OpenVPN Support Forum

Greetings all, apologies if this post isn't in the right place but I have a question regarding what software and licenses I would need to accomplish a task. I just started playing with OpenVPN within the past year so I am still a newbie.

I installed OpenVPN GUI on 2 computers so that I could do some VoIP communication between the 2 of them using some custom software. I followed the helpful HOWTO on how to create the CA, keys, and OVPN configuration files for both machines. One of them I set up as a server and the other was set up as a client; both PCs are using a Win10 operating system and I was able to "connect" on the server machine and successfully let the client "connect" to my server machines. This terminology may be incorrect but using the OpenVPN GUI I right clicked the system tray icon and pressed connect on the server first and when the client did the same, my machine running the server configuration spit out a slew of messages, assigned the IP address for the Tap Adapter on the client machine, and I could successfully communicate between the 2.

Now that I have my proof of concept, I am wondering if I can use the same installer to place OpenVPN GUI on more machines (say 200 or so) and go through the same process of creating a key and configuration for each client and allow each client to communicate with the server using the proven method on my 2 machines. The clients only need to talk back and forth with the server machine and not to each other. I started looking into licensing since beyond 2 seats it looked like that was required; I saw options such as OpenVPN Connect and OpenVPN Access Server and was wondering if these are what I would need and if so, how the process would be different from what I was able to do using OpenVPN GUI?

Thank you,
Mike

Anybody able to guide me on whether this approach would work? Should I be posting this questions elsewhere?

Regards,
Mike

You have read the howto by now, right ?

TinCanTech wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 01, 2021 5:38 pm

You have read the howto by now, right ?

I have read the howto and using the OpenVPNGUI I am able to do what is needed. I did not see any reference to licenses or using OpenVPNGUI with 200+ instances. There is a small section "Expanding the scope of the VPN to include additional machines on either the client or server subnet." that does not really give much information other than how to add routes. Is there any other documentation that better describes larger implementations using OpenVPN?

Did you try the FAQ ?

TinCanTech wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 02, 2021 9:04 pm

Did you try the FAQ ?

I did. I started here (https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/wiki/FAQ) and thought maybe under the "server" section there would be more information but there was not. I went into the community resources FAQ page (https://openvpn.net/community-resources/#faqs) and searched for some keywords such as license and also did not find anything. In general all the FAQs and guides just make reference to "OpenVPN" and there isn't any distinction between OpenVPNGUI, OpenVPNConnect, and other flavors of OpenVPN.

I appreciate your responses and trying to direct me to available resources -- I'm happy to do research but am having trouble finding resources that even pertain to what I thought would be simple questions. Would sales representatives be able to guide me better? Is there a forum or other resource that specifically deals with licensing? Has anybody used OpenVPNGUI and had more than 2 clients connect to a server?

Thanks,
Mike

There is more than one GUI for Openvpn .. perhaps you could be more specific.

TinCanTech wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 03, 2021 6:32 pm

There is more than one GUI for Openvpn .. perhaps you could be more specific.

Sure -- I am specifically referring to the product called "OpenVPN GUI" (this is the app name that shows up on my Windows 10 PC). It runs out of the C:\Program Files\OpenVPN folder and when started, has a system tray icon that looks like a PC monitor with a padlock to the upper left. I can right click on this system tray Icon to do things like "Connect", "Disconnect" "Reconnect", etc. It is version 11.15 and in the ..\OpenVPN\bin folder there is also an openvpn.exe version 2.4.9. I installed and configured this on 2 PCs as per the HOWTO and was able to connect successfully and talk between them.

My main question right now is how to support more than 1 client, and ultimately scale up to ~200 clients? I see different products other than OpenVPN GUI and am wondering if I need to use one of those or if I can simply go through the same process of installing OpenVPN GUI on more clients, creating config files for them, and simply pay for the licenses to allow my server to connect to them all simultaneously. From what I've read, I think something like OpenVPN Access Server is more appropriate for the increased number of clients but it uses OpenVPN-Connect as opposed to OpenVPN-GUI. Being new to this, I'm not sure if the procedure I went through (https://openvpn.net/community-resources/how-to/) is applicable to every "flavor" of OpenVPN since I have only dealt with OpenVPN-GUI as my front end.

Thanks,
Mike

Do you know what the acronym F.O.S.S. stands for ?

TinCanTech wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:55 pm

Do you know what the acronym F.O.S.S. stands for ?

Free and Open Source Software? I thought from what I've read that commercial solutions that require lots of simultaneous connections will require a license, no? Thanks for asking some questions although since I need more definitive answers above and beyond "have you read the FAQ and HOWTO" I am taking the route of contacting sales and confirming what I need.

Regards,
Mike