container-openvpn/docs/clients.md

Advanced Client Management

Client Configuration Mode

The ovpn_getclient can produce two different versions of the configuration.

1. combined (default): All needed configuration and cryptographic material is in one file (Use "combined-save" to write the configuration file in the same path as the separated parameter does).
2. separated: Separated files.

Note that some client software might be picky about which configuration format it accepts.

Client List

See an overview of the configured clients, including revocation status:

docker run --rm -it -v $OVPN_DATA:/etc/openvpn kylemanna/openvpn ovpn_listclients

Batch Mode

If you have more than a few clients, you will want to generate and update your client configuration in batch. For this task the script ovpn_getclient_all was written, which writes out the configuration for each client to a separate directory called clients/$cn.

Execute the following to generate the configuration for all clients:

docker run --rm -it -v $OVPN_DATA:/etc/openvpn --volume /tmp/openvpn_clients:/etc/openvpn/clients kylemanna/openvpn ovpn_getclient_all

After doing so, you will find the following files in each of the $cn directories:

ca.crt
$cn-combined.ovpn # Combined configuration file format. If your client recognices this file then only this file is needed.
$cn.ovpn          # Separated configuration. This configuration file requires the other files ca.crt dh.pem $cn.crt $cn.key ta.key
$cn.crt
$cn.key
ta.key

Revoking Client Certificates

Revoke client1's certificate and generate the certificate revocation list (CRL):

docker run --rm -it -v $OVPN_DATA:/etc/openvpn kylemanna/openvpn easyrsa revoke client1
docker run --rm -it -v $OVPN_DATA:/etc/openvpn kylemanna/openvpn easyrsa gen-crl

The OpenVPN server will read this change every time a client connects (no need to restart server) and deny clients access using revoked certificates.