the DIY home VPN experiment (part three - my virtualized OpenVPN server)

Part Three: My Virtualized OpenVPN Server

Overview

In this post, I'd like to share my most recent home lab project - a nested OpenVPN server. I refer to it as nested, because it is running completely within my desktop computer. See the illustration below.

The idea for this project came along when I working on setting up a VPN with my older Linksys router. Basically, I wanted to come up with a way to run a home lab VPN server without requiring any additional hardware, and I wanted to incorporate virtualization into this project. In addition, running it as a VM allows for fairly safe and controlled experimentation, without running the risk of bricking one's router with non-standard firmware.

the DIY home VPN experiment (part two - PKI)

Part Two: Generating a PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) for my OpenVPN Deployment

In part one of the DIY home VPN experiment, I introduced the project that I am working on - a client-server VPN utilizing OpenVPN. I will be deploying a VPN server using three different methods: 1) a VM running on VMware Fusion, 2) using CentOS on a Raspberry Pi, and 3) using DD-WRT on a consumer router; however, I would like to begin by building the common foundation - the PKI.

What is a PKI, or public key infrastructure?

the DIY home VPN experiment (part one - intro)

Part One: Introduction

It’s been a while since my last blog entry, and I’ve decided to catch you up on some of the projects that I’ve been working on in my home lab. This next series of posts is going to revolve around the do-it-yourself home VPN.

What is a VPN, or virtual private network?