OpenVPN: Server poll timeout, restarting
Hi! I downloaded the openvpn config file from the userportal of the openvpn server and it worked. Since ca. 2 days ago it stopped working.
I get the following error message. Do you know what's happening and how I can fix it? Thank you very much!
Mon Feb 03 20:31:18 2020 MANAGEMENT: >STATE:1580733078,WAIT,,,,,,
Mon Feb 03 20:31:22 2020 Server poll timeout, restarting
Mon Feb 03 20:31:22 2020 SIGUSR1[soft,server_poll] received, process restarting
Mon Feb 03 20:31:22 2020 MANAGEMENT: >STATE:1580733082,RECONNECTING,server_poll,,,,,
Mon Feb 03 20:31:22 2020 Outgoing Control Channel Authentication: Using 160 bit message hash 'SHA1' for HMAC authentication
Mon Feb 03 20:31:22 2020 Incoming Control Channel Authentication: Using 160 bit message hash 'SHA1' for HMAC authentication
Mon Feb 03 20:31:22 2020 TCP/UDP: Preserving recently used remote address: [AF_INET]172.104.118.247:1194
Mon Feb 03 20:31:22 2020 Socket Buffers: R=[65536->65536] S=[64512->64512]
Mon Feb 03 20:31:22 2020 UDP link local: (not bound)
Mon Feb 03 20:31:22 2020 UDP link remote: [AF_INET]172.104.118.247:1194
Mon Feb 03 20:31:22 2020 MANAGEMENT: >STATE:1580733082,WAIT,,,,,,
1 Reply
bdhondt
Linode Staff
Hi there,
I did a little research in to the issue that you were having, and I was able to find a post on OpenVPN's website that seems to explain the issue: Troubleshooting Client VPN Tunnels. Since the post is pretty lengthy I would like to summarize it for you.
When you set up an OpenVPN service the client will send out a message to see if there are any ports open to receive the message. If the port is closed the message isn't going to go through successfully, so that would definitely be one area to check on. For reference the three ports that need to be open for OpenVPN are 443, 943, and 1194. You can see which ports are open by running an nmapscan on the server you are using to configure OpenVPN.
If you're not familiar with nmap I would recommend review this guide to familiarize yourself with the tool:
Here is an example of the command to scan the ports you are looking for:
nmap -p 443,943,1194 <your machine's local IP address>
Another thing to check would be if the IP you are trying to reach is public or private. If it is a private IP it will be unreachable from anywhere on the internet outside of the LAN it's connected to. It seems that a common mistake people make is they set up the OpenVPN Access Server on a private IP address but do not have a proper FQDN(fully qualified domain name) DNS record in place. The solution is to set up a proper DNS name and configure that and save settings. Then uninstall, redownload, and reinstall the connection profile or OpenVPN Connect Client program and to try again.
I hope this information was helpful to you. I would encourage you to review the troubleshooting guide I linked to gather some more detailed information on common issues people run into while configuring their OpenVPN service.
If you have any other questions please let us know!