Tutorial: How to install easy-rsa on Elementary OS Latest from GitHub

This tutorial will guide you through the step-by-step process of installing easy-rsa on your Elementary OS system. Easy-rsa is a set of scripts used to create public key infrastructure (PKI) to support an OpenVPN setup.

Prerequisites

• A system running Elementary OS Latest.
• A user account with administrative privileges on the system.

Steps

Step 1: Install Git

First, you need to install Git on your system. Git is a version control system used for software development.

To install Git, open a terminal and type the following command:

sudo apt-get install git

Step 2: Clone the Easy-RSA Repository

Now that Git is installed, open a terminal and use the following command to clone the easy-rsa repository from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/OpenVPN/easy-rsa.git

This command will download the easy-rsa repository to your current working directory.

Step 3: Copy the Easy-RSA Scripts

Next, copy the easy-rsa scripts to a location on your system where you have write permissions. You can copy the scripts to your home directory using the following command:

cp -r easy-rsa/ /etc/openvpn/

This command will copy the easy-rsa directory and its contents to the /etc/openvpn/ directory on your system.

Step 4: Edit the vars File

Before you can use the easy-rsa scripts, you need to edit the vars file to set the required variables. Open the vars file using a text editor:

sudo nano /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/vars

Change the following variables to your preferred values:

export KEY_COUNTRY="<Country Code>"
export KEY_PROVINCE="<State/Province>"
export KEY_CITY="<City Name>"
export KEY_ORG="<Organization Name>"
export KEY_EMAIL="<Email Address>"

Step 5: Generate Certificates

Now that the vars file has been updated, you can use the easy-rsa scripts to generate certificates.

Navigate to the easy-rsa/ directory:

cd /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/

Source the vars file to set the environment variables:

source vars

Initialize the PKI:

./easyrsa init-pki

Generate a CA certificate:

./easyrsa build-ca

Generate a server certificate and key:

./easyrsa build-server-full <Server Name> nopass

Generate a client certificate and key:

./easyrsa build-client-full <Client Name> nopass

Step 6: Use the Certificates

You can now use the generated certificates for your OpenVPN setup.

The ca.crt, <Server Name>.crt, and <Server Name>.key files should be copied to the OpenVPN server. The ca.crt and <Client Name>.crt files should be copied to the OpenVPN client.

Conclusion

This tutorial has shown how to install easy-rsa from GitHub on Elementary OS Latest. By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you can generate certificates for your OpenVPN setup using easy-rsa.

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