VPN Management Script

This script is designed to manage OpenVPN connections on an EC2 instance. It starts and stops an EC2 instance running an OpenVPN server, updates the OpenVPN client configuration with the new public IP, and establishes a VPN connection.

Table of Contents

• Requirements
• Installation
• Usage
• Configuration
  • .vpnrc File
• License

Requirements

• Bash (version 4.0 or higher)
• AWS CLI configured with necessary permissions
• OpenVPN 3 CLI (openvpn3)
• A running EC2 instance tagged with Name=openvpn
  • Use free OpenVPN AMIs from the AWS Marketplace
  • Free tier-eligible EC2 instance type (e.g., t2.micro)
• The .vpnrc file for storing user credentials

Installation

• Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/jaeaeich/vpn.git

• Move the script and dependencies:

# Ensure ~/bin exists
mkdir -p ~/bin
# Create the target directory for your script inside ~/bin
mkdir -p ~/bin/vpn-script
# Move the contents of the cloned repository to the ~/bin/vpn-script directory
mv vpn/* ~/bin/vpn-script
# Remove the empty 'vpn' directory after moving its contents
rmdir vpn
# Create a symbolic link to the script, so it can be invoked with 'vpn'
ln -s ~/bin/vpn-script/vpn.sh ~/bin/vpn
# Make sure the script is executable
chmod +x ~/bin/vpn-script/vpn.sh

• Make the script available as a command:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/bin/vpn:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

If you use zsh, fish or other shells, modify the appropriate shell configuration.

Usage

To start the VPN connection:

vpn

This will start the EC2 instance, update the OpenVPN client configuration, and establish a VPN connection.

Configuration

.vpnrc File

The .vpnrc file stores your VPN credentials and other configuration settings. The script looks for the .vpnrc file in the following locations:

1. $HOME/.config/vpn/.vpnrc (preferred location)
2. $HOME/.vpnrc (fallback location)

Example .vpnrc File:

INSTANCE_NAME="openvpn" # Replace with your EC2 instance name
USERNAME="openvpn" # Replace with your OpenVPN username
PASSWORD="your_password" # Replace with your OpenVPN password
REGION="ap-southeast-1"  # Replace with your desired AWS region
PROFILE_NAME="client.ovpn" # Replace with your OpenVPN profile name

Ensure that your .vpnrc file is secure and only accessible by you:

chmod 600 ~/.config/vpn/.vpnrc

License

This script is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. You are free to redistribute and modify the script under the terms of this license.

For more details, see the LICENSE file.