Helm chart for OpenVPN

This chart will install an OpenVPN server inside a kubernetes cluster. New certificates are generated on install, and a script is provided to generate client keys as needed. The chart will automatically configure dns to use kube-dns and route all network traffic to kubernetes pods and services through the vpn. By connecting to this vpn a host is effectively inside a cluster's network.

Uses

The primary purpose of this chart was to make it easy to access kubernetes services during development. It could also be used for any service that only needs to be accessed through a vpn or as a standard vpn.

Usage

helm repo add stable http://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-charts
helm install stable/openvpn

Wait for the external load balancer IP to become available. Check service status via: kubectl get svc

Please be aware that certificate generation is variable and may take some time (minutes). Check pod status, replacing $HELM_RELEASE with the name of your release, via:

POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods -l "app=openvpn,release=$HELM_RELEASE" -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') \
&& kubectl log "$POD_NAME" --follow

When all components of the openvpn chart have started use the following script to generate a client key:

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -ne 3 ]
then
  echo "Usage: $0 <CLIENT_KEY_NAME> <NAMESPACE> <HELM_RELEASE>"
  exit
fi

KEY_NAME=$1
NAMESPACE=$2
HELM_RELEASE=$3
POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods -n "$NAMESPACE" -l "app=openvpn,release=$HELM_RELEASE" -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')
SERVICE_NAME=$(kubectl get svc -n "$NAMESPACE" -l "app=openvpn,release=$HELM_RELEASE" -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')
SERVICE_IP=$(kubectl get svc -n "$NAMESPACE" "$SERVICE_NAME" -o go-template='{{range $k, $v := (index .status.loadBalancer.ingress 0)}}{{$v}}{{end}}')
kubectl -n "$NAMESPACE" exec -it "$POD_NAME" /etc/openvpn/setup/newClientCert.sh "$KEY_NAME" "$SERVICE_IP"
kubectl -n "$NAMESPACE" exec -it "$POD_NAME" cat "/etc/openvpn/certs/pki/$KEY_NAME.ovpn" > "$KEY_NAME.ovpn"

The entire list of helper scripts can be found on templates/config-openvpn.yaml

Be sure to change KEY_NAME if generating additional keys. Import the .ovpn file into your favorite openvpn tool like tunnelblick and verify connectivity.

Configuration

The following table lists the configurable parameters of the openvpn chart and their default values, and can be overwritten via the helm --set flag.

Parameter	Description	Default
replicaCount	amount of parallel openvpn replicas to be started	1
updateStrategy	update strategy for deployment	{}
image.repository	openvpn image repository	jfelten/openvpn-docker
image.tag	openvpn image tag	1.1.0
image.pullPolicy	Image pull policy	IfNotPresent
service.type	k8s service type exposing ports, e.g. NodePort	LoadBalancer
service.externalPort	TCP port reported when creating configuration files	443
service.internalPort	TCP port on which the service works	443
service.nodePort	NodePort value if service.type is NodePort	nil (auto-assigned)
service.externalIPs	External IPs to listen on	[]
resources.requests.cpu	OpenVPN cpu request	300m
resources.requests.memory	OpenVPN memory request	128Mi
resources.limits.cpu	OpenVPN cpu limit	300m
resources.limits.memory	OpenVPN memory limit	128Mi
persistence.enabled	Use a PVC to persist configuration	true
persistence.subPath	Subdirectory of the volume to mount at	nil
persistence.existingClaim	Provide an existing PersistentVolumeClaim	nil
persistence.storageClass	Storage class of backing PVC	nil
persistence.accessMode	Use volume as ReadOnly or ReadWrite	ReadWriteOnce
persistence.size	Size of data volume	2M
podAnnotations	Key-value pairs to add as pod annotations	{}
openvpn.OVPN_NETWORK	Network allocated for openvpn clients	10.240.0.0
openvpn.OVPN_SUBNET	Network subnet allocated for openvpn	255.255.0.0
openvpn.OVPN_PROTO	Protocol used by openvpn tcp or udp	tcp
openvpn.OVPN_K8S_POD_NETWORK	Kubernetes pod network (optional)	10.0.0.0
openvpn.OVPN_K8S_POD_SUBNET	Kubernetes pod network subnet (optional)	255.0.0.0
openvpn.OVPN_K8S_SVC_NETWORK	Kubernetes service network (optional)	nil
openvpn.OVPN_K8S_SVC_SUBNET	Kubernetes service network subnet (optional)	nil
openvpn.dhcpOptionDomain	Push a dhcp-option DOMAIN config	true
openvpn.conf	Arbitrary lines appended to the end of the server configuration file	nil
openvpn.redirectGateway	Redirect all client traffic through VPN	true
nodeSelector	Node labels for pod assignment	{}

This chart has been engineered to use kube-dns and route all network traffic to kubernetes pods and services, to disable this behaviour set openvpn.OVPN_K8S_POD_NETWORK and openvpn.OVPN_K8S_POD_SUBNET to null.

If openvpn.OVPN_K8S_SVC_NETWORK and openvpn.OVPN_K8S_SVC_SUBNET are defined, an extra route for services subnet will be added.

Note: As configured the chart will create a route for a large 10.0.0.0/8 network that may cause issues if that is your local network. If so tweak this value to something more restrictive. This route is added, because GKE generates pods with IPs in this range.

Certificates

New certificates are generated with each deployment, if keystoreSecret is not defined. If persistence is enabled certificate data will be persisted across pod restarts. Otherwise new client certs will be needed after each deployment or pod restart.

Certificates can be passed in secret, which name is specified in openvpn.keystoreSecret value. Create secret as follows:

kubectl create secret generic openvpn-keystore-secret --from-file=./server.key --from-file=./ca.crt --from-file=./server.crt --from-file=./dh.pem

You can deploy temporary openvpn chart, create secret from generated certificates, and then re-deploy openvpn, providing the secret. Certificates can be found in openvpn pod in the following files:

/etc/openvpn/certs/pki/private/server.key /etc/openvpn/certs/pki/ca.crt /etc/openvpn/certs/pki/issued/server.crt /etc/openvpn/certs/pki/dh.pem