Fix AWS OpenVPN Licensing

dbeato

Recently we needed to fix an issue with an AWS OpenVPN EC2 instance that was running and the customers had 25 licenses but the system was showing only 2 licenses instead of 25 users. The Instance was already purchased and working properly but the licensing would not apply. Noticed the issue being as described on their post
https://openvpn.net/vpn-server-resources/troubleshooting-problems-with-software-licensing/#Licensing_problems_with_Amazon_AWS_tiered_instances

We remotely connected to the OpenVPN server and could not do any name resolution and thus we could not connect to the following licensing servers:

These DNS names with wide dynamic IP ranges, on port TCP 443:
awspc1.openvpn.net
awspc2.openvpn.net

And these DNS names with static IP addresses, on port TCP 443:
awspc3.openvpn.net, IP address: 107.191.99.82
awspc4.openvpn.net, IP address: 107.161.19.201

So we changed the network interface to have a Static DNS servers. Login as the openvpn user to your instance.

1- Go to the netplan configuration folder

cd  /etc/netplan

2- Edit your yml file

sudo nano 50-cloud-init.yaml

3- Add the name servers (And remember the indentations)

 nameservers:
                addresses: [8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1]

4- The configuration should look like this

5- Apply the configuration change

sudo netplan apply

7- Confirm your can ping the licensing servers

ping awspc1.openvpn.net

8- Restart the OpenVPN Service

sudo systemctl restart openvpnas

Then the OpenVPN should be licensed now.

Dashrender

Thanks for adding more technical content!