Guide – How To Start – SoftEther VPN on Minimal Windows Server 2016 DC

SoftEther VPN on Minimal Windows Server 2016 DC combines the powerful capabilities of SoftEther’s multi-protocol VPN with the lightweight, optimized environment of Minimal Windows Server 2016.

This is a quick deployment and ready-to-run image.

Simple and rapid installation. Easy to maintain.

Configuration and connection to SoftEther VPN on Minimal Windows Server 2016 DC

First, to connect to SoftEther, you should open UDP port 1194 in the network properties on Azure Firewall.

Connection to the server

1. Press Win + R.

2. In the window that appears, enter “mstsc” and click “OK”.

3. In the window that appears, enter the IP of the virtual machine and click “Connect”.

4. In the window that appears, enter your username and password and click “OK”.
   
5. Check the box and click “Yes”.

Configuring the server

1. To start the VPN Server admin panel, you should open the app SoftEther VPN Server Manager on the desktop. 

2. Click Connect in the opened window of the app:

3. At the first authorization, you need to enter the password specified in the password file on the desktop

4. Next, in the “SoftEther VPN Server / Bridge Easy Setup” window, select the setting Remote Access VPN Server and click Next:

5. Next, enter a name for the hub you want and click OK: 

6. Click Exit in the “Dynamic DNS Function” window:

6. Click OK in the “IP / L2TP / EtherIP / L2TPv3 Settings” window:

7. Next, select Disable VPN Azure and click OK.

8. Next, close the window “VPN Easy Setup Tasks”.

9. Also, when creating each hub, you need to enable the Virtual NAT function. For this you need to сlick Manage Virtual Hub:

10. Open Virtual NAT and Virtual DHCP Server (SecureNAT):

11. Click Enable SecureNAT:

Creating Users

1. To work with VPN you should add a user. Click on the Manage Virtual Hub button:
   

2. Then click on the Manage Users button:

3. To create a new user, click New:

4. It’s necessary to insert the name of the user into the User Name field, type the password into the Password field and verify it by re-entering the password into the Confirm Password field. After the data were entered, click OK.

5. To change the user’s credentials, select the user and click Edit

6. The default user credentials are specified in the password file on the desktop

Creating a configuration file

1. To create configuration files, click on the OpenVPN / MS-SSTP Settings button.

2. Click on the Generate a Sample Configuration File for OpenVPN Clients button.

3. When the window of Windows Explorer is opened, select the path to save the archive:

4. There are the next files in the saved archive:

5. You should save the file named “…_openvpn_remote_access_l3.ovpn” on your device. 

Customize your VPN client

1. To customize the VPN Client, you need the OpenVPN Client for work. Go to site Community Downloads | OpenVPN, download and install OpenVPN client, depending on your OS Windows:

2. Now the OpenVPN is ready to work, and you can run it. After it is started, add your VPN configuration file

3. Then enter Username (1), select the checkbox Save password (2) for your comfort, enter Password (3), and click Connect (4)

4. Click Continue to confirm use without a certificate

Now you can use your own Virtual Private Network.