# VPN Configuration

To access AVC compute/IT resources available for you to develop, you will need to configure our VPN on your current system. The following instructions will tell you how to install the VPN on whatever platform you use.

wget https://swupdate.openvpn.net/repos/repo-public.gpg
sudo apt-key add repo-public.gpg

Alternatively, can be done from the "Software and Updates" application: under the "Authentication" tab, click "Import Key File," and select the key downloaded from the above URL.

This step can be done from the GUI or from the command line. Choose one of the methods below.

• command line:

sudo sh -c \
  'echo "deb http://build.openvpn.net/debian/openvpn/stable xenial main" \
      >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn-repo.list'

• gui: in the "Software and Updates" application, under the "Other Software" tab, click "Add" and copy the following line into the box: deb http://build.openvpn.net/debian/openvpn/stable xenial main

sudo apt update

sudo apt install openvpn network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome

1. Download and uncompress all the contents of the AVC VPN configuration ZIP file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u9A70Hsg0mK2TmBXbBXGWJ7PsEyG7i4H/view?usp=sharing
   Credentials

   Note: for step 1 you will need to have been given access to the Google Drive, and be signed in using your MSU Google Apps account (your @msu.edu email).
2. Open the "Settings" program and navigate to "Network". Then click "+"

3. Next to the VPN section, click the + button to add a new connection.

4. Select "Import a saved file..."

5. Browse to the "openvpn.conf" from the .zip file.

6. On the next screen, give the connection a different name if desired (like AVC server), fill in username (password is optional; if not filled you will be prompted for a password upon connecting), and hit "Save"

   Usernames and Passwords

   Note: the username and password are your DECS username and password, not necessarily your AVC server username and password (unless you chose to use the same password for both, which is generally not recommended).

7. Once configured, select the gear icon next to the VPN configuration in the VPN section of the "Network" settings page, select the "IPV4" tab, then check "Use this connection only for resources on its network".

Click the network icon, hover over "VPN Connections", and then select the new VPN connection you just made. You should get a message saying a VPN connection has been successfully established.

Download OpenVPN from: https://openvpn.net/community-downloads/ and follow the installer to complete installation.

The OpenVPN configuration .zip file can be downloaded from the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u9A70Hsg0mK2TmBXbBXGWJ7PsEyG7i4H/view

Note: for step 1 you will need to have 1) been given access to the Google Drive, and b) be signed in using your MSU Google Apps account (your @msu.edu email).

1. Unzip the file to a permanent location
2. Change the extension of the .conf file to .ovpn
3. Open the .conf file and find these lines:

ca ca.crt
cert client.crt
key client.key

Change the ca.crt, client.crt, and client.key to be full paths, for example (with \ as path separators instead of single backslashes):

ca C:\\my_vpn\\ca.crt
cert C:\\my_vpn\\client.crt
key C:\\my_vpn\\client.key

Then, find the lines that say:

tls-auth ta.key 1
auth SHA512

Change the ta.key part of the first line to be a full path, similar to the previous step, so it looks something like this:

tls-auth C:\\my_vpn\\ta.key 1
auth SHA512

Then, run the OpenVPN GUI, then right-click the tray icon, then click “Import file”, then select your modified .ovpn file.

To connect, right-cick the OpenVPN tray icon and click “Connect”

To access the AVC VPN through macOS an OpenVPN client is required (not supported natively). The preferred OpenVPN client for macOS is Tunnelblick.

To install Tunnelblick, download and run installer from the following page: https://tunnelblick.net/downloads.html

Download and uncompress the AVC VPN configuration file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u9A70Hsg0mK2TmBXbBXGWJ7PsEyG7i4H/view?usp=sharing

Note: for step 1 you will need to have 1) been given access to the Google Drive, and b) be signed in using your MSU Google Apps account (your @msu.edu email).

Once Tunnelblick is installed and running, navigate to the uncompressed zip folder from (2), then drag the openvpn.conf file onto the tunnelblick "arch" icon in the menu bar (a plus icon should appear on the cursor) and proceed to add the configuration.

To connect, click on the Tunnelblick icon in the menu bar, then select "Connect <vpn_name>" where <vpn_name> will likely be something like "openvpn"; in the image below the configuration was renamed to "SOAR" (details on renaming at the end of this page):

To confirm you have been connected you should see:

To disconnect, simply press "Disconnect...".

Changing the Name of the VPN Configuration

Note: the name of the VPN configuration may be changed by clicking on the Tunnelblick icon in the menu bar, selecting "VPN Details..." then clicking on the desired in the left-hand side of the "Configurations" tab of the window which opens, then pressing the gear icon at the bottom of the lef-thand side-bar and selecting "rename configuration". This can be renamed to something more recognizable such as "AVC".