Simulate OpenVPN - Suggestions

hollowterror

Hi, I would like to be able to simulate OpenVPN, with a client computer accessing the VPN server and its resources. What I would like to know is whether I would be able to indeed simulate a typical VPN connection using OpenVPN.

The reason behind my interest in using OpenVPN in a test lab environment is because I would like to compare it with SSTP VPN as part of my thesis studies. I hope to be able to use performance measurement tools in order to highlight the difference between the two different methods of implementing VPN.

If indeed a simulation using OpenVPN is possible, I would appreciate any links, tutorials and videos that will allow me to know more about the subject. Any link mentioning books that mention in detail the technology used in OpenVPN will also be appreciated, because I haven't been able to find any. Also what is the minimum amount of computers that I would need in order to simulate OpenVPN? (I'm quite limited in the number of computers that I will be able to afford).

Thanks in advance for any replies 😉

Mimiko

It's possible. Just follow guides to setup a OpenVPN link in your environment.

hollowterror

I guess that if I follow the guidelines in this page http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/documentation/howto.html I should be ok than. I also found some books on Amazon when I searched 'openvpn', which will probably help me in my setup.

What I am most worried about, is the number of computers that I will need in order to setup it up. Do you think that 3 computer machines would be sufficient? (one of them would probably be a laptop). I could also probably try using virtualization so that I have more 'machines' (not in a physical sense of course)

Thanks 😉

Mimiko

Two computers (a server an a client) is enough to test the OpenVPN setup and connection.

hollowterror

that's good, at least that's one less problem to think about. 🙂 thanks

Now with regards to my thesis, I was thinking about setting up an OpenVPN setup (as I have mentioned earlier), and than also make a VPN setup using Microsoft's SSTP (with a server and a client). My idea is that I then would be able to compare the two VPN setups when doing tasks such as file transfer and video streaming. I would then use tools that would measure the performance achieved in both setups and compare them. The conclusion, would than be to determine which in terms of the results achieved is better :- by this I mean between a program that is using SSL VPN (referring to OpenVPN) and the setup that is using SSTP by Microsoft.

Do you think that this is a good idea for a thesis at an undergraduate level? And what do you suggest I should focus on in terms of performance? (should I focus for example on the transfer rate of the file or talk about reliability/security and issues like these) (I was thinking more about in terms of file transfer rate and other similar metrics)

I know that I probably asked a lot of questions, but I would really appreciate anyone giving me suggestions and a direction on what I should do, so that I could make a better decision as to what I should focus my thesis on.

Mimiko

hollowterror, this forum is intended to help with OpenVPN setup, not on comparing the different softares, so I will move the topic. Also, it's not a point in comparing those two software, as them addresses different matters. OpenVPN is a more advanced, althoght the tun-drivers (made by other developers) lacks the necesary speed. So the results will be incorrect.

If your whant to test, then test one lirge file transfer speed with compression and cipher, without compression and cipher and combination of them. Also for those combinations test the latency time.

hollowterror

Ok thanks for your suggestions. I'll keep them in mind.