IPsec/L2TP VPN Server Auto Setup Scripts

Note: This repository was created from (and replaces) these GitHub Gists:

• gist.github.com/hwdsl2/9030462 (224 Stars, 87 Forks as of 01/08/2016)
• gist.github.com/hwdsl2/e9a78a50e300d12ae195 (9 Stars, 5 Forks)

Overview

Scripts for automatic configuration of IPsec/L2TP VPN server on Ubuntu 14.04 & 12.04, Debian 8 and CentOS/RHEL 6 & 7. All you need to do is providing your own values for IPSEC_PSK, VPN_USER and VPN_PASSWORD, and they will handle the rest. These scripts can also be directly used as the Amazon EC2 "user-data" when creating a new instance.

We will use Libreswan as the IPsec server, and xl2tpd as the L2TP provider.

My VPN tutorial with detailed usage instructions

Features

• Fully automated IPsec/L2TP VPN server setup, no user input needed
• Encapsulates all VPN traffic in UDP - does not need the ESP protocol
• Can be directly used as "user-data" for a new Amazon EC2 instance
• Automatically determines public IP and private IP of server
• Includes basic IPTables rules and sysctl.conf settings
• Tested with Ubuntu 14.04 & 12.04, Debian 8 and CentOS/RHEL 6 & 7

Requirements

A newly created Amazon EC2 instance, using these AMIs: (See the link above for usage instructions)

• Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty) or 12.04 (Precise)
• Debian 8 (Jessie) EC2 Images
• CentOS 7 (x86_64) with Updates HVM
• CentOS 6 (x86_64) with Updates HVM

-OR-

A dedicated server or any KVM- or Xen-based Virtual Private Server (VPS), with freshly installed:

• Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty) or 12.04 (Precise)
• Debian 8 (Jessie)
• Debian 7 (Wheezy) - Not recommended. A workaround is required, see below.
• CentOS / Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 or 7

OpenVZ VPS users should instead use Nyr's OpenVPN script.

I want to run my own VPN but don't have a server for that

Do NOT run these scripts on your PC or Mac! They are meant to be run on a dedicated server or VPS!

Installation

For Ubuntu and Debian:

First, update your system with apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade and reboot. This is optional but recommended.

wget https://github.com/hwdsl2/setup-ipsec-vpn/raw/master/vpnsetup.sh -O vpnsetup.sh
nano -w vpnsetup.sh
[Edit and replace IPSEC_PSK, VPN_USER and VPN_PASSWORD with your own values]
/bin/sh vpnsetup.sh

Workaround required for Debian 7 (Wheezy) ONLY: (Run these commands first)

wget https://gist.github.com/hwdsl2/5a769b2c4436cdf02a90/raw -O vpnsetup-workaround.sh
/bin/sh vpnsetup-workaround.sh

For CentOS and RHEL:

First, update your system with yum update and reboot. This is optional but recommended.

yum -y install wget nano
wget https://github.com/hwdsl2/setup-ipsec-vpn/raw/master/vpnsetup_centos.sh -O vpnsetup_centos.sh
nano -w vpnsetup_centos.sh
[Edit and replace IPSEC_PSK, VPN_USER and VPN_PASSWORD with your own values]
/bin/sh vpnsetup_centos.sh

Upgrading Libreswan

You may use vpnupgrade_Libreswan.sh (for Ubuntu/Debian) and vpnupgrade_Libreswan_centos.sh (for CentOS/RHEL) to upgrade Libreswan to a newer version. Check and update the SWAN_VER variable on top of the scripts as necessary.

Important Notes

To support multiple VPN users with different credentials, just edit a few lines in the scripts.

For Windows users, a one-time registry change is required if the VPN server and/or client is behind NAT (e.g. home router).

Android 6.0 users: Edit /etc/ipsec.conf and append ,aes256-sha2_256 to the end of both ike= and phase2alg=, then add a new line sha2-truncbug=yes. Must start lines with two spaces. Finally, run service ipsec restart. (Ref)

iPhone/iOS users: In iOS settings, choose L2TP (instead of IPSec) for the VPN type. In case you're unable to connect, try replacing this line in /etc/ipsec.conf: rightprotoport=17/%any with rightprotoport=17/0. Then restart ipsec service.

Clients are configured to use Google Public DNS when the VPN connection is active. This setting is controlled by ms-dns in /etc/ppp/options.xl2tpd.

If using Amazon EC2, these ports must be open in the instance's security group: UDP ports 500 & 4500 (for the VPN), and TCP port 22 (optional, for SSH).

If your server uses a custom SSH port (not 22), or if you wish to allow other services through IPTables, be sure to edit the IPTables rules in the scripts before using.

The scripts will backup files /etc/rc.local, /etc/sysctl.conf, /etc/iptables.rules and /etc/sysconfig/iptables before overwriting them. Backups can be found under the same folder with .old suffix.

Copyright and license

Copyright (C) 2014 Lin Song   
Based on the work of Thomas Sarlandie (Copyright 2012)

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Attribution required: please include my name in any derivative and let me know how you have improved it!