With the significant rise in the number of businesses moving to the cloud, organizations are looking at VPN solutions as a potent measure to secure their sensitive data resources from cyber threats as well as to facilitate secure access to resources.
DigitalOcean is a leading cloud provider that provides developers, organizations, and businesses with infrastructure as a service platform. To deploy a VPN server on DigitalOcean VPC, the most chosen method is the traditional open-source method. However, this option requires a certain level of Linux knowledge and technical expertise to set up the VPN server which put beginner-level users at a disadvantage. To solve this problem, UTunnel is offering easy-to-deploy VPN solutions that let beginner-level users and experts alike easily set up a DigitalOcean VPN server with a few clicks.
UTunnel provides secure remote access solutions that are flexible and seamlessly scalable according to your requirements. Its sleek web-based console ensure easy user and group management with easy-to-use client apps. It comes with end-to-end encryption, site-to-site tunneling, multi-factor authentication, single-sign-on, and many more.
You can create your DigitalOcean VPN server with UTunnel using the integrated cloud option and Bring Your Own Server (BYOS)/On-Premise option.
Integrated Cloud Option
The integrated cloud option is the easiest way to deploy a DigitalOcean VPN server with UTunnel as UTunnel’s fully automated deployment process makes the tedious server deployment process a breeze and sets up the VPN server in minutes. To set up a DigitalOcean VPN server using the integrated cloud option, you have to follow these steps.
Signing Up With UTunnel - You can start by logging in to the UTunnel account and navigating to the dashboard. If you don't have a UTunnel account, you can sign up with UTunnel and create an Individual/Organization account.
Creating The Server - From the dashboard, click on the Create Server button located in the top right corner of the dashboard. On clicking the button, you will be directed to Create Server page where you will be directed to provide your billing address. This step is completely optional and you can skip this step by clicking on the Skip button.
Configuring The Server - Next step is to configure your server and you can do the same from the Server Configuration page. You can start configuring the server by selecting the Server Package to be Basic or Standard based on your requirements. You can set the Server Type to Cloud and provide an easily identifiable name as the server name. Proceed to select the cloud Provider as DigitalOcean and choose the location where you want to deploy your VPN server. You can then select an Instance Type based on your server specifications and choose the number of VPN accounts you want to access with your VPN server.
Once you finish furnishing the server configurations, you can save them by clicking on the Proceed button. Verify and confirm your server configuration details and make the payment.
DigitalOcean VPN server creation starts automatically and you will be navigated to the Server Creation page where you can inspect the various phases of the DigitalOcean VPN server creation process. When the server creation completes, you will be directed to the Server Overview page where you can view the basic summary of your newly created DigitalOcean VPN server.
And that’s how you create a DigitalOcean VPN server with UTunnel in minutes using the integrated cloud option. You can now invite users to access the VPN service and start using the services.
Bring Your Own Server Option
Bring Your Own Server or On-Premise option to deploy a VPN server in DigitalOcean is often opted for by those users who prefer to have more control and flexibility over their VPN server. UTunnel enables hassle-free DigitalOcean VPN server deployment and management with its marketplace app. Users can bring in their DigitalOcean VPS or Droplet and set up a VPN server easily with the following steps.
Configuring & Deploying a Droplet - The first step is to log in to your DigitalOcean account and click on the Get Started with a Droplet button. You will be directed to Create Droplets page, where you will be asked to choose an image for creating a Droplet. Click on the Marketplace tab and search for the UTunnel marketplace app by typing UTunnel into the search box. You can click on the UTunnel VPN from the displayed search list and configure the server type, size, and location according to your requirements. Proceed with deploying the DigitalOcean instance and once the instance deployment is finished, the Droplet will get listed on your DigitalOcean dashboard and you can copy the Droplet’s IP address from there.
Signing up With UTunnel - The next step of the on-premise DigitalOcean VPN deployment is to log in to the UTunnel website and sign up for an Individual or Organization account based on your requirements. After creating the account, log in to your UTunnel account and navigate to the dashboard to click on the Create Server button on the top right corner of the page.
Configuring The VPN server - Once you click on the Create Server button, you will be directed to Create Server page, where you will be asked to key in your billing address. This step is optional and you can skip this step by clicking on the Skip button to navigate to the Server Configuration page.
On the Server Configuration page, configure your server settings to suit your requirements. You can select the Server Package to be Basic or Standard based on your preferences and set the Server Type to On-Premise. Select an easily identifiable name for your server and type in your DigitalOcean Droplet’s IP address into the respective field. You can now select the number of VPN accounts you want to access from this VPN server and enter the coupon code if you have any. Once you finish configuring the server settings, click on the Proceed button to navigate to the next page.
Reviewing Your Order & Payment - Review and confirm your server specifications and settings. Click on the Proceed button to complete the payment and initiate the server creation.
Server Creation - Once the server creation is initialized, you will be navigated to the Server Overview page where you can see the server registration token. Please copy this registration token as it is needed later to register your VPN server.
Connecting Server via SSH - As a final step to deploying the on-premise DigitalOcean VPN server, connect the server via SSH and execute the following commands.
You are required to have sudo access to perform the commands.
As the first thing, you have to disable the default firewall rules
sudo systemctl stop ufw && systemctl disable ufw
After disabling the firewall rules, you can run the following commands:
sudo mkdir /utunnel && cd /utunnel
sudo wget https://files.utunnel.io/production/deploy/installbundle20.tar
sudo tar -xf installbundle20.tar
To register the server, you can run the command
sudo /utunnel/bin/utnservice register YOURREGTOKEN
Replacing YOUR_REG_TOKEN with the registration token you copied from the Server Overview page.
After registering the server you start the UTunnel Service
sudo /utunnel/bin/utnservice start
You should also allow inbound connections to the following ports:
- TCP 443 and UDP 443 for OpenVPN connections
- UDP 4500 and UDP 500 for IPSEC connections
- TCP 38081 which is the UTunnel Services Management port
And that’s how you deploy an on-premise DigitalOcean VPN server.
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