OpenVPN GUI - Management Interface Error

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nothereagain81
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Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:58 pm

OpenVPN GUI - Management Interface Error

Post by nothereagain81 » Fri Aug 09, 2019 5:13 pm

Hello!

I couldn't find any reference to this particular issue online, so more than likely it's something simple I'm overlooking; however I haven't found what the issue is as of yet and so I come here for help.

I currently have a few laptops I set up for people using OpenVPN GUI in Windows. When connecting from the GUI, a user will get an error messaging saying it couldn't connect to the management interface and to check the logs. This happens intermittently.

The logs only have "Enter management password: "

The only way around this (other than rebooting) is to restart the Interactive Service.

I recall reading somewhere on openvpn.net where this issue is caused by the connection profile being started already and it's commonly caused by the OpenVPN Service and OpenVPN Legacy Service being used at the same time; however, I observed that only openvpn-gui.exe was running when this happened. The OpenVPN Service and OpenVPN Legacy Service (both set to manual) were not running.

The version of the OpenVPN Client being used is 2.4.6. I tried 2.4.7 to no avail.

If I check the event logs I see an Error entry under Application logs for openvpnserv but it only says:
The description for Event ID '0' in Source 'openvpnserv' cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or
message DLL files to display the message, or you may not have permission to access them. The following information is part of the event:'openvpn
serv error: ', '0x20000000
OpenVPN exited with error: exit code = 1
I'm at a loss as to what causes this. Right now I'm attempting a workaround with a scheduled task to restart the Interactive Service triggered by a custom event filter with the aforementioned event log entry.

I've witnessed this happening on Windows 7, 8.1, and 10.

Thoughts?
Last edited by nothereagain81 on Fri Aug 09, 2019 8:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.

TinCanTech
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Posts: 11137
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 1:17 pm

Re: OpenVPN GUI - Strange Issues

Post by TinCanTech » Fri Aug 09, 2019 7:09 pm

nothereagain81 wrote:
Fri Aug 09, 2019 5:13 pm
The logs only have "Enter management password: "
Normal cause: https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/w ... i-moreinfo

nothereagain81
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:58 pm

Re: OpenVPN GUI - Management Interface Error

Post by nothereagain81 » Fri Aug 09, 2019 7:19 pm

Does the OpenVPN GUI have a preference as to which service it uses? Both of them are set to manual.

Should one of the services be set to 'Disabled?'

nothereagain81
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:58 pm

Re: OpenVPN GUI - Management Interface Error

Post by nothereagain81 » Wed Aug 14, 2019 3:11 pm

I never could figure out what caused this. It's not from two services being used at the same time. Neither one of the services are running when the error occurs, not to mention the fact I was using the GUI and not manually starting either service.

If anyone else is having this problem, you can potentially work around it by just creating a scheduled task that triggers on an error (level 2) event from the application log from source "openvpnserv." I have it stop the service, wait 5 seconds, and start it again. The last time I got this error, this scheduled task seemed to fix the issue without an administrator intervening. There's probably a better way of doing it, but this seems to work for now.

The XML section for the custom event trigger looks like this:

Code: Select all

<QueryList>
  <Query Id="0" Path="Application">
    <Select Path="Application">*[System[Provider[@Name='openvpnserv'] and (Level=2)]]</Select>
  </Query>
</QueryList>

TinCanTech
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Posts: 11137
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 1:17 pm

Re: OpenVPN GUI - Management Interface Error

Post by TinCanTech » Wed Aug 14, 2019 8:47 pm

So you did not read the helpful web page then ..

nothereagain81
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:58 pm

Re: OpenVPN GUI - Management Interface Error

Post by nothereagain81 » Thu Aug 15, 2019 1:31 pm

Of course I did.

TinCanTech
OpenVPN Protagonist
Posts: 11137
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 1:17 pm

Re: OpenVPN GUI - Management Interface Error

Post by TinCanTech » Thu Aug 15, 2019 1:55 pm

The Wiki wrote:Common connection problems

When you examine your log file, if this is the only output which you find:

Code: Select all

Thu Jul 26 23:51:48 2018 OpenVPN 2.4.6 x86_64-w64-mingw32 [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [LZ4] [PKCS11] [AEAD] built on Apr 26 2018
Thu Jul 26 23:51:48 2018 Windows version 6.1 (Windows 7) 64bit
Thu Jul 26 23:51:48 2018 library versions: OpenSSL 1.1.0h 27 Mar 2018, LZO 2.10
Enter Management Password:
Then the most likely cause is that OpenVPN has already started the connection profile.
You must ensure that all openvpn.exe processes are terminated and then try again.

The most common cause of this problem is when you use the incorrect OpenVPN Windows services:
  • Stop and do not use both the OpenVPNService and the OpenVPN Legacy Service Windows services.
  • Start and do use the OpenVPN Interactive Service Windows service.
For further help, please read this entire thread:
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=22603

If you do not post the details requested then we cannot help you.

Posting ridiculous work-arounds to known problems is not appropriate.

nothereagain81
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:58 pm

Re: OpenVPN GUI - Management Interface Error

Post by nothereagain81 » Thu Aug 15, 2019 2:40 pm

Yes, I saw that section and referenced it in my original post and subsequent replies to you.

What details do you need exactly? I'll go ahead and read over your link.

I do appreciate you responding.

DannyTaylor
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2019 6:52 pm

Re: OpenVPN GUI - Management Interface Error

Post by DannyTaylor » Sun Sep 08, 2019 7:02 pm

The first aspect is connected to the main statement here.

robc
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:25 am

Re: OpenVPN GUI - Management Interface Error

Post by robc » Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:29 am

I had this same problem today on Windows 10. I tried updating to v2.4.9, tried solutions in this thread and several others.

I was able to resolve the problem by fully uninstalling OpenVPN GUI, deleting the OpenVPN dir from my user profile, restarting the computer, then re-installing OpenVPN GUI from scratch again.

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