Setting up VPN connection

Prerequisites

  • Active subscription within Smart Mission Lab system

  • OpenVPN installed on your computer

Getting OpenVPN configuration file

Customers can download OpenVPN configuration from Smart Mission Lab website.

  1. Go to Subscriptions page of your account on Smart Mission Lab website (https://sml.kplabs.space/subscriptions).

  2. Click Download VPN configuration link and save downloaded file.

    ../_images/subscription_download_vpn_config.png

Note

If Download VPN configuration link isn’t active, your subscription is still in preparation. Wait for a while and try again later.

Connecting to VPN

Exact steps needed to connect to VPN depends on operating system and OpenVPN client used. Follow steps in section matching your setup.

Note

SML supports only one connection per-customer at the same time.

Windows with OpenVPN GUI

  1. Using context menu of OpenVPN GUI icon in notification area select Import ‣ Import file.. option.

    ../_images/openvpn_gui_import.png

  2. After importing connection file, establish connection using Connect (only one connection configured) or <configuration name> ‣ Connect (multiple connections configured) option.

    ../_images/openvpn_gui_connect.png

  3. OpenVPN GUI status window will be visible while connecting to SML server and close automatically after success.

Ubuntu

Follow this steps if you are using Ubuntu or other distribution with similar network management settings.

  1. Open Setting ‣ Network

    ../_images/1-settings-network.png

  2. Click + sign in VPN section

    ../_images/2-import.png

  3. Use Import from file… option and select VPN connection profile file (downloaded from Smart Mission Lab website).

  4. After importing file, connection settings file window will appear. Go to IPv4 tab and make sure Use this connection only for resources on its network is checked.

    ../_images/3-never-default.png

  5. Confirm import by clicking Add button.

  6. Enable VPN connection using toggle button

    ../_images/4-activate.png

Linux with NetworkManager (command line)

Follow this steps if you are using Linux distribution with NetworkManager and don’t want to use desktop environment.

  1. Import VPN connection profile (downloaded from Smart Mission Lab website) as NetworkManager connection

    my-machine:~$ nmcli connection import type openvpn file sml.ovpn

  2. Disable using VPN connection as default gateway

    my-machine:~$ nmcli connection modify sml ipv4.never-default true

    Note

    This is required due to unfixed issue in NetworkManager: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/NetworkManager-openvpn/-/issues/48

  3. Activate VPN connection

    my-machine:~$ nmcli connection up sml
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/3)

  4. Verify that connection is active and DNS settings are in-place

    my-machine:~$ nmcli
...
tun0: connected (externally) to tun0
  "tun0"
  tun, sw, mtu 1500
  inet4 10.100.0.17/32
  route4 10.100.0.18/32 metric 50
  route4 10.80.4.40/29 via 10.100.0.18 metric 50
  route4 10.80.4.16/29 via 10.100.0.18 metric 50
  route4 10.80.4.56/29 via 10.100.0.18 metric 50
  route4 10.80.16.128/27 via 10.100.0.18 metric 50
  route4 default via 10.100.0.18 metric 50
  inet6 fe80::6c70:f243:eda3:7dc3/64
  route6 fe80::/64 metric 256

DNS configuration:
  servers: 10.80.4.42
  domains: vpn.sml.kplabs.space
  interface: tun0
  type: vpn

  servers: 10.72.0.1
  interface: ens18

    Highlighted lines indicate NetworkManager correctly configured DNS settings.

Linux with systemd-resolved

Follow this steps if you are using Linux distribution with systemd-resolved

  1. Install https://github.com/jonathanio/update-systemd-resolved using your distribution’s package manager

    my-machine:~$ sudo apt install openvpn-systemd-resolved

    Note

    Exact package name and installation method might differ for your distribution. This tutorial uses names and paths from Debian 12.

  2. Modify OpenVPN connection profile (downloaded from Smart Mission Lab website) by adding following lines at the end of file:

    ...

<tls-auth>
...
</tls-auth>

script-security 2
up /etc/openvpn/update-systemd-resolved
up-restart
down /etc/openvpn/update-systemd-resolved
down-pre

    Note

    Verify that /etc/openvpn/update-systemd-resolved points to existing file from update-systemd-resolved. Different distributions might place it in different place.

  3. Connect to Smart Mission Lab VPN

    my-machine:~$ sudo openvpn <path to customer>.ovpn
...
2025-03-03 09:51:40 net_addr_ptp_v4_add: 10.100.0.17 peer 10.100.0.18 dev tun0
2025-03-03 09:51:40 /etc/openvpn/update-systemd-resolved tun0 1500 0 10.100.0.17 10.100.0.18 init
<14>Mar  3 09:51:40 update-systemd-resolved: Link 'tun0' coming up
<14>Mar  3 09:51:40 update-systemd-resolved: Adding IPv4 DNS Server 10.80.4.42
<14>Mar  3 09:51:40 update-systemd-resolved: Adding IPv4 DNS Server 10.80.4.42
<14>Mar  3 09:51:40 update-systemd-resolved: Adding DNS Search Domain vpn.sml.kplabs.space
<14>Mar  3 09:51:40 update-systemd-resolved: SetLinkDNS(4 2 2 4 10 80 4 42 2 4 10 80 4 42)
<14>Mar  3 09:51:40 update-systemd-resolved: SetLinkDomains(4 1 vpn.sml.kplabs.space false)
2025-03-03 09:51:40 net_route_v4_add: 10.80.4.40/29 via 10.100.0.18 dev [NULL] table 0 metric -1
2025-03-03 09:51:40 net_route_v4_add: 10.80.4.16/29 via 10.100.0.18 dev [NULL] table 0 metric -1
2025-03-03 09:51:40 net_route_v4_add: 10.80.4.56/29 via 10.100.0.18 dev [NULL] table 0 metric -1
2025-03-03 09:51:40 net_route_v4_add: 10.80.16.128/27 via 10.100.0.18 dev [NULL] table 0 metric -1
2025-03-03 09:51:40 Initialization Sequence Completed
```

    Highlighted lines indicate that systemd-resolved configuration now uses Smart Mission Lab DNS server.