OpenVPN 2.4.0 update requires administrative interaction

Dec. 30, 2016 - Christian Hesse

The upgrade to OpenVPN 2.4.0 makes changes that are incompatible with previous configurations. Take special care if you depend on VPN connectivity for remote access! Administrative interaction is required:

  • Configuration is expected in sub directories now. Move your files from /etc/openvpn/ to /etc/openvpn/server/ or /etc/openvpn/client/.
  • The plugin lookup path changed, remove extra plugins/ from relative paths.
  • The systemd unit openvpn@.service was replaced with openvpn-client@.service and openvpn-server@.service. Restart and reenable accordingly.

This does not affect the functionality of networkmanager, connman or qopenvpn.