OpenVPN Access Server Reviews

It was very easy to set up users.

The high availability deployment is not very straightforward. They can make it simpler. 

OpenVPN does not support some of the additional protocols that Pulse Secure and Cisco AnyConnect support. They can include support for these additional protocols.

I have been using this solution for close to a year. I set it up and configured it. I also supported it from time to time and documented standard operating procedures because there were other people who were going to maintain it and operate it. We have about 15 users of this solution.

It was not very complicated. I did it for the first time, and for somebody who was doing it for the first time, it was okay. I could do it.

It is important to document the steps so that if one person is not available, another person can continue the work. 

I would rate OpenVPN Access Server a seven out of ten.

OpenVPN is an excellent candidate for establishing secure point-to-point connections between home office locations and satellite locations. It can be configured to limit exposure of the network, from just between the specific endpoints, all the way to full access between local area networks. Performance is consistent and positive. Security has been outstanding, passing some of the greatest tests we've put them to regulating bodies looking for vulnerabilities. If you're looking for a solid solution to establish VPN tunnels between sites, be sure to put OpenVPN on your list to check out.

OpenVPN has allowed me to have the ability to VPN into my environment from anywhere, using Open Source technologies, which helps me control my costs. My clients have capitalized on it when WAN alternatives were too expensive to consider. Yes, there are appliance equivalents out there, but for full customization and low cost, you can't beat it, in my opinion.

The features I have found to be most valuable are the levels of encryption I can enact and the compression I can apply to improve throughput. Obviously, the higher the level of encryption the more difficult it will be to intercept valuable content; and of course, the more we can compress data through the tunnel, the higher the level of relative throughput we can achieve.

The product is fully customized through configuration files, which is all achieved through manual data entry. This is where it becomes unattractive. If there was a Graphical User Interface to help streamline the configuration, I believe OpenVPN would probably venture more into the non-geek realm as it were. What I mean by this is, if there was a form-driven configuration process, like a "File -> Settings" kind of thing, where the end user can enter data into fields to specify the connection specifics, e.g. hostname/IP Address, protocols, etc. that could be written into the config file in the background, similar to what you see in YaST over in openSuSE in some of the services area, etc., and basically foolproof the VPN configuration, you may see more GUI-oriented folks using OpenVPN. Of course in saying this, I anticipate what's going to happen: "Well, give it a try, Elliott!" I'd love to, but my programming skills aren't there yet - I'm a "Edit the file" guy...

I have had a hard time trying to get OpenVPN to crash. I have achieved it on occasion when I am constantly breaking connectivity between the hosts, which I only do when I'm experimenting with things. Otherwise, once your configuration is stable, the tunnel remains stable.

Scalability, as far as I can tell thus far, is limited to the hardware capabilities of your Linux router or host from which you intend to run OpenVPN.

I cannot recall whether I worked with customer support on OpenVPN; being an Open Source project, when you have questions, you really end up working with fellow users in the OSS community. That being said, I can also say that the documentation for OpenVPN is outstanding. It gives you a full explanation of the product and case examples of how it can be applied. From there, you really need to start experimenting with it and post questions to the forums. You will find that people will respond and help you through your issues. People are happy to help out with products they've come to enjoy, and OpenVPN is one of those, as I think you'll find out.

Prior to OpenVPN, I've had some experience with SonicWALL VPN, Fortinet, and CiscoVPN. All of these are fine alternatives, and I rarely experienced a problem using them. The big push for me to look at OpenVPN came when I started to work in heterogeneous environments, using both Windows and Linux.

As I started to discover the options available through the Linux platform, I naturally continued to expand my curiosity and experiment with the options I found. In many cases, I found some that were okay, but too unstable to really consider, and in others, I found outstanding products developed by some brilliant people.

OpenVPN became the perfect solution for me when I tried to connect two DRBD farms together and needed to encrypt the data stream between the two. It made sense to use the product from the host responsible for managing the DRBD stack, and simply add the remote farm via the tunnel. I then began to see other opportunities where I could apply it, and finally jumped in full force.

Going through the setup for the first time will be a challenge. What I have done is write down a procedure to follow, that I have used every time since. I make modifications from time to time, as new features have been introduced, or old features have been replaced. Having a working set of config files available to use as a basis to build out new tunnels have been a blessing, too!

The project I described previously, I developed on my own. I was then hired by my clients to deploy the solution for them. To be honest, I knew nothing about OpenVPN when I started, but I was able to come up to speed pretty quickly. And if I was able to do it, I have no doubt you can be successful, too!

Overall, I believe the ROI is high. The initial investment can be costly, as you go through the process of learning the application. But in the long run, you gain more than just financial benefits; the intellectual knowledge gained can be invaluable.

With regard to setup cost, pricing and/or licensing, the simple answer is that you'll need to set aside some time to learn it and experiment with it. That's the only cost you will incur, with the exception of freeing up some hardware on which you can install Linux. OpenVPN is freely available through all of the major distributions. My experience thus far has been with openSUSE, which is a great platform for you to explore.

In my DRBD example above, I couldn't find a solution without introducing additional hardware between the two farms that either complicated access from authorized hosts or potentially impacted performance. I really needed it to occur at the point of management: the DRBD master of the farm. So, when I am asked, "Did you evaluate other options?", the short answer is "Yes", but on paper only; none of them could accomplish what I needed to achieve.

You can see a quick description of the DRBD project I mentioned on my website along with a graphic showing the layout of it. Visit http://www.scottsolutions.us/p... for more details.

Our primary use case was to give mobile knowledge workers a secure connection across the Internet to our LAN, whether by laptop, mobile tablet or smart phone.

It allowed people to remotely access files from their mobile devices. It was so easy for end-users to use that they were able to work more efficiently no matter where they were, whether at a client’s campus, home, traveling – wherever they had a device and internet access.

This open-source solution provided the easiest UX for our end-users and had the greatest interoperability with all the operating systems we used, including but not limited to: iOS, Android, OS X, Windows, and Linux.

The upgrade path from older versions was more difficult than we wanted to tackle, so we ran an older version of the software for longer than I wanted. Patching, updating, and migrating to newer versions was a problem for us. That said, we were on a rather old version that I inherited yet it worked rock solid.

No issues.

We more than doubled our staff at my previous company and our OpenVPN appliance handled it well.

Tech support wasn’t needed during my 5 years administrating OpenVPN.

OpenVPN was already implemented when I took over the IT department. I do know that there was also a Cisco VPN product in place, but it was finicky and many of our end-users had issues with the Cisco VPN. At the time, it also didn’t work on mobile devices and the required ports were blocked by certain ISPs (like some hotel internet connections, cellular providers, etc.)

In-house expertise.

At one point I had to purchase addition connection licenses. I was very pleased with the pricing and licensing; so much easier than navigating the confusing jungle of Microsoft and Cisco licensing and pricing. That alone made the product a delight to manage.

I didn’t purchase OpenVPN, but I have evaluated other products for other departments I managed at other companies. Cisco and Fortinet are the two I remember off hand.

We did not use this product on AWS. We hosted the server on our network.

My advice would be, if OpenVPN fits your environment and needs, it’s a great solution. Do it.

Encrypted connections are, in all situations, better than unencrypted. So, security is much better with OpenVPN.

The ability to run in almost any conditions, and the flexibility that comes with that.

No issues with stability, at least not recently.

No issues with scalability.

We didn't use any paid support. This software is fairly industry-standard and you can find all kinds of help in the online community.

We switched from IPSec and switched because of NAT issues.

This product was used with AWS. The installation and configuration is pretty straightforward.

Begin with the community version and upgrade to paid one if the need arises.

I'd rate it at nine out of 10, just because the product has to grow.

Carefully consider what do you want to get out of it, same as with the other software.

Interoffice connections. We had offices in India and the US. To connect both of them to the same environment, we were using OpenVPN for that. It was so we could maintain a file store, exchange files and documents securely through our own proprietary mechanism, instead of having to rely on Dropbox and the like. 

Interoperability between different offices. We didn't have to keep exchanging documents via email and other tech. We were able to maintain a common file store because of the complete VPN setup we had using OpenVPN.

The compatibility with almost any Linux operating system, and how easy it is to write scripts and generate keys for people to use and log in. I found it easy to deploy quickly.

Some of the issues we faced were things like, if someone's key is not working, or if we had to remove someone's permission from it, or maybe an employee left the company and we had to take their key out. That seemed a little bit more complicated than it had to be.

Also, I think right now the GUI part of it is locked out behind the pay wall. It could use something that gives it a very basic, minimal, graphic interface for logging in, for the community version. That would probably be a good step forward.

We did not encounter any stability issues in our scope.

Our use case was less complex than most. We did not come across any issues with scalability.

I usually found support online, so I didn't have to use tech support.

We started off with OpenVPN when we were evaluating what we could use for our needs and we ended up with OpenVPN. I have used other VPN solutions at other offices, but in the cases that I've dealt with, OpenVPN was the choice.

If we had to create something for someone who was not necessarily tech savvy, I had to set that up on their computer, I had to write "read me's" and other things so that they could install their client and then connect to the VPN by themselves. So it was hard to set up for people who are not tech savvy. I had to actively provide assistance and walk them through the whole process.

The product's pricing is good value, definitely. It is one of the best features, I would say.

Evaluate the product before seeing which type of licensing is good for you. I think there is a good evaluation method available for OpenVPN, so you can just evaluate if it meets your needs. Then go forward with the right licensing policy.

OpenVPN is a good option for kick-starting any kind of interoperability between offices. It doesn't have a huge setup time, so it's a quick way to start experimenting with how the organization would work with its VPN requirements. Even if your requirements are very small, it's a very convenient to start off with this solution.

I rate it at eight out of 10 because it gives value for what it provides. You need technical know-how to get started on it, but it is also very swift. It has all the right features but it's technically challenging if you're not tech savvy. Providing clients with keys is not that straightforward.

This was a test bed in which to use a virtualized Citrix server to be connected with the downtown Tacoma site. We needed that to be able to not only access the local network over there, but also to use thin clients there to virtualize the work stations on our test location.

It allows us to actually use the Citrix server, just that simple.

A valuable feature for us is its ability to see the new Citrix server as a local server within the company.

And it allows us to test abroad. We have a couple other sites that we want to try to get people to remote into. Having that feature really helped.

The user interface that we had to implement. I would like to see a simpler interface, so that we can make the connection between the local network using the LAN IP.

Also, I would be more happy with the idea of licensing to have a reduced price with longer, grouped, annual fees. We have a lot of other software that does the same thing. It's a little higher price if you're going with a shorter stint, but there's a reduction in price for three- and five-year contracts.

It's been more of a hardware issue with us. The VPN has been working fine, but on our side, where our test bed is, we've just been trying to get it fine-tuned. But, no, OpenVPN hasn't had any problems.

Not yet. 

It's been pretty good. We only had one question when we were first implementing it. My crew and I were answered very quickly. The technical support was responsive.

We didn't have a previous solution. We had done a little research and we went with OpenVPN as the first option. It wasn't that we went through several before it.

It was pretty straightforward. We've seen terrible things with Citrix, so nothing compared to that.

I would say the product's pricing is a good value. I would recommend to other companies to implement it. I've seen other software, in tandem with the service, to be very expensive.

We were attempting to do a closed VPN between the two sites, but it really doesn't work with the local IPs that we wanted people's Citrix agents to be able to get in. We wanted it to emulate the IP of it being local because eventually we were going to move the Citrix server to the Tacoma site.

Do your homework, and make sure that your test site where you're going to be setting this up has a good, solid connection with your ISP. That was the issue we ran into. We actually had to get our ISP out here to fix the modem that we were having issues with.

We have multiple clients on our VPN, and we do logon for support, backup, and product updates.

It can securely do remote product updates, push out product updates; just like on our LAN, it's a virtual private network and we just push across our updates.

One of the new features of it is you can change the default port. Instead of 1194, like everybody expects, you can change it to whichever port you want to use. 

Another thing is that you can do local subnet blocking.

They may have this already, but it would be nice to be able to get more notifications if a site drops unexpectedly.

It would be nice with all these features, if they could send some examples of each one; just small sample scripts to look at and say, "Oh okay, I could expand on this." That would help us a lot.

No real issues with stability, but it could be a little faster at times, though there are tweaks for that.

Also, I don't think it's really their issue, but sometimes I think that our sites - our IT departments - might do something to disconnect the connection. We can't always prove that but I think that's what happens. I have developed some scripts that detect that and will re-trigger the service. So that's not really an issue any more.

We had some scalability issues at first but it was our own lack of understanding. We had created just the limited set of clients, before we expanded on that to maximize it to 1000-plus clients on one subnet. That was all our own research and fixing that.

Tech support is very good. They've got such a good product that I've only had to use them once or twice. The other times I have done an internet search and was able to find something that I needed.

It was a little bit complex but now that I've done it a couple times it's pretty straightforward. Looking at everything to begin with was a little bit complex, building the certificates, etc. Since then, we've scripted everything and that makes it much easier.

I think it's an exceptional value.

I think the pricing is an exceptional value. I didn't really deal with the licensing issue, but I have heard that if you know that you're going be doing it for at least five years, they do offer a 20% discount.

I don't recall any other options at that time. Somebody else in our office suggested OpenVPN and we went that route and it worked for us.

If you will be creating several client configurations, create a script or some kind of automation for the steps of calling into the template where you can plug in parameters such as the key names and the actual subnet of the address that will be used. Then, in part of the script, do all the packaging of it because it will prevent errors and typos and save lots of time too.

Also, expand on the number of connections right away, and have some reset scripts for each phase, if it goes down, to be able to restart it. It can be difficult to connect to a remote machine if you've lost your connection.

I would rate it a 10 because I don't know of any other features that we're missing and it's so simple and flexible, customizable, that it's a really great product.

My entire engineering team can access our infrastructure from anywhere in the world, securely.

Privacy and cryptography for my network communication.

Maybe provide a GUI or Web UI to manage users. Today these features are in the Pro Edition or are done by scripts.

No issues with scalability.

No issues with scalability.

The community is great. We are able to find a lot of documentation on the Web.

Cisco VPN, L2TP/IPsec. OpenVPN is easier to maintain and use, save us time.

Straightforward, a server is installed in a few minutes.

The Pro Edition has a reasonable price per user.

Cisco VPN.

I use it as server and client in AWS. The first reason is to provide a kind of crypted VLAN.

No real advice to give, except to be careful with the traffic in/out on extensive usage.

I rate it 10 out of 10. Simple to install and maintain, easy to find documentation or help in Google.

Try it. It's really fast to PoC and validate this solution.