In this tutorial, we will go through the process of installing strongSwan on the latest version of Debian. strongSwan is an open-source IPsec-based VPN solution that is available on various operating systems including Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS.
Before we begin the installation of strongSwan, we need to ensure that the following prerequisites are met:
The first step in installing strongSwan is to ensure that your system is up to date. This can be done by running the following command:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
To install strongSwan on Debian, we can use the apt package manager. To do this, run the following command:
apt-get install strongswan -y
This will install strongSwan and all its dependencies.
The configuration files for strongSwan will be stored in the /etc/ipsec.d/ directory. Navigate to this directory and create a configuration file named ipsec.conf.
cd /etc/ipsec.d/
touch ipsec.conf
Once the configuration file ipsec.conf is created, it needs to be configured. Open the file using your favorite text editor and add the following configuration.
conn my_vpn
left = %any
leftsubnet = 0.0.0.0/0
right = %any
rightsubnet = 0.0.0.0/0
authby = secret
keyexchange = ikev2
auto = add
This configuration creates a VPN connection named my_vpn. The left and right parameters specify the server and client IP addresses respectively. The leftsubnet and rightsubnet parameters denote the subnet masks for each host. In this case, it’s set to allow all traffic.
Next, we need to create a shared secret key that the VPN clients and server will use to authenticate each other. To do this, open the ipsec.secrets file located in the /etc/ipsec.d/ directory and add your shared secret:
: PSK "my_pre_shared_key"
Replace my_pre_shared_key with your desired passphrase.
Now that we’ve configured strongSwan, we can start the service using the following command:
systemctl start strongswan
To ensure that strongSwan starts automatically at system boot, run the following command:
systemctl enable strongswan
To check if strongSwan is running, use the command below:
systemctl status strongswan
This should output a message indicating that strongSwan is active and running.
This concludes our tutorial on how to install and configure strongSwan on Debian. strongSwan is now configured and ready to use. Use your VPN client to connect to the server and start using it.
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