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Deploy to AWS (Beta)
Note: The AWS deployment template is still in BETA phase. You may encounter failures during the deployment. In that case, please let us know the issue.
This template will create a fully-working IPSec/L2TP VPN server on AWS (Amazon Web Service). Please make sure to check the pricing details of Virtual Machine on EC2 before starting the launch sequence.
You can also use t2.micro instance as your server for your deployment, which is free of charge within the first year since your AWS account is registered. For more information on AWS free usage tier, go to this page.
Available Customization Parameters:
- AWS EC2 Instance Type
- OS for your VPN Server (Ubuntu16.04, Ubuntu18.04 or Debian9-stretch)
- Your VPN username
- Your VPN password
- IPSec PSK (pre-shared key)
When choosing your username and password, do not enter special characters like
" ' \.
Make sure to do this with an AWS ROOT ACCOUNT or an IAM ACCOUNT with ADMINISTRATION PRVILEGE. AWS Cloudformation requires the template file to be store on AWS S3, while a copy is available on Github. If you want to make any contributions to this template, make sure to contact me so that I can update the template on S3.
If you are confused about the instance types available, go to the FAQ section and check out "Instance Type Selection".
Click the icon below to initiate the launching sequence.
You need to wait for 5~10 minutes for the VPN installation script to finish after the stack is shown as successfully created, before you can connect to the server. During that period, you can prepare your VPN client software by visiting "Next Step: Configuring VPN Clients".
FAQs
Instance Type Selection
I have made only a few general-purpose, x64-based instance types available. That's because not all instance types are available in all AWS Regions. Even some of the instance types available in the template are not available in certain AWS regions. So be careful which instance type to choose. The figure below shows the number of regions where each of the selectable instance type is available.
A spreadsheet that includes the raw instance data across all AWS regions is available here.
How to connect to the server via ssh after deployment?
AWS does not allow users to access the instances with an SSH password. Instead, users are instructed to create "key pairs", which are used as credentials to access the instances via SSH.
The template here generates a key pair for you during the deployment, and that will be available as plain texts in the "Output" section after the stack is successfully created.
You need to note down that key file if you want to later access the VPN server via SSH.
Author
Copyright (C) 2020 S. X. Liang
Screenshots
