OpenVPN Support Forum

I want to run openvpn as a systemd service.

I downloaded my openvpn configuration files from my VPN provider.

I have one configuration file per VPN server.

I put one of those files inside /etc/openvpn to be recognized my openvpn.

Let's say the file is called /etc/openvpn/server534.conf.

Then I run In "server534.conf", I modified this line: to: Because in the future I would like to start the service at login without manually inserting username and password.

However, as can be seen by the error logs in "journalctl -xe", the file "/home/myname/vpncredentials.txt" does not exist for openvpn started in this way. A "cat /home/myname/vpncredentials.txt" shows the file correctly.

If I move "vpncredentials.txt" inside /etc/openvpn and modify the configuration file accordingly, it works.

Why openvn does not recognize configuration files outside of /etc/openvpn?

How can I keep my configuration file outside /etc/openvpn?

You cannot use /home with openvpn and systemd because it is protected. Instead use /etc/openvpn/foo

Thanks for your answer.

What does it mean "it is protected"?

What the protection is, how is it called?

Can you point me to bibliographic references to study this protection?

systemd settings