Mon Dec 19 22:52:55 2016 WARNING: 'cipher' is used inconsistently, local='cipher AES-256-CBC', remote='cipher BF-CBC'
and
Mon Dec 19 22:53:04 2016 WARNING: 'cipher' is used inconsistently, local='cipher AES-256-CBC', remote='cipher BF-CBC'
Says that local config is using "AES-256-CBC" but it is detecting remote service is trying to use "cipher BF-CBC"
This suggests the change to your server is not being used by the server you are connecting to try to use.
After you made the change to the server configuration file, did you stop OpenVPN on the server, verify it was stopped, then restart it?
Do you have the configuration for the server installed in more that one location? (Did you edit the wrong config file on the server -- a config file your server is not using?)
(After the restart, did you check that it really restarted? if your OpenVPN service start lists all args on the command-line it was started, and this includes the configuration file used, then you can probably do this: (effective function depends on which *nix you are using, and which "ps" is installed)
ps auxwwww | grep -v grep | grep -i openvpn
And it should show all of the command line args and flags it was called, which may include the full or relative path to an OpenVPN configuration file it is using. If you see a "--cd /path/to/openvpn/config/files/directory/" and the "--config" option does not specify an absolute path to a config, then that is the directory to start you search for server config relative to the path that follows the "--config" in the running process.)
If there is only one config file, are you setting the cipher value in the server config early in the file while a later setting for cipher overwrites your change earlier in the server's configuration file? (I think you only show us the client config.)
Are you sure the server you are trying to connect to from the client is the same server you are altering the configurations for?
Does the SSL library your server's openvpn service support the cipher you are selecting?
/path/to/your/openvpn --show-ciphers | grep AES-256
Also, check your config to make sure you are not "blacklisting" ciphers that might prevent AEC-256-CBC from being made available. See if config option "tls-cipher" is enabled in your config, and consider commenting it out just during testing if it is enabled.
Check the server log file. Consider bumping up "verb" in that config to "verb 4" to see if it is parsing your change to cipher on reading the config and loading settings. if none of the above helps, after setting "verb" to "4" (verb 4) and restarting on the server, try copying the log file from the server after the restart and first client connect with new cipher as part of your reply. A copy of the client log at around the same time might also be helpful with the client set to "verb 4" too. (Also a copy of your server config with identifiable information removed might be of help. Remove any secrets or keys from any config before pasting.)
