and typed "keepalive 10 300". I get "keepalive: command not found". Any idea why? Thanks! :geek:

maikcat

I am a total newbie with OpenVPN

are you a newbie in general or with openvpn only?

I want my VPN tunnels to stay alive and I read that I should use the keepalive command

assuming you are talking about openvpn tunnels...

So I launched a PuTTY session to the OpenVPN server and typed "keepalive 10 300"

a putty session (meaning an ssh based session) has nothing to do with the openvpn session you have opened,

anyway the keepalive is an openvpn directive , meaning that it should entered inside your openvpn config.

keep reading my friend...

Michael.

criskrit

I am newbie with OpenVPN. 🙂

"keepalive ... should be entered inside your openvpn config"

When you say "inside your OpenVPN config" do you mean I do it somewhere in the OpenVPN server or in the workstation running the OpenVPN client? Where/How? My clients are Windows workstations.

Thanks!

maikcat

openvpn uses a text config file to start,

usually its inside /etc/openvpn in linux and in c:\program files\openvpn\config

Michael.

Traffic

OpenVPN --keepalive is a config file parameter not an operating system command:

The Manual wrote--keepalive n m

A helper directive designed to simplify the expression of --ping and --ping-restart in server mode configurations.

See --keepalive in The Manual v23x

criskrit

Hello all and thanks for your replies. I have folder "C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenVPN Technologies\OpenVPN Client" but there is no config file in the whole folder tree (or any file that has "config" in its name). Should I be looking elsewhere? Thanks.

Traffic

You have not installed "Openvpn Community Edition..
You have the "Openvpn Technologies Access Server" Client only.

You should really speak to your server provider ..

criskrit

I am the server provider! 😃

This is on Amazon AWS. I deployed the OpenVPN AS that is available there, then downloaded the client from the OpenVPN AS admin GUI.

Can I find the "correct" client somewhere? Will it work with the OpenVPN AS I have deployed? What if I create a config file from scratch (using one of the samples as starting point)? Will this work?

Thanks