How to set domain name for server inside an OpenVPN-based VPN?

Question

I am currently using a very simple OpenVPN setup where I connect from different devices to a OpenVPN server and then access a website that is being hosted by an Apache Server running on the same system. To reach that server, I have to use its IPv4 adress inside the VPN (e.g. 10.1.0.1).

I would like to use a 'real' name like myserver.local. Is there a way to do this without setting up a DNS server? Can the OpenVPN-Client maybe just add an entry to the local hosts-file?

Answer 1

Not without setting up a DNS server, but getting one to work is very easy and can be restricted behind the VPN.

I am using dnsmasq on Ubuntu 14.04 for exactly this purpose. Just install it and add all your hosts to the /etc/hosts-File in the following way:

# Clients on the VPN
10.8.0.1 vpn.lan vpn.lan
10.8.0.8 service1.lan service1
10.8.0.6 service2.lan service2

You can restrict dnsmasq, that it only listens to the tun0-Interface of OpenVPN by adding interface=tun0 to /etc/dnsmasq.conf. You can push the DNS server to your clients by adding push "dhcp-option DNS 10.8.0.1" to your /etc/openvpn/server.conf.

The downside of this solution is, that you have to add every server to /etc/hosts, but for a couple of servers I think it's ok.