Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    OpenVPN on 2 pfsense instance with HA - service is running on both pfsense instances

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved OpenVPN
    15 Posts 5 Posters 1.7k Views 4 Watching
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • V Offline
      viragomann @mav3rick
      last edited by

      @mav3rick
      If you bind the server to the CARP VIP or an IP alias hooking up on it, the service should not start on the node, since the IP is occupied by the master.

      However, if the VPN service is running on the backup or not, you should get access to it from a VPN client by adding an outbound NAT rule is described on the linked site above. Did you even add this rule?

      M mav3rickM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • M Offline
        mcury Rebel Alliance @viragomann
        last edited by

        This post is deleted!
        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • M Offline
          mcury Rebel Alliance
          last edited by

          My 2 cents:
          I have a (HA) setup with OpenVPN running. I configured a port forward from the WAN VIP address to localhost on port 1194 (UDP), ensuring that connections only reach the master OpenVPN daemon.

          To access the secondary firewall, I set up an outbound NAT rule using the SYNC interface.
          From the secondary firewall's perspective, OpenVPN users will always appear to connect from the primary firewall's SYNC address

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • mav3rickM Offline
            mav3rick @viragomann
            last edited by mav3rick

            @viragomann said in OpenVPN on 2 pfsense instance with HA - service is running on both pfsense instances:

            @mav3rick
            If you bind the server to the CARP VIP or an IP alias hooking up on it, the service should not start on the node, since the IP is occupied by the master.

            However, if the VPN service is running on the backup or not, you should get access to it from a VPN client by adding an outbound NAT rule is described on the linked site above. Did you even add this rule?

            Yes, now with the NAT rule it works, but i also had to add a rule to allow pfsense1 to ssh to pfsense2 and pfense2 ssh to pfsense1.

            I will also try without NAT and binding openvpn to CARP VIP to see if also works like that.

            V 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • V Offline
              viragomann @mav3rick
              last edited by

              @mav3rick
              As far as I know, the NAT rule is necessary anyway, because the backup has no proper route to the VPN client.

              Binding the service to the CARP VIP should just prohibit it to start on the backup.

              mav3rickM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • mav3rickM Offline
                mav3rick @viragomann
                last edited by mav3rick

                @viragomann said in OpenVPN on 2 pfsense instance with HA - service is running on both pfsense instances:

                @mav3rick
                As far as I know, the NAT rule is necessary anyway, because the backup has no proper route to the VPN client.

                Binding the service to the CARP VIP should just prohibit it to start on the backup.

                In my case works because i have another router in front of pfsense that knows the route to pfsense opnvpn network, but if it wasn't the case i guess i could setup static routes for that.

                So setting openvpn to bind only to the CARP VIP works fine for me, unfortunately for Wireguard there is no such option, so i guess for now i will have to go with the NAT option.

                Anyway, thank you all for the help.

                M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • M Offline
                  mcury Rebel Alliance @mav3rick
                  last edited by

                  @mav3rick said in OpenVPN on 2 pfsense instance with HA - service is running on both pfsense instances:

                  So setting openvpn to bind only to the CARP VIP works fine for me

                  Multi-WAN with HA there?
                  If so, it would be a better idea to run openVPN server on localhost instead.
                  This would allow it to receive connections from all WANs.

                  No need to select a VIP, just forward packets from the WANs VIPs to localhost.
                  You can use DNS, thus the client would connect to the WAN that is UP.
                  Or
                  You can use two remote entries in the .ovpn, with timeout lets say, 2 seconds.

                  Then, just create the NAT rule to access the firewall-2, using the SYNC address as previously mentioned.

                  N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • N Offline
                    netblues @mcury
                    last edited by netblues

                    If running a pf vpn server, in multiwan,. options above do work.

                    But if it is a client side s2s vpn, that need to be bound to a gateway group, then there are no options. If the wrong client connects last, iroute sends s2s traffic there, resulting into no connectivity.

                    Restarting vpn client on master pf, obviously, restores it, but I haven't found any way to automate this without disrupting traffic.
                    Is there an iroute cli option to do route manipulation without restarting?

                    Its an idea.

                    V 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • V Offline
                      viragomann @netblues
                      last edited by

                      @netblues
                      You can force the clients traffic to a certain gateway (group) with a floating rule for direction 'out' on the wrong outbound interfaces.

                      N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • N Offline
                        netblues @viragomann
                        last edited by

                        @viragomann
                        Can you possibly elaborate on this?
                        A floating rule on the client pf? both instances? (active and stby?)

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • First post
                          Last post
                        Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.