Mine the Harvest

Last week I configured a VPN running between my house and server at work using OpenVPN. The configuration of OpenVPN on the server and client was extremely simple and I wrote a wiki article on it. I highly recommend looking into this if you need an OpenSource VPN solution. It literally took a few minutes to get is deployed as far as the VPN itself. I suggest you just try the mini how-to for initial deployment and then expand on that as needed.

I did have to compile a kernel module for the tun device on one server which a colleague assisted me with – but it was very straight forward and the steps I took to do so are here (see kernel and module configuration) should you need to do the same. It’s not a step by step how to, but certainly gives the broad overview on what to do. You likely won’t even need this though as most distro’s include the tun device, just do an lsmod and look for it. If not though, compiling the module will generally follow the steps described on the wiki.

Once the VPN was running all kinds of fun things are possible, but the primary reason I did this was to use BackupPC to back up my home PCs. I have another blog post on BackupPC and a wiki on it. I very highly recommend this as a backup solution for both your servers at work and even for personal use.  I think it is superior to Backula or Amanda – though setting it up can be a tad beastly. Once configured though – it is the bomb.