Gadmin OpenVPN Client

If an alternative desktop is in use, or either KDE or GNOME's network manager tool doesn't fit the bill, there is another tool that does a great job of connecting to an OpenVPN server. That tool is Gadmin OpenVPN Client. This tool can easily be installed from within Synaptic, Ubuntu Software Center, PackageKit, and more. Once installed it's just a matter of firing up the tool (if it can not be found within the menu structure of your desktop, Gadmin OpenVPN Client can be started with the command sudo gadmin-openvpn-client.)

When the tool opens the first thing that needs to be done is the information for the connection must be filled in (see Figure 2).

Figure 2

Figure 2
Don't hit the Add button first!

Make sure to scroll down and fill in all of the necessary information, which includes:

    Connection name: Human readable name for the connection.
    Server address: Address of OpenVPN server.
    Server port: The port configured on the server.
    CA cert/Cert/Key/DH Key/TA key: Location of the certificates generated on the server and then placed on the client. This configuration is all the way at the bottom of the config screen.

After all of this is configured, click the Add button and the connection will then be added. To bring up the connection, select the VPN connection to use and then click the Activate button, which will start the process of certificate negotiation. After the negotiation process is complete, the VPN Network should be available.

As expected, there are plenty of ways to connect to an OpenVPN server. And although not nearly an exhaustive resource (there are more GUI tools to be found in your Add/Remove Software tool), with the above tutorial helping out, a connection can be made from both from the command line and from a GUI. Note that if you've got users on Windows and Mac, the OpenVPN folks also have clients for them.