# Running OpenVPN Client With systemd

In the era of remote work, a lot of us work over  [OpenVPN](https://www.cee-systems.com/solutions) (a bit unfortunate naming, by the way). On Linux, it has a command-line client. Keeping a terminal around all day can be impractical, but you can configure OpenVPN to run as a  [systemd](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/systemd.1.html) service, and systemd will keep it running for you.

To do so, copy your OpenVPN configuration file to `/etc/openvpn/client`, and make sure that the filename ends with `.conf`:
```bash
$ cp your-company-openvpn-configfile /etc/openvpn/client/your-company.conf
```

If the VPN requires a username and password, make sure that the configuration file points to a file with the credentials. This means that `your-company.conf` has to contain the following line:
```bash
auth-user-pass your-company.auth
```
And create `your-company.auth` file in `/etc/openvpn/client` with username and password separated by a newline. If you're sharing the machine with anyone, it's a good idea to make the file readable only by `root` and _nobody else_.

Now you should be able to start the new OpenVPN service like so:
```bash
$ systemctl start openvpn-client@your-company
```
Note that this grabs the part after the `@`, appends `.conf`, and then searches for a configuration file with that name in `/etc/openvpn/client/`. Therefore, make sure you got the naming right. Also, note that thanks to the `@` you can have multiple configurations for multiple clients. This is a handy feature of systemd, called "templates", and you can use it with any [systemd service](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.unit.html). If you're feeling inquisitive, you can open `/usr/lib/systemd/system/openvpn-client@.service` on your machine and take a look at how this is actually implemented for OpenVPN.

You can of course use all the `systemctl` commands with your VPN client now. For example, you can check the status using
```bash
$ systemctl status openvpn-client@your-company
```
Or configure the VPN client to start at boot via
```bash
$ systemctl enable openvpn-client@your-company
```
... and so on. Enjoy!