Debian 8 Jessie with OpenVPN client

Question

I have a Debian 8 Jessie server that I need to connect to my home network and I'm using an OpenVPN server on a pfSense 2.2 box at home. I have done this fine under older Debian versions, so I'm guessing I'm missing something new with how systemd controls the service...

I have everything I need in /etc/openvpn/, with a reasonable simple setup:

client
dev tun
proto udp
remote home.dynamic-domain.com 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
user nobody
group nobody
persist-tun
persist-key
ca /etc/openvpn/ca.crt
cert /etc/openvpn/hostname.crt
key /etc/openvpn/hostname.key
tls-auth /etc/openvpn/tls.key 1
cipher "AES-256-CBC"
comp-lzo
verb 3

and the relevant certs/keys are present and correct.

Bringing up the config manually works great:

~# openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/servervpn.conf
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 OpenVPN 2.3.4 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [EPOLL] [PKCS11] [MH] [IPv6] built on Dec  1 2014
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 library versions: OpenSSL 1.0.1k 8 Jan 2015, LZO 2.08 
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 WARNING: No server certificate verification method has been enabled.  See http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm for more info.
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 Control Channel Authentication: using '/etc/openvpn/servervpn/tls.key' as a OpenVPN static key file
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 Outgoing Control Channel Authentication: Using 160 bit message hash 'SHA1' for HMAC authentication
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 Incoming Control Channel Authentication: Using 160 bit message hash 'SHA1' for HMAC authentication
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 Socket Buffers: R=[212992->131072] S=[212992->131072]
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 NOTE: UID/GID downgrade will be delayed because of --client, --pull, or --up-delay
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 UDPv4 link local: [undef]
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 UDPv4 link remote: [AF_INET]x.x.x.x:1194
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 TLS: Initial packet from [AF_INET]x.x.x.x:1194, sid=531d85a9 2201aab6
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 VERIFY OK: depth=1, xxxxxxxx
Sat Jun 27 13:26:08 2015 VERIFY OK: depth=0, xxxxxxxx
Sat Jun 27 13:26:13 2015 Data Channel Encrypt: Cipher 'AES-256-CBC' initialized with 256 bit key
Sat Jun 27 13:26:13 2015 Data Channel Encrypt: Using 160 bit message hash 'SHA1' for HMAC authentication
Sat Jun 27 13:26:13 2015 Data Channel Decrypt: Cipher 'AES-256-CBC' initialized with 256 bit key
Sat Jun 27 13:26:13 2015 Data Channel Decrypt: Using 160 bit message hash 'SHA1' for HMAC authentication
Sat Jun 27 13:26:13 2015 Control Channel: TLSv1, cipher TLSv1/SSLv3 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA, 2048 bit RSA
Sat Jun 27 13:26:13 2015 [hm-py-router-01] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]188.78.154.7:11193
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 SENT CONTROL [hm-py-router-01]: 'PUSH_REQUEST' (status=1)
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 PUSH: Received control message: 'PUSH_REPLY,route 192.168.10.0 255.255.255.0,topology net30,ping 5,ping-restart 60,ifconfig 192.168.11.6 192.168.11.5'
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 OPTIONS IMPORT: timers and/or timeouts modified
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 OPTIONS IMPORT: --ifconfig/up options modified
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 OPTIONS IMPORT: route options modified
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 ROUTE_GATEWAY 176.126.240.1/255.255.248.0 IFACE=eth0 HWADDR=00:16:3c:89:81:e0
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 TUN/TAP device tun0 opened
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 TUN/TAP TX queue length set to 100
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 do_ifconfig, tt->ipv6=0, tt->did_ifconfig_ipv6_setup=0
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 /sbin/ip link set dev tun0 up mtu 1500
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 /sbin/ip addr add dev tun0 local 192.168.11.6 peer 192.168.11.5
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 /sbin/ip route add 192.168.10.0/24 via 192.168.11.5
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 GID set to nogroup
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 UID set to nobody
Sat Jun 27 13:26:15 2015 Initialization Sequence Completed
^CSat Jun 27 13:28:17 2015 event_wait : Interrupted system call (code=4)
Sat Jun 27 13:28:17 2015 /sbin/ip route del 192.168.11.1/32
RTNETLINK answers: Operation not permitted
Sat Jun 27 13:28:17 2015 ERROR: Linux route delete command failed: external program exited with error status: 2
Sat Jun 27 13:28:17 2015 /sbin/ip route del 192.168.51.0/24
RTNETLINK answers: Operation not permitted
Sat Jun 27 13:28:17 2015 ERROR: Linux route delete command failed: external program exited with error status: 2
Sat Jun 27 13:28:17 2015 Closing TUN/TAP interface
Sat Jun 27 13:28:17 2015 /sbin/ip addr del dev tun0 local 192.168.11.6 peer 192.168.11.5
RTNETLINK answers: Operation not permitted
Sat Jun 27 13:28:17 2015 Linux ip addr del failed: external program exited with error status: 2
Sat Jun 27 13:28:17 2015 SIGINT[hard,] received, process exiting

Unfortunately, starting openvpn as a service doesn't seem to bring the tunnel up, or do much of anything I can see...

~# systemctl start openvpn.service
~# systemctl status openvpn.service
● openvpn.service - OpenVPN service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/openvpn.service; enabled)
   Active: active (exited) since Sat 2015-06-27 13:29:12 EDT; 4min 3s ago
  Process: 13873 ExecStart=/bin/true (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 13873 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   CGroup: /system.slice/openvpn.service

The tunnel just never seems to come up... So I try the 'old' way too:

~# /etc/init.d/openvpn start
[ ok ] Starting openvpn (via systemctl): openvpn.service.
~# /etc/init.d/openvpn status
● openvpn.service - OpenVPN service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/openvpn.service; enabled)
   Active: active (exited) since Sat 2015-06-27 13:09:12 EDT; 8min ago
  Process: 13873 ExecStart=/bin/true (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 13873 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   CGroup: /system.slice/openvpn.service

But it seems the SysV init script just call to systemctrl anyways.

I've look through the Debian wiki page for OpenVPN and when running as a service it should parse any *.conf file in /etc/openvpn and bring up the interfaces unless explicitly listed in /etc/default/openvpn.

Not sure of my next step.

Solution

As I have said before:

I'm guessing I'm missing something new with how systemd controls the service.

Yes, and it is explained in the commentary at the top of /lib/systemd/system/openvpn.service. You, as the other questioner did, are calling a System 5 rc script directly. Do not call System 5 rc scripts directly, especially on a system where System 5 rc isn't used, such as Debian version 8.

OpenVPN is a templatized service under systemd — be that with Fedora, Ubuntu, or Debian Linux. The services are named [e-mail]. So you should be starting your /etc/openvpn/servervpn.conf instance with

systemctl start [email protected]

Further reading

• https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/206490/5132
• http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Openvpn

Comments

[Tim Jones]

Thanks for this, sorry for asking a repeated question. My Google-Fu must be weak today... Also, as a side, I'm heading on out to find some proper systemd tutorials. It's WAY more different than I expected.

[Tim Jones]

The only commentary at the beginning of my /lib/systemd/system/openvpn.service is # This service is actually a systemd target, but we are using a service since targets cannot be reloaded.. To me that doesn't explain anything no provide a solution. However in /usr/share/doc/openvpn/README.Debian.gz it is explained properly if you're running systemd, you cannot pass arguments to init.d scripts. In order to start/stop a particular VPN you may use: service openvpn@VPN_NAME start or systemctl start openvpn@VPN_NAME.

[jchook]

On Ubuntu I used: sudo service openvpn@servervpn start