Your Kubernetes cluster is not accessible to the internet. To have secure access to deploy and manage applications in your cluster, you need to use a VPN. Each Fed4FIRE user gets an individual VPN configuration. Do not share this config with other users.

After downloading the config file, follow this tutorial to install and connect your computer to the VPN.

  • Connect an Ubuntu Desktop
  • Connect an Ubuntu Server
  • Connect a macOS Desktop
  • Connect a Windows Desktop

Connect an Ubuntu Desktop

First, you need to install OpenVPN support:

sudo apt install network-manager-openvpn-gnome

After adding this, reboot your computer. After rebooting, you can add the VPN using Settings.

  1. Open the “Settings” app.
  2. Go to the “Network” tab and click on the + symbol next to “VPN”.


  3. Choose “Import from file…”

  4. Choose the config file you just downloaded.
  5. Go to the IPv4 tab and enable the check box Use this connection only for resources on its network.


  6. Click “Add” to add the VPN.


After adding the VPN, you can start it either from this Settings panel or by clicking on the applet in the top-right corner of your screen and enabling the VPN from the slide-down menu.

Connect an Ubuntu Server

Use the following instructions to connect an Ubuntu server to the VPN. Replace <client-name>.openvpn with the name of the config file you downloaded.

sudo apt install openvpn

sudo openvpn --config <client-name>.ovpn

Use instead the following instructions if you want to use the DNS settings that the OpenVPN server pushes. Always replace <client-name>.openvpn with the name of the config file you downloaded.

sudo apt install openvpn
sudo openvpn --config <client-name>.ovpn --script-security 2 --up /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf --down /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf

Connect a Windows Desktop

  1. Install OpenVPN Connect Client for Windows: https://openvpn.net/client-connect-vpn-for-windows/
  2. Start the program.
  3. Choose to import a profile from a file.
  4. Choose the file you just downloaded.
  5. Start the VPN

Connect a macOS Desktop

  1. Install OpenVPN Connect Client for macOS: https://openvpn.net/client-connect-vpn-for-mac-os/
  2. Start the program.
  3. Choose to import a profile from a file.
  4. Choose the file you just downloaded.
  5. Start the VPN