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Disable OpenVPN clients on reboot

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved OpenVPN
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  • S
    shoulders
    last edited by shoulders Dec 13, 2022, 2:15 PM Dec 13, 2022, 2:14 PM

    Why do i want this?

    I can only have 6 connections to my VPN provider at any one time but I want to setup 10 OpenVPN clients to use on my network and only start the ones I want to use at that time. ie 2 blocks of five ('All in the UK'/'All over the world') which have different purposes. However when I reboot pfSense they all restart.

    What do i know

    • when i reboot pfsense all OpenVPN clients startup successfully
    • all my OpenVPN clients are configured as interfaces and then gateways and these gateways are assign into 2 'Gateway Groups'
    • I can manually stop and start OpenVPN clients via Status-->OpenVPN
    • These services are not enabled in 'Service_Watchdog'
    • I am aware of Shellcmd but I am not sure this is the best way about things to let the service start and then stop it. Also I dont know the commands.

    What I would like

    A settings page in pfSense where I can disable the OpenVPN clients on startup.

    Any help would be appreciated.

    T 1 Reply Last reply Dec 13, 2022, 3:23 PM Reply Quote 0
    • T
      townsenk64 @shoulders
      last edited by townsenk64 Dec 13, 2022, 3:25 PM Dec 13, 2022, 3:23 PM

      @shoulders I understand your need and I have a similar setup. However with 2.70 I'm unable to get two clients to come up properly at boot. Your saying that your able to successfully launch 6 clients? I suspect a dpinger/openvpn timing issue somehow but I am no expert. I'm sure that your aware that each openvpn client and gateway can be disabled/enabled individually but this is essentially would require configuring a few different settings. I can visualize a configuration screen that lists available pre-configured openvpn clients with a checkbox after each one that allows them to be turned on/off. It would be a great feature but unfortunately only a few people with similar setups as ours would appreciate it. It's a good idea .Maybe a package? I wish I had the time and skills to do this. It's almost easier to restore a pre-configured backup to make these changes at reboot

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • S
        shoulders
        last edited by Dec 15, 2022, 8:57 PM

        My Solution

        • Install Shellcmd package
          • Package Manager --> Available Packages --> Install
          • The shellcmd utility is used to manage commands on system startup.
        • Add a boot command to disable the OpenVPN services
          • Find your 'OpenVPN ID' and whether it is a client or server from VPN --> OpenVPN --> (Servers|Clients) --> edit
          • Services --> Shellcmd --> Add
            • Command
            pfSsh.php playback svc stop openvpn server 1
            or
            pfSsh.php playback svc stop openvpn client 3
            
            • ShellcmdType: shellcmd
            • Description: Disable my OpenVPN on boot
        • Repeat for each OpenVPN service you want to disable
        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • W wakson005 referenced this topic on Feb 25, 2024, 9:44 AM
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