My applications need to access services in client's private network. I am using openfortivpn to connect to Fortigate SSL VPN server. It should work for PPP VPN too.
Installation
Checkout https://github.com/adrienverge/openfortivpn#installing for installation instruction. Check if there is already a package for your Linux distro before heading for manual build & install method.
sudo yum install openfortivpn
The systemd template file is provided in Github but not included in YUM package. So we have to create it manually with some modifications.
Create /usr/lib/systemd/system/openfortivpn@.service
[Unit]
Description=OpenFortiVPN for %I
After=network-online.target
Documentation=man:openfortivpn(1)
# Available from v230 onward. Ref: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/464098
#StartLimitIntervalSec=500
#StartLimitBurst=5
[Service]
Type=simple
PrivateTmp=true
ExecStart=/usr/bin/openfortivpn -c /etc/openfortivpn/%I.conf
OOMScoreAdjust=-100
# Auto restart when it gets disconnected.
Restart=always
RestartSec=500ms
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Reload systemd config.
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
Setup
Create a copy of “config” in /etc/openfortivpn/ and name it “example.conf”.
WARNING Make sure it has a .conf extension and filename matches the instance name in systemd service file.
cd /etc/openfortivpn
sudo cp config example.conf
sudo chmod 600 example.conf
Edit the VPN configuration. The configuration may contain password, therefore file permission should be set to “600”.
Enabled this service.
sudo systemctl enable openfortivpn@example
Note that instance name is the part between “@” and “.service”. Instance name must match openfortivpn config filename, excluding file extension.
Start VPN Service
sudo systemctl start openfortivpn@example
Maintaining Persistent Connection
My client's VPN server is configured to disconnect client after 5 minutes of inactivity. I have configured systemd to automatically restart the service upon disconnection. After some time, I discovered that openfortivpn service is running, but I am unable to access the private network. As a workaround, I created a cron job to ping 1 of the IPs in the private network at 4 minutes interval. This creates network activity and prevent forced disconnection.
About the author
- I work with Linux in the day, ballroom dancing at night. I use Arch, btw.
Comments
Join the discussionLeong, hi, I've run into this problem before. Personally, I was helped to solve it by VPNWelt service, the thing is that there are a lot of different VPN services, which are great for all users. There is a little more information about it here- https://en.vpnwelt.com/best-vpn-provider/ . I would recommend you to carefully study all the information on the site VPNWelt, there is definitely a way to solve this problem. I hope I was able to help you.
Hi Andrey, thanks for sharing this site. It has a comprehensive reviews on different VPN services. Maybe it solved your problem, but not mine.
My problem is quite specific. My client's company uses Fortinet product for VPN. It is a corporate decision, my client and I cannot change that decision. In order to get my work done, I need to setup a VPN client that works with Fortinet SSL-VPN. Unfortunately VPNWelt does not have any solution specifically for that yet.
Leong Hean Hong Good afternoon. I guess I didn't fully understand your problem. I'm sorry. But I think that VPNWelt will be useful for you. Thank you for your reply.
