Is it better to put OpenVPN (for PIA) on my OPNsense router, as an LXC on Proxmox, or the (soon to be deprecated) feature in my TrueNAS Scale VM? reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bigrjsuto · 2023-10-01 03:22 I was going to use the built-in OpenVPN in TrueNAS until I found out it's going to be deprecated. I only really need it for the qbitorrent/transmission and prowlarr/jackett (haven't decided yet) apps in TrueNAS, so I don't know what the next best option is. And then, could you point me to a good guide/documentation for it? Thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ButCaptainThatsMYRum · 2023-10-01 03:46 Just put it where you need it. Example: I have a docker stack for transmission + openvpn with the usual kill switches and randomized destinations. Transmission is protected, I still have a webui for torrents, nothing else on my network relies on a paid service and the overhead of running the traffic through a vpn. Guide: No. I was able to do this years ago in many different ways by googling it and learning how the technology works, you can do the same with more tools and resources than I did then. Then you also have the knowledge to fix it when it eventually goes sideways instead of asking reddit for another guide. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bigrjsuto · 2023-10-01 05:24 > Just put it where you need it. Why would I do that when it's being removed in the near future? When it's no longer a feature in TrueNAS Scale, won't I have to go through another setup? I don't know about you, but guides generally help me learn how the technology works, usually because they explain why you're doing certain steps as it tells you what to do. I'm not a programmer or computer hardware/network engineer professionally, so this stuff doesn't just come to me. I have found plenty of documentation on how to use the integrated OpenVPN feature of TrueNAS, but since the announcement of it's deprecation and future elimination is only ~2 months old, I haven't found any new documentation yet on alternate methods 'where I need it.' Your comment isn't helpful and is quite condescending. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shahmeers · 2023-10-01 06:09 I think you misunderstood the comment you are replying to, it's really not condescending at all. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Cautious_Delay153 · 2023-10-01 07:14 Unbiased opinion; He isnt being condescending, he is explaining a way of doing it that may be more involved but yield better long-term results. What you do with your lab is up to you ultimately and you knowing how your servives work is most important. As you mentioned the documentation is important for you, so find something with a lot of documentation to support your learning process and start checking off boxes [ ] self hosted [ ] documentation [ ] preferred packaging, be it docker/proxmox/etc [ ] any other configuration options It it fills enough of the boxes then start there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JumpingCoconutMonkey · 2023-10-01 07:52 I made a vpn network on pfsense (actually 3 separate pia connections that get combined into one gateway). Any container, VMs, or other devices that needs a vpn exit just gets assigned to that vlan. Works great and is more useful than the single instance setup within a container. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ButCaptainThatsMYRum · 2023-10-01 13:13 >won't I have to go through another setup? Probably. You're using a file server os as a host. Why not set up a real server and be done with it if it's going to be deprecated? It seems like you're putting lipstick on a pig instead of finding a real solution. Guides: It really is up to you to find what works for your systems. I used to be more helpful, do you know how many times I'd send someone a guide just to be told "I was wrong and told you the wrong information" or "I don't understand something fundamental like networking, please teach me that too". Insane. I have a strong believe that you are the only one responsible for your learning and your homelab. Being spoonfed cookie cutter solutions is not the way to go. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bigrjsuto · 2023-10-01 15:35 Fair. I can see how others could make someone resent trying to help. I just need to be pointed in the right direction. I've learned so much on my own without hand holding. I have a bad habit of not asking for help and taken literally months to only hit a roadblock I seemingly can't self-teach my way out of, because I must be missing some fundamental aspect someone else would have learned in school.. So I'm trying to ask for help earlier in this new configuration attempt before I waste more time. Since literally any hardware can use software to host information for other devices, anything can be a 'real server.' Do you mean enterprise-level hardware? That's overkill just for me. What I have is already overkill for just me. I'm running on i5-12500T, 128GB RAM, 128GB NVMe (OS), 1TB NVMe, 2x18TB HDDs, RTX A4000. I built this in April. I've been trying to teach myself this whole time. I would plan a configuration, try to set it up, and hit some knowledge barrier or weird quick of my hardware/software combination that I can't move beyond. I'm getting tired of it not being ready for use. I know I'm trying stuff outside of my comfort zone to help me learn, but it being over 5 months now is a little much. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ButCaptainThatsMYRum · 2023-10-01 19:44 >Since literally any hardware can use software to host information for other devices, anything can be a 'real server.' You're using an OS intended to be a NAS with some extra functionality. As soon as the developers don't want to support something any more, it becomes deprecated. A general purpose server, like Ubuntu Server/Proxmox, ESXI, or even Windows with Hyper-V gives you significantly more flexibility as a host, after which you can virtualize your file server. This does not rely on enterprise grade hardware, though it is quite nice if you can afford it. I'm not saying your choice is wrong, but you built yourself into a hole by using a NAS os as your host. In regards to Truenas not supporting OpenVPN, I don't see any reason what I mentioned in my first post wouldn't work for you, just that OpenVPN isn't going to be a sorted software on truenas itself. Use OpenVPN in a docker stack with what you need to protect, then you are done. I believe the current one I use is https://github.com/haugene/docker-transmission-openvpn which is a premade transmission+openvpn container; I bind the OpenVPN config and credentials directory into the config path instead of providing it as environment entries and it has worked great for over a year, including the config's multiple random remote connections I have configured. Also Prowlarr is better imho. It's good you are learning, but don't forget that you will get all kinds of mixed information on Reddit, not all of it good, and you are the only one responsible for the end product. We had a guy on here a few weeks ago advising someone to pirate ESXI licensing for their homelab instead of using what everyone else recommended because that's what they use in their datacenter, which is an insane difference from a homelab. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- maximus-prim3 · 2023-10-01 22:03 Can you point me in the right direction for setting something like this up? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JumpingCoconutMonkey · 2023-10-01 22:16 I used info from nguvu.org (specifically the [multi-VPN- wan](https://nguvu.org/pfsense/pfsense-multi-vpn-wan/) page, but the whole site is a great pfsense resource) and [PIA's guide for pfsesne]( https://helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/guides/routers/pfsense/pfse nse-2-6-0-openvpn-setup). Those pages lay everything out real nice. Good luck!