Port forwarding using OpenVPN client

kymy8888

Hello

I have a OpenVPN access server version 2.5 and a client configured with a site-to-site routing. Both client and server can communicate with each other by using the private IP addresses. On the client, there is an Apache server which listen on port 8081.

The goal is to be able to connect to the OpenVPN server public IP, and have it forward the connection to the client, so that the user can access the Apache server behind.

My current setup is:

sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -d 50.xxx.xxx.xxx -p tcp --dport 8081 -j DNAT --to-dest 192.168.2.86:8081

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -d 192.168.2.86 -p tcp --dport 8081 -j SNAT --to-source 10.0.2.42

Is there something simple I'm doing incorrectly? Thank you

ViewableGravy

Hey, did you ever get this resolved?

I've been wanting to set this up but with limited knowledge am looking for a guide or tutorial to follow and haven't stumbled upon more than dead threads like this one

openvpn_inc

Hi Gravy,

https://openvpn.net/vpn-server-resources/how-to-setup-dmz-in-openvpn-access-server/

hth, regards, rob0

ViewableGravy

Hey rob0

Thanks heaps for this. Finding the right keywords is definitely the biggest part of setting up something you have no idea about 😉

All configured now 🙂

openvpn_inc

Hi Gravy,

Yes, I wouldn't have thought of the term "DMZ" for this, either. But openvpn.net searches for DNAT and SNAT takes you right there. Google, not so lucky. You get a lot of misguided or irrelevant garbage.

My own motto is "RTFM before STFW". In the case of Access Server, the documentation is online at openvpn.net, not in a Friendly Manual. But limiting the search of the Fine Web to the proper site is the way to go.

Digging a bit further, Google search for "OpenVPN Access Server" port forwarding client got pretty close.

The thing is, so many "openvpn" searches find stuff about Community openvpn, which sure, that's more or less how it is done behind the scenes in Access Server. But the whole point of Access Server is that the hard part has been done for you!

regards, rob0