Part 1 – VPN Intro, Setting up the Linux CentOS 5 (RedHat/Fedora) environment

VPN – Short Intro

openvpn_logoVPN is an acronymn for Virtual Private Networks which facilitates extending of networks beyond horizons shortening the gap between remote offices with the head office. It is a private network over internet which is a public medium providing a “virtual” office environment.

After a few comparisons with other open source products and after digging through Internet I found steps related to openVPN installation on Linux CentOs 5 and few hints related to possible sources of errors during installation which I would like to share with others who face similar problems and are newbies like me 🙂

Installation Steps
==================

1. Download the following package files
[root@computer /]# wget http://openvpn.net/release/openvpn-2.0.9.tar.gz
[root@computer /]# wget http://openvpn.net/release/lzo-1.08-4.rf.src.rpm
Note: Sources for LZO RPM Package file downloads
http://openvpn.net/release/
http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/lzo/

To check if OpenVPN is already installed you can issue the command
[root@computer /]# rpm -q openvpn

2. Setting up the LINUX CentOS environment
[root@computer /]# yum install rpm-build
[root@computer /]# yum install autoconf.noarch
[root@computer /]# yum install zlib-devel
[root@computer /]# yum install pam-devel
[root@computer /]# yum install openssl-devel
3. Building the Linux CentOS environment
[root@computer /]# rpmbuild –rebuild lzo-1.08-4.rf.src.rpm
[root@computer /]# rpm -Uvh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/lzo-*.rpm
[root@computer /]# rpmbuild -tb openvpn-2.0.9.tar.gz
[root@computer /]# rpm -Uvh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/openvpn-2.0.9-1.i386.rpm