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dingalingchickenwiing
Asked: 2012-11-13 19:52:14 +0800 CST

OpenVPN won't start on ubuntu - PID not found

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I am running ubuntu version 12.04 LTS and I have installed OpenVPN on it. After a while of troubleshooting why my client won't connect (I have generated keys and confligured the client), I ran 'service openvpn status' from the command line and received the following error:

could not access PID file for VPN 'server'

I have rebooted, started and restarted the service, but each time I check the status, I receive the PID error. I'm pretty sure that I can't connect because the service isn't running.

Where can I begin troubleshooting this? I don't know what to look for. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

ubuntu

6 Answers

  1. could not access PID file for VPN 'server' means the PID file could not be read. This can have different reasons:

    • you do not have the rights to read the pid file -- did you run the command as root or with sudo?
    • the pid file does not exist, as the process is not running or could not create the file for some reason

    Thus, for further debugging, you will need to look at /var/run/openvpn.server.pid itself

    • does it exist?
    • is there an openvpn process running with the pid listed in the file?
    • are there other openvpn processes running?

    If the process is not running, your config is most probably wrong and you will have to read the logs why it did not start. Running service openvpn start might bring helpful output too.

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  2. The init script just reporting that OpenVPN didn't start , and due to that openvpn can't read the pid file.
    You have to check system/daemon/openvpn log to see why couldn't start.

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  3. Openvpn is configured in a way that allows running multiple instances of the service. This is very useful if you have different configurations as a client or as a server and you want to manage them separately.

    The systemd configuration files for openvpn (located in /lib/systemd/system) include the "@" character, showing that you can enable different instances for the service. I have enabled some of the VPN connections with it. If, in addition to these configuration files decorated with "@", there is one without "@", you could enable only the connections required:

    systemctl disable openvpn.service
systemctl enable openvpn@<conf filename for the connection>.service

    These instances, when started, should insert the correct option

    --writepid <conf filename for the connection>.pid

    Anyway, if you prefer testing something simpler, you could include the following line in /etc/openvpn/<conf filename for the connnection>.conf

    writepid /var/run/<conf filename for the connection>.pid
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  4. It seems like, you do not have an automatic start script! Which is usual. OpenVPN does not install such a thing by it self, as far as i know...

    First of all try executing the server manually.
    This will need an own Terminalwindows to run. And for the time OPENVPN is running this way, the TerminalWindow will not be usable for other stuff.

    Try this (replace /etc/openvpn/config-files/ with your Path):

    openvpn /etc/openvpn/config-files/server.conf

    Some Information will appear in this Window.
    Now try to connect to the Server with a client. You can shut the openvpn down by hitting CTRL+C

    If this was the solution, do following for executing the OpenVPN-Server after your System has booted.

    Do this in the terminal:

    vim /etc/init.d/OnBootOpvenvpn.sh

    and tipe in the following lines:

    #! /bin/sh
    # /etc/init.d/OnBootOpenvpn.sh #
    openvpn /etc/openvpn/config-files/server.conf

    This would be for the Server. Of course you have to change /etc/openvpn/config-files/ to your Path!!!

    For Clients do the same, just be sure to choose the client.conf!

    Then you'll add this script, to start after the system booted.
    Do this in the terminal:

    update-rc.d OnBootOpvenvpn.sh defaults

    It might say hes missing headers. You can ignore that for now.
    I'm not sure what "defaults" does, I think it means to start as a "normal" programm, after finishing booting and doing deep System stuff.

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  5. The startup script will just try to start OpenVPN, but it will not give you any error messages if it fails. Manually execute OpenVPN

    $ openvpn /etc/openvpn/server.conf

    And solve any errors that you see there. If you do not see errors, check that you did not set log to off, and maybe increase verbosity with verb.

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  6. By default, Ubuntu ships OpenVPN with a legacy startup script. This makes Upstart unable to restart service when it crashes. Legacy scripts also make use of pid files, which are not necessary with native Upstart jobs. So having a native job looks like a solution to your problem.

    I've written Upstart job definition for OpenVPN myself and use it for 2 years without problems. Download the files below, then replace your /etc/init.d/openvpn with a symlink to /lib/init/upstart-job, run sudo initctl reload-configuration. You can edit /etc/default/openvpn to customize deamon startup (by default all VPNs from /etc/openvpn/ are run). Instances (CONN variable for connection job) are named after /etc/openvpn/*.conf files, without extension.

    /etc/init/openvpn-connection.conf

    /etc/init/openvpn-autostart.conf

    /etc/default/openvpn

    This solution is compatible up to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, there are minor issues with 14.10 and in 15.04 Upstart is gone.

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