Troubleshooting OpenVPN Client Connectivity Issues

Overview

OpenVPN Client Connect is developed & owned by OpenVPN; it is not an Arista ETM product. For that reason, Arista ETM Support has limited ability to troubleshoot issues with this software. Problems outside the scope of this article should be taken to OpenVPN's support area: https://support.openvpn.net.

Here are some common things you can check for if you're having issues connecting remote clients to your NG Firewall using OpenVPN.

Use Community Edition

Arista ETM recommends the use of the "Community Edition" of the Client Connect software, rather than the "official" version. The Community Edition has proven more stable and compatible with NG Firewall's implementation of OpenVPN.

Download it here: https://openvpn.net/community

Disable compression

Compression is a legacy setting/feature of OpenVPN. In its early days, enabling compression could help with stability and throughput speed, but modern versions no longer need this setting enabled. Compression settings are enabled by default, but should be disabled for best operation.

1. Go to Apps > OpenVPN > Advanced.
2. Under the Server Configuration section, locate any options with the word "compress" in them and check the box under Exclude, along the right-hand side of the page.
3. Scroll down to Client Configuration and disable any "compress" settings listed there as well.
4. Redownload and redeploy your client config files from OpenVPN > Server > Remote Clients.