The new beta release of the OpenVPN 3 Linux client introduces a new integration feature for Amazon AWS. It is now more accessible for an entire Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) in Amazon to share the use of a VPN tunnel configured on a single EC2 instance.
Rather than setting up a VPN tunnel on each virtual machine, it is now possible to have only one VPN connection online and share access to it with others in the same VPC. This feature is especially useful in site-to-site setups.
Another benefit of OpenVPN 3 Linux client is that the Internet Gateway can filter what network traffic it allows to reach the VPN connection -- reaching the larger external infrastructure. This feature adds more beneficial ways to centralize network access control. Whereas before, it was distributed across each EC2 host inside the private cloud.
OpenVPN 3 Linux also ships with an openvpn3-as utility. This simplifies the configuration of the OpenVPN 3 Linux client when connecting to an OpenVPN Access Server, where it will download and install the configuration in a simple step from the command line.
Site-to-Site Setup
In the diagram above, the company's headquarters is on the right. The company's network at the HQ contains computers and servers and one of the servers has OpenVPN Access Server installed. The computers and servers in that network connect to a router, which also provides Internet access. On the left, the company has a web server and RDS (Relational Database Service) running inside of AWS VPC, all connected to their own router.
By installing the OpenVPN Linux 3 client on an Amazon EC2 instance the entire AWS VPC shares the use of a VPN tunnel connection to the OpenVPN Access Server at the HQ. In this example site-to-site setup, the AWS extension would communicate the needed network configuration to the VPC environment, and all the configuration details the VPC needs will be automated. In other words, a user sitting at a computer at the HQ can access the servers on the AWS VPC as if it were a local network resource.
Learn more about OpenVPN 3 Linux: https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/wiki/OpenVPN3Linux
About the OpenVPN Community
OpenVPN is the name of the open source project started by our co-founder. OpenVPN protocol has emerged to establish itself as a de-facto standard in the open source networking space with over 50 million downloads. OpenVPN is entirely a community-supported OSS project which uses the GPL license. The project has many developers and contributors from OpenVPN Inc. and the broader OpenVPN community. In addition, numerous projects extend or are otherwise related to OpenVPN. Learn more about the community here.