Connect using an OpenVPN client application

The following procedures show how to establish a VPN connection using OpenVPN-based VPN clients.

Before you begin, ensure that your Client VPN administrator has created a Client VPN endpoint and provided you with the Client VPN endpoint configuration file.

For troubleshooting information, see Linux troubleshooting.

Important

If the Client VPN endpoint has been configured to use SAML-based federated authentication, you cannot use the OpenVPN-based VPN client to connect to a Client VPN endpoint.

OpenVPN - Network Manager

The following procedure shows how to establish a VPN connection using the OpenVPN application through the Network Manager GUI on an Ubuntu computer.

To establish a VPN connection

1. Install the network manager module using the following command.

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

2. Go to Settings, Network.

3. Choose the plus symbol (+) next to VPN, and then choose Import from file....

4. Navigate to the configuration file that you received from your VPN administrator and choose Open.

5. In the Add VPN window, choose Add.

6. Start the connection by enabling the toggle next to the VPN profile that you added.

OpenVPN

The following procedure shows how to establish a VPN connection using the OpenVPN application on an Ubuntu computer.

To establish a VPN connection

1. Install OpenVPN using the following command.

   sudo apt-get install openvpn

2. Start the connection by loading the configuration file that you received from your VPN administrator.

   sudo openvpn --config /path/to/config/file