[asterisk-users] VPN between Asterisk server and phone client

[Steve Totaro]

Kai-Uwe Jensen wrote:
> Concur with Steve: OpenVPN is your friend. At one time, I used "VPN on
> Demand"-type functionality in my dial plan to trunk a certain subset
> of calls to a different * server via OpenVPN. This is what that
> dialplan looked like:
>
> [trunkfreecallsviaoffsite]
> exten => _X.,1,NoOp
> exten => _X.,n,Playback(creating_vpn)
> exten => _X.,n,System(/usr/local/bin/startvpn clientname 
> ${CALLERID(name)})
> exten => _X.,n,Wait(10)
> exten => _X.,n,Playback(success_vpn)
> exten => _X.,n,Dial(IAX2/vpnmaster/**${EXTEN},60,TW)
> exten => _X.,n,Hangup
>
> exten => h,1,System(/usr/local/bin/stopvpn clientname ${CALLERID(name)})
> exten => h,n,Playback(stopping_vpn)
>
> The startvpn and stopvpn scripts (which I've since managed to lose)
> would establish the VPN between this server and the "vpnmaster"
> server. The scripts would also keep track of current users
> (${CALLERID(name)} of the VPN-trunk. As a side effect of user
> tracking, I'd know when the VPN was already established, so I didn't
> need to re-connect. Similarly, I'd only tear it down when no users
> were left.
>
> As I mentioned, this does not address your direct need to create a VPN
> between an endpoint (softphone) and your server. My example simply
> illustrates the straight-forward OpenVPN approach. You can install the
> OpenVPN GUI tools on your desktop/laptop and create the VPN manually
> when you need it.
>
> BTW, I stopped using this technique when we added a second local
> server, so I didn't have to go across the WAN for offloading certain
> calls anymore.
>
That is really a cool idea to add it on demand in the dialplan.  Was the 
wait(10) required to get the VPN up or could you set it to a lower 
number?  It seems OpenVPN connects pretty darn quickly.  Did you ever 
run into issues where wait(10) was not long enough?

Thanks,
Steve Totaro
www.asteriskhelpdesk.com