[SOLVED] Restart OpenVPN via Cron Every Night

[archedraft]

Hello, I have 2 OpenVPN servers setup and 2 OpenVPN clients setup. I would like cron to restart ovpnc2 cleint interface every night but I only would like that this interface to restart. Is there a command only target that one openvpn client?

I found this command listed but I would guess that it restarts all the open servers and cleints?

#!/usr/local/bin/php -q

[jimp]

Here's the easiest way:

First find the server you need to restart:

: ps uxawww | grep openvpn
root    25984 0.0  0.9 13496  4340  ??  Ss  Thu06PM  0:09.08 /usr/local/sbin/openvpn –config /var/etc/openvpn/server1.conf
root    32393  0.0  0.9 13496  4492  ??  Ss  Thu06PM  0:01.75 /usr/local/sbin/openvpn –config /var/etc/openvpn/server2.conf

Then run this script to restart just that one

: /usr/local/sbin/pfSsh.php playback svc restart openvpn server 1

Starting the pfSense shell system…............

Attempting to issue restart to openvpn service...

openvpn has been restarted.

Note that only server 1 restarted:

: ps uxawww | grep openvpn
root    32393  0.0  0.9 13496  4492  ??  Ss  Thu06PM  0:01.75 /usr/local/sbin/openvpn –config /var/etc/openvpn/server2.conf
root    32933  0.0  0.9 13496  4624  ??  Ss    4:18PM  0:00.00 /usr/local/sbin/openvpn –config /var/etc/openvpn/server1.conf

[archedraft]

Perfect! Thanks jimp!

[Jim Coogan]

While this was a great solution for my open VPN problem it made Avahi restart on pfsense even though it wasn't bound to openvpn interfaces and this caused homekit on ios / mac to often show accessories (in a different vlan and relying on avahi) as inaccessible for 20 + seconds after a restart upon first trying to use home app.

[Bambos]

@jim-coogan today i had OpenVPN service stopped after ISP restart (disconnection on WAN), and stay stopped for 12 hours. I had to go on-site to press start service again.

Is there any way to cron restart services from pfsense ?

[Jim Coogan]

@bambos yeah there is a cron package you can add in the package manager and then like this 2nd post here describes you can set it up to restart on whatever schedule you want.

[Bambos]

@jim-coogan thank you my friend. seems watchdog is easier package for that purpose, allows to monitor active services by selection and monitors, restarts, and notify without commands. Looks like a good start. Thank you for your comments.