Access database on Windows server through VPN from nodejs running on Linux

Question

I'm kind of lost in my current project. From a linux machine (Ubuntu server), running a code in nodejs I have to connect to a windows server, through VPN, and access a mySQL server running on it.

About the VPN server I only know it's Windows and I can easily connect to it by using the VPN conector on another Windows machine, I do not have access to that machine or know its parameters.

All I have is the IP of both VPN and database server inside that VPN, and username/password for VPN and database as well. Also I know that the VPN uses ms-chap v2.

I'm trying to use openvpn like that:

sudo openvpn --remote vpnIP --dev tun --ifconfig 127.0.0.1 dbIP

This does not show any error message but never request VPN's username/password

And what should I do from nodejs to access the database once VPN is created?

As I've said, I'm very lost on that! Any tip will be welcome!

Answer 1

Unless something else is specified, a Windows based VPN almost always uses PPTP. You can not connect with OpenVPN. You have to use a PPTP client.

The Ubuntu package is pptp-linux. There is a detailed explanation on how to configure it here.

In a nutshell (I assume you have no GUI on a server), you can create a tunnel with :

pptpsetup --create my_tunnel --server <server_address> --username <username> --password '<password>' --encrypt

Configuration files will be created in /etc/ppp. You can then connect (in debug mode) with:

pon my_tunnel debug dump logfd 2 nodetach

or simply (once it work) :

pon my_tunnel

and stop it with :

poff my_tunnel

If the server is a gateway, you may need to add a route, something like :

ip route add 192.168.1.0/24 dev ppp0

Answer 2

You may want Network Manager with a plugin network-manager-pptp, also see this wiki https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VPNClient#PPTP