Is it possible to use NSA325v2 as VPN server?

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  • Mijzelf
    Mijzelf Posts: 2,600  Guru Member
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    OK, the packages contain something different than I expected. But they are precompiled. They are only not yet linked. Don't know why it's done this way. Maybe something with licenses.

    Anyway, I think the native toolchain I pointed to can do the linking for you.
  • AleXSR700
    AleXSR700 Posts: 41  Freshman Member
    edited October 2019
    You mean create a symlink or what kind of linking to you mean?

    Can I install the native toolchain with MetaRepository somehow? I copied the file to my NAS but not quite sure how to get it up and running and what to do once it is installed.

    Also, the Softether Linux files include a vpnserver.a but not actually the vpnserver app. Or am I mistaken. Not sure it will work without a make. Has anyone actually ever had it up and running on a Zyxel NAS?
  • Mijzelf
    Mijzelf Posts: 2,600  Guru Member
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    You mean create a symlink or what kind of linking to you mean?

    The sourcecode contains of c or c++ or rust or whatever text files. The compiler compiles them to object files, containing binary machine code. Those object are linked to an executable, or library or whatever.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linker_(computing)

    The pre-compiled package seems to contain something between the objects and the executable. I think the objects are linked to a bunch of static libraries, and those can be linked to an executable.

    Can I install the native toolchain with MetaRepository somehow? I copied the file to my NAS but not quite sure how to get it up and running and what to do once it is installed.
    No, you'll have to extract the tarball.
    <div>tar xf toolchainxyz.tgz</div><div></div>
    That provides you a Linux tree, containing bin, lib, etc and stuff, which you can chroot using the provided chroot script. Inside the chroot you can use make.
    So make sure your extracted VPN package is somewhere within the chroot, the home directory is fine.

  • AleXSR700
    AleXSR700 Posts: 41  Freshman Member
    edited October 2019
    I sucessfully compiled it and will give it a go later. Let's see how far I'll get :-)
  • AleXSR700
    AleXSR700 Posts: 41  Freshman Member
    Hmm,
    I have managed to get it up and running but it always crashes the server after a while. Maybe the NSA325v2 isn't powerful enough?
  • Mijzelf
    Mijzelf Posts: 2,600  Guru Member
    First Anniversary 10 Comments Friend Collector First Answer
    I can't imagine that. The throughput will be limited to roughly 1MB/sec, as that is about the max encryption you can expect. But further it does nothing a basic consumer router can't handle. And your NAS is much more powerfull.

    How long is 'a while'? Are there any clients active? You said you compiled it. Did you actually compile it, or only link the precompiled headers?
  • AleXSR700
    AleXSR700 Posts: 41  Freshman Member
    edited October 2019
    I ran the make command with the gcc toolchain. It also only starts when running the toolchain.

    A while is somewhere between 5-30 min. I was still in the process of the initial configuration via the Windows server manager tool when it first crashed the NAS.
    I tried two more times and after a few minutes the NAS becomes unavailable and I have to pull the plug to reboot.
  • Mijzelf
    Mijzelf Posts: 2,600  Guru Member
    First Anniversary 10 Comments Friend Collector First Answer
    I ran the make command with the gcc toolchain.
    But you run it on what? The precompiled package, or the source code? In the latter case I expect it to take a serious amount of time (as in several minutes, maybe hours), the first option should finish within a minute, I think.

    It also only starts when running the toolchain.
    That's not supposed to be. After building you have a binary vpnserver, or something like that, and maybe some other files, which you should be able to run outside the chroot.

    I was still in the process of the initial configuration via the Windows server manager tool when it first crashed the NAS.
    I tried two more times
    Does it crash each time at the same point of configuring?

    after a few minutes the NAS becomes unavailable and I have to pull the plug to reboot.
    Are you running the server as root? If so,  try another user. A userspace program should not be able to take the system down.

  • AleXSR700
    AleXSR700 Posts: 41  Freshman Member
    edited October 2019
    It was on the precompiled package.
    When I try to run it in a different location or without starting the chroot.sh I get
    -- Alert: SoftEther VPN Kernel --
    String Library Init Failed.
    Please check your locale settings and iconv() libraries.
    
    I built and am running it as root. The crash appears to be random because sometimes I start the vpnserver and it crashes before I can even connect the manager to it.

    I will try to build from sourcecode. Let's see if it compiles.

    But is there something similar to yum in your toolchain that I can use?

    According to the SoftEther website I should install
    yum -y groupinstall "Development Tools"
    yum -y install readline-devel ncurses-devel openssl-devel

    EDIT: It took around 20 min to compile from source code. Will try to run it tomorrow :)
  • AleXSR700
    AleXSR700 Posts: 41  Freshman Member
    Edit 2:
    I believe that the server becoming unresponsive might be linked to enabling the NAT / DHCP Server settings. This is when the server became unresponsive the last time as well.

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