mjhjmtu

Yesterday I configured OpenVPN on a Ubuntu 18.04 server which seems to work. I can connect no problem and systemctl status openvpn gives me green. However, my syslog is being riddled with errors which seem to relate to a different service than openvpn.service. I am kind of unsettled by this since the server goes into use tomorrow and the only way to get access then is via openvpn.

Here is the syslog:

Jun 22 15:30:41 localhost systemd[1]: openvpn@multi-user.service: Main process e xited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jun 22 15:30:41 localhost systemd[1]: openvpn@multi-user.service: Failed with re sult 'exit-code'.
Jun 22 15:30:41 localhost systemd[1]: Failed to start OpenVPN connection to multi-user.
Jun 22 15:30:47 localhost systemd[1]: openvpn@multi-user.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Jun 22 15:30:47 localhost systemd[1]: openvpn@multi-user.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 146.
Jun 22 15:30:47 localhost systemd[1]: Stopped OpenVPN connection to multi-user.
Jun 22 15:30:47 localhost systemd[1]: Starting OpenVPN connection to multi-user...
Jun 22 15:30:47 localhost ovpn-multi-user[3046]: Options error: In [CMD-LINE]:1:Error opening configuration file: /etc/openvpn/multi-user.conf
Jun 22 15:30:47 localhost ovpn-multi-user[3046]: Use --help for more information.
Jun 22 15:30:47 localhost systemd[1]: openvpn@multi-user.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jun 22 15:30:47 localhost systemd[1]: openvpn@multi-user.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jun 22 15:30:47 localhost systemd[1]: Failed to start OpenVPN connection to multi-user.
Jun 22 15:30:52 localhost systemd[1]: openvpn@multi-user.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Jun 22 15:30:52 localhost systemd[1]: openvpn@multi-user.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 147.
Jun 22 15:30:52 localhost systemd[1]: Stopped OpenVPN connection to multi-user.
Jun 22 15:30:52 localhost systemd[1]: Starting OpenVPN connection to multi-user.

Under systemd, at least on Debian (and presumably Ubuntu) each VPN connection (there can be multiple) gets its own service name openvpn@CONNECTION-NAME.service. You should have one per *.conf file in /etc/openvpn/.

The actual openvpn.service is a collection of all of them, to let you easily start/stop/reload all VPNs at once. Getting status on it isn't telling you much useful.

So you need to try systemctl status openvpn@multi-user.service or journalctl _SYSTEMD_UNIT=openvpn@multi-user.service, as it'd appear your VPN is exiting for some reason. Of course, that could be something simple and expected like network issues, remote end disconnected, etc. (OpenVPN can be configured to exit when the VPN goes down.)

You can see all the OpenVPN units using something like systemctl list-units | grep openvpn or probably systemctl show --property ConsistsOf openvpn.service

I initially worked around the issue by putting the following line in my rc.local:

systemctl stop openvpn@multi-user.service

I finally solved it by disabling the deprecated openvpn@.service, removing all configuration files from the OpenVPN root directory and moving them to the server directory, as well as activating the respective openvpn-server@config.service.