Business Continuity with SUSE Home Office Workplace #

Recommended hardware requirements for each products can be found on the respective download pages mentioned in Section 2, “Software Download”.

To set up a VPN server with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server you need RFC3280 TLS compliant certificates and keys generated by your corporate public key infrastructure (PKI) team (these files cannot be generated with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server).

Downloads for all three products are available from https://www.suse.com/download-linux/. Each download comes with a 60-day evaluation key that you need to register the product during installation. Before you will be able to download, log in with your existing SUSE account or create a new account.

Direct download links for the AMD64/Intel 64 architecture:

The easiest way to install SUSE Linux is to boot the installation media from a USB Flash drive. To create a bootable USB drive, proceed as follows:

Tip: Virtual Machine Installation

Creating bootable installation media is only needed when installing on bare metal. In case you are installing on a virtual machine, you can directly use the ISO images you downloaded from the SUSE Web site.

> sudo dd if=PATH_TO_ISO_IMAGE of=USB_STORAGE_DEVICE bs=4M

# grep -Ff <(hwinfo --disk --short) <(hwinfo --usb --short)

Information on how to install each product is available in a separate guide:

Key part of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server solution is the VPN infrastructure which consists of a central VPN server to which the home office clients can connect. Setting up this infrastructure requires the following steps:

5.2 Prepare a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Instance #

 

In this step we are setting up a server with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server that will provide the VPN service. Installation can either be done on a virtual machine (VM) or on bare metal.

Important: Network Infrastructure

For getting security patches and product updates this server needs to be able to either directly access the SUSE Customer Center (external) or an internal SUSE Manager or Repository Mirroring Tool server.

You also need to make sure that this machine can access your internal network in a secure fashion, so that VPN users can access their data.

1. Download the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ISO image from the SUSE Web site and make a note of the evaluation key.

2. If you install on bare metal, prepare a bootable USB flash drive as described in Section 3, “Creating the Installation Media”. If you install on a VM, attach the ISO image as a bootable optical device.

3. Follow the installation instructions from the Quick Start.

   1. Make sure to register SUSE Linux Enterprise Server during the installation using the evaluation key. This ensures that the product is installed with the latest patch level.

   2. In the Extension and Module Selection step, only select the modules Basesystem and Server Applications (both should be selected by default).

   3. In the System Role step, choose Minimal.

5.5 Configure the VPN Client #

 

The SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop installation you performed in the previous step already has the required OpenVPN packages already installed by default. In addition to that, you need the client certificates and keys (including the ta.key generated on the OpenVPN server machine). You will also need to know the external IP address of the VPN server.

Warning: Ensure Secure delivery of Certificates and Keys

The VPN certificates and keys for each client must always be distributed in a secure fashion, for example as an encrypted over a secure connection. These files must never be made publicly available. Also ensure that no home office worker passes them along to any other person.

These files are the admission ticket to your intranet and everybody owning them can access your virtual private network.

1. Import the client certificates (ca.crt, client.crt, client.key, ta.key) to /etc/openvpn.

2. Create an initial client configuration file by copying the template:

   > sudo cp /usr/share/doc/packages/openvpn/sample-config-files/client.conf \
   /etc/openvpn

3. Edit /etc/openvpn/client.conf by adapting and/or uncommenting existing lines as follows (leave the rest unchanged):

   dev tun0
   remote VPN_Server_IP 1194
   user nobody
   group nobody

   VPN_Server_IP needs to be replaced by the external IP address of the VPN server.

4. Set up a tun device configuration by creating /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-tun0 with the following content:

   STARTMODE='manual'
   BOOTPROTO='static'
   TUNNEL='tun'
   TUNNEL_SET_OWNER='nobody'
   TUNNEL_SET_GROUP='nobody'
   LINK_REQUIRED=no
   PRE_UP_SCRIPT='systemd:openvpn@client'
   PRE_DOWN_SCRIPT='systemd:openvpn@client'

5. Activate the tun0 device:

   sudo wicked ifup tun0

6. Start the OpenVPN service:

   > sudo systemctl start openvpn@client.service

   This command is required every time you would like to establish a VPN connection from the Home office. To terminate an existing connection, run sudo systemctl stop openvpn@client.service. Alternatively, you can use the NetworkManager on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop to establish and terminate the VPN connection without requiring root privileges.

7. Check if the tun0 is assigned with an IP address by running ip a show tun0. If so, check whether you can reach the VPN server:

   ping -c 5 VPN_Server_IP

   VPN_Server_IP needs to be replaced by the external IP address of the VPN server.

8. Congratulations. You have successfully set up a VPN client.

Apart from the quick starts, SUSE provides detailed documentation for each product on https://doc.suse.com/:

Tips and troubleshooting help is available in the SUSE Knowledgebase. Choose the respective product and enter a search term to get help on certain topics.

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