Openvpn fails to start in systemd, 20.04

A new client configuration. I can launch openvpn and connect via the executable, but systemd cannot start openvpn

I tried

systemctl start
systemctl start openvpn@server
systemctl start openvpn@service
systemctl start openvpn

and all the same using the service command. Same start failure.

I have the config file in

/etc/openvpn/
/etc/openvpn/client

The logs appear to indicate it finds my config file but does not digest it. And then proceeds to look in another directory for something it likes.

logs:

Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 openvpn[116161]: WARNING: Compression for receiving enabled. Compression has been used in the past to break encryption. Sent packets are not compressed unless "allow-compression yes" is also set.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 ovpn-.service[116162]: Options error: In [CMD-LINE]:1: Error opening configuration file: /etc/openvpn/.service.conf
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 ovpn-.service[116162]: Use --help for more information.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 ovpn-server[116164]: WARNING: Compression for receiving enabled. Compression has been used in the past to break encryption. Sent packets are not compressed unless "allow-compression yes" is also set.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 ovpn-client.service[116163]: WARNING: Compression for receiving enabled. Compression has been used in the past to break encryption. Sent packets are not compressed unless "allow-compression yes" is also set.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 ovpn-service[116166]: WARNING: Compression for receiving enabled. Compression has been used in the past to break encryption. Sent packets are not compressed unless "allow-compression yes" is also set.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: : Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: : Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: Failed to start OpenVPN connection to .service.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: : Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: : Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: Failed to start OpenVPN service for server.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: : Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: : Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: Failed to start OpenVPN connection to client.service.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: : Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: : Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: Failed to start OpenVPN connection to server.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: : Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: : Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 ovpn-server.service[116165]: WARNING: Compression for receiving enabled. Compression has been used in the past to break encryption. Sent packets are not compressed unless "allow-compression yes" is also set.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: Failed to start OpenVPN connection to service.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: : Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: : Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 31 00:00:01 brad-lappy2 systemd[1]: Failed to start OpenVPN connection to server.service.

config:

client
remote mypublicip
dev tun
#ifconfig 10.9.8.2 10.9.8.1
nobind
#persist-key
#persist-tun
tls-client
ca /etc/openvpn/ca.crt
cert /etc/openvpn/client2.crt
key /etc/openvpn/client2.key
comp-lzo
verb 5
ping-restart 60
log /var/log/openvpn/openvpn.log
allow-compression yes

All config files are chmod 777

How do I get systemd to launch openvpn?

Bonus question:

I'm not getting DNS either on this one client, when launching via executable. But that's my next issue. Maybe systemd will fix it.

2 Sorted by: Reset to default

Openvpn fails to start in systemd, 20.04

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