I have problem connecting to OpenVPN server. Where are OpenVPN log files and how do I find the connection details?
5 Answers
If you are using the network manager plugin (network-manager-openvpn), look into /var/log/syslog
This should give you the last logs of openvpn:
$ grep VPN /var/log/syslog
Connection details are to be found in /etc/openvpn/
-
-
5This was good in 2014 and searches might lead to here. In 2021, many distros switched to systemd and the logs are accessible via journalctl, see askubuntu.com/questions/885383/….– HermannFeb 8, 2021 at 9:55
-
3
grep vpn -i /var/log/syslog
is better to use. grep is case-sensitive by default and in my case it was missing an important warning :Jan 11 22:12:06 blablabla-nix nm-openvpn[3890]: WARNING: Your certificate has expired!
Jan 12 at 9:57
By default, in most distros, OpenVPN log output goes to the syslog, which is usually at /var/log/syslog
However, your config files can set the logfile location explicitly, e.g.:
log-append /var/log/openvpn.log
This works for both OpenVPN clients and servers. OpenVPN config files are usually located in /etc/openvpn
and usually named *.conf
. server.conf
is canonical; client config filenames are usually like <client name/>.conf
.
Log file location
On servers, OpenVPN is usually run as a system service, i.e., started with the
--daemon
option. According to the OpenVPN man page, using the --daemon [progname]
option has the following effect:
Become a daemon after all initialization functions are completed. This option will cause all message and error output to be sent to the syslog file (such as
/var/log/messages
), except for the output of scripts and ifconfig commands, which will go to/dev/null
unless otherwise redirected. The syslog redirection occurs immediately at the point that--daemon
is parsed on the command line even though the daemonization point occurs later. If one of the--log
options is present, it will supercede (sic) syslog redirection.
Use either of the --log file
or --log-append file
options if you want OpenVPN
messages to be logged to a different file. The --log
option causes the
specified log file to be over-written each time the OpenVPN daemon starts
while the --log-append
option adds new entries to the log file. These
options can also be set in the OpenVPN configuration file, e.g.,
log /var/log/openvpn.log
Verbosity
The --verb
option can be used to set the log file verbosity from 0 (no
output except for fatal errors) to 11 (for maximum debugging information).
The man page specifies levels of 1 to 4 as the appropriate range for normal
usage. This behaviour can be set in the OpenVPN configuration file, e.g.,
verb 3
-
I changed to
verb 2
from the default 3, but there was no noticeable difference. I thenrm openvpn.log
thinking of restarting a fresh log. But openvpn.log didn't get created and I now can't find the logs. Where has the log gone to now? I created a new openvpn.log but it remained at size 0. Aug 20, 2019 at 4:03 -
@OldGeezer That would best be asked as a new question where you can provide specific details about the configuration of your OpenVPN and OS logging (systemd/syslog) configuration. Aug 20, 2019 at 11:25
Use the -l
or --syslog
argument calling openconnect. Now you can check with tail -f /var/log/syslog
It is supposed to be in your home directory (home directory of the user whom executing it), eg ~
. Running an ls -l
command will perhaps reveal it. On the other hand, you may start openvpn with --debug
option to capture what's happening realtime on the terminal.
/etc/openvpn/
there was contained log files and your openVPN configuration