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Setting Up d.ASH VPN

When setting up VPN for d.ASH, two separate login credentials are required for two seperate VPN connections - one for the robot onboard computer and one for the remote client. This section of the d.ASH SDK documentation provides details about setting up the d.ASH VPN for both your robot and your remote client.

3.1 Setting Up VPN Onboard Computer

To start, you will need to install some packages to configure automatic VPN connection on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS by executing the following command:

sudo apt install network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome openvpn openvpn-systemd-resolved -y

This will install an openvpn package, which creates a /etc/openvpn/client/ directory into which you can place the OpenVPN client configuration file. You will need to configure the VPN configuration file - client.ovpn which can be found in your vpn folder /dash_sdk/vpn. 

dash-sdk/
└─ vpn/
    └─ client.ovpn
    └─ ca.crt
    └─ <USER>.crt
    └─ <USER>.key
Note that <USER> in this instance is replaced by your dConstruct admin username. Now, you will need to copy client.ovpn and your user certifications - ca.crt, <USER>.crt, <USER>.key - into the new open vpn directory. In the /dash_sdk directory, execute the following commands:

python3.7 config_vpn.py
sudo cp client.ovpn /etc/openvpn/client/client.conf 
sudo cp ca.crt <USER>.crt <USER>.key /etc/openvpn/client

For example, if your dConstruct admin username is user123, you would replacing <USER> with user123:

sudo cp client.ovpn /etc/openvpn/client/client.conf 
sudo cp ca.crt user123.crt user123.key /etc/openvpn/client

To check that your files have been copied and renamed correctly, cd into the /etc/openvpn/client directory and ls to see your list of files. You should have client.conf and your user certification files, namely ca.crt <USER>.crt <USER>.key:

etc/
└─ openvpn/
    └─ client/
        └─ client.conf
        └─ ca.crt
        └─ <USER>.crt
        └─ <USER>.key

Now, let's test that the VPN service was set up correctly by running the following command: 

sudo systemctl start openvpn-client@client.service

If there is no error print, proceed onto the next step. If you come across a failure, ensure that the path in client.conf matches the following format:

cat \etc\openvpn\client\ca.crt
cert \etc\openvpn\client\<USER>.crt
key \etc\openvpn\client\<USER>.crt

Now, to check your VPN status, enter the following command: 

sudo systemctl status openvpn-client@client.service
If successful, you should be able to see the status Initialization Sequence Completed. Lastly, enable the VPN onboard your computer by executing the following command: 

sudo systemctl enable openvpn-client@client.service

3.2 Setting Up VPN Remote Client

Remember to use a separate login credential from the robot onboard computer credentials as at any point in time, there can only be one active user session.

Firstly, download OpenVPN Connect. Once OpenVPN has been launched, click on the tab - 'Import from File' tab and drag-and-drop the client.ovpn file located in \dash-sdk\vpn. It is important to note that the client.ovpn file has to be in the same directory as there certification files, namely ca.crt <USER>.crt <USER>.key:

dash-sdk/
└─ vpn/
    └─ client.ovpn
    └─ ca.crt
    └─ <USER>.crt
    └─ <USER>.key