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I need to create a VPC with some web services, so that I can connect directly using a VPN connection from my desktop computer.

After some researching, I found this tutorial about implement the VPC using an EC2 instance created from an AMI OpenVPN server, from the AWS marketplace.

Also, I found this answer to my question, but it was written five years ago, in 2011. A lot of water has been passed under the bridge since that year and I'm afraid to implement something useless or inefficient.

Is OpenVPN server implementation the right way? Is there any way to do it only with the AWS VPC tools? Can you point me in the right direction, please?

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JonDoe297
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There are a variety of solutions for this. OpenVPN will work, but my preferred solution is to set up an L2TP over IPSEC VPN, using an OpenSwan VPN server inside your AWS VPC. IMHO, IPSEC VPNs are a better option that SSL/TLS based VPNs (eg OpenVPN), given all the issues with SSL over the last few years.

This allows you to create a local VPN connection on your desktop computer that you can fire up when ever you need access to your VPC. You can choose to direct all your traffic through that or just particular routes.

The only qualification I would add is that getting that connection to work in Windows 7 requires a Registry tweak. It works out of the box with no additional software in Mac/Ubuntu.

http://tanshuai.com/l2tp-over-ipsec-vpn-ubuntu-linux-aws-ec2/

Remember to disable Source/Destination checking on the EC2 instance you use for terminating the VPN inside EC2.

Garreth McDaid
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