openVPN

Hi,
What do you mean by native support for OpenVPN? We have an add-on that you can install.

Regards

I've missed that you mean for Mac. I will ask our Mac team to answer you.

Regards

Thank you!

I would love to have add on support for the Mac side also but figured I would start with openVPN

Hi Justin,

The OpenVPN session in RDM Windows use the openvpn-gui.exe provided by OpenVPN. OpenVPN do not seem to provide an equivalent for Mac. We would need to use a third party. They do seem to suggest Tunnelblick on their website: https://openvpn.net/index.php/access-server/docs/admin-guides/183-how-to-connect-to-access-server-from-a-mac.html

Would that be good enough for you? Or have I misunderstand what you want?

Best regards,

I currently do use tunnelblick and they do make an awesome product but I was just wondering if this was possible as when I could click open a remote session with a machine it would automagically toss up the VPN and get me connected to the resource. I can certainly use tunnelblick and was more of just wanting to see if the integration was possible.

Hi Justin,

I'm not sure, but I think we're talking about the same thing. What I was suggesting was that, when you open your OpenVPN session in RDM Mac, we would use Tunnelblick since OpenVPN do not provide a GUI of their own on macOS.

I've had some time to research and test a bit, and started working on the integration. To make it works, we would have to generate a Tunnelblick configuration package (folders with .tblk extension under ~/Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Configurations/), launch Tunnelblick and start the VPN with said configuration. We could then remove the configuration package when the RDM OpenVPN session close. This method would use pretty much the same settings set in the corresponding RDM Windows session.

Alternatively, we could also provide a second method which would simply need a configuration name already configured in Tunnelblick. This method, while easier to implement would make the OpenVPN session needs different settings between Windows and Mac.

Since you're already using Tunnelblick, does this seems reasonable to you?

In the mean time, you could also use the Custom VPN session to start and stop Tunnelblick via command line (osascript command to invoke AppleScript). The commands would be, off the top of my head:
Open command: osascript -e "tell application \"Tunnelblick\" to connect \"ConfigurationName\""
Close command: osascript -e "tell application \"Tunnelblick\" to disconnect \"ConfigurationName\""

Just need to replace ConfigurationName with the configuration that needs to be used.

Best regards,

I uncovered this topic while trying to find a resolution to this problem. While the commands do function as intended with run from terminal, I am unable to get them to work from the custom VPN entry. I am setting terminal.app as the executable for the VPN but am receiving error that the executable is not found. The path im using is "/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app" as filled using browse.

Hi,

You made me realize I missed one field when suggesting this as a solution, the executable.

Since the executable is actually osascript, just put "/usr/bin/osascript" in this field. Then add the opening and closing arguments as mentioned, just without the osascript at the start.

Best regards,

Works great! Thanks

Hi, I know this is kind of old thread, but I've only recently started to use RDM. I've tried the setup above, but it always says Unable to find the executable. Did I do something wrong? Thanks.

Hi,

This is because the "/usr/bin/osascript" goes in the Executable field. So in my earliest example, this would look like this:

Executable: /usr/bin/osascript
Opening arguments: -e "tell application \"Tunnelblick\" to connect \"ConfigurationName\""
Closing arguments: -e "tell application \"Tunnelblick\" to disconnect \"ConfigurationName\""

Please, tell me if it solves your issue.

Best regards,

That works perfectly. I see now that I have skipped over that one very important post that said the exact same think as you did now. Thanks

Glad to hear it!

Please, do not hesitate if you have any other issues.

Best regards,

Hi,

I'd just like to mention that we've just implemented a new Tunnelblick VPN entry that will support Username, Password and Passphrase autofilling. This should be available in an upcoming version of RDM (namely, 2019.1.8.0).

Best regards,

We are using Remote Desktop Manager on Windows and Mac Computers. It would be great, that the Mac supports also the same behavior like on Windows to open the OpenVPN connection. Could you please add this support. Best regards Norbert

Hi,

What OpenVPN client are you using?

In RDM Windows, they support the OpenVPN Add On entry by launching OpenVPN GUI with command lines, an application that, to my knowledge, is not available for macOS.

The other OpenVPN application, OpenVPN Connect, is available for macOS, but it is not obvious to me, from the CLI documentation how to start a VPN with a custom configuration, it's not even clear how to start a VPN at all. Looking at it, it looks like it manages configuration, maybe saving them in the macOS networks and letting macOS handle the start and stop? In which case, it wouldn't even be possible to integrate the session as it is implemented in RDM Windows.

To elaborate on this, the Windows implementation lets you configure the VPN in the session itself, and it will dynamically generate a config file that it will then feed to OpenVPN GUI. It's not something I'm convinced we could do with OpenVPN Connect.

Have you used this app (OpenVPN Connect)? Are you perhaps more in the know on how it works?

Best regards,

Hi Xavier, we are using OpenVPN Connect on Windows and Mac. On Windows the Remote Desktop Manager can start the VPN by doubleclicking the item. The first time i think, you have to store the configuration but next time it works automatically.

Best regards

Ah! I just realized that RDM Windows has two OpenVPN entries (and one specifically for OpenVPN Connect. I'll open a ticket to investigate this. At first glance, the Windows and macOS client shared the same command line interface.

Best regards,

Hi norbertegger,

RDM 2023.2.5.1 is now available with support for the OpenVPN Connect entry.

Best regards,

Hi Xavier,

yes i tried it today and it works :) great job, thank you!

Glad to hear it!

Do not hesitate if you have any other requests.

Best regards,