Building the PVS binary

Install Golang (Only required to build the pvs binary

wget https://go.dev/dl/go1.21.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go && sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.21.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo rm -rf go1.21.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
grep -qxF 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin' /etc/profile || sudo sed -i '$aexport PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin' /etc/profile

Git clone the pvs project to a temp directory

git clone git@github.com:pearsonc/pvs.git /tmp/pvs-build

Install the required packages

sudo apt install gcc dpkg-dev gpg -y

Build the pvs binary

This will build the pvs binary and package it into a deb file in the bin directory

cd /tmp/pvs-build
make build

Setting up a ubuntu-server gateway with PVS

Download Ubuntu Server 20.04.2 LTS and install using the minimal installation option.

Install updates and vim, curl, network tools and htop

sudo apt clean && sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y \
&& sudo apt dist-upgrade -y && sudo apt autoremove -y \
&& sudo apt install curl vim htop net-tools -y

Configure Network Interfaces

Edit the network configuration file using a text editor, the yaml filename may differ just ensure there is only one file in the directory. It is important to note that your private network should have no dns or routes configured as it is a private network and the gateway will handle the routing.

sudo vi /etc/netplan/01-network-manager-all.yaml

Update the below config to meet your requirements

network:
  ethernets:
    eth0:
      addresses:
        - 192.168.0.11/24
      nameservers:
        addresses:
          - 1.1.1.1
          - 1.0.0.1
        search: []
      routes:
        - to: default
          via: 192.168.0.1
    eth1:
      dhcp4: no
      addresses:
        - 192.168.1.2/24
  version: 2

Apply the changes

sudo netplan apply

Enable IP Forwarding

Enable IP forwarding to allow gateway functionality and then make it persist after reboot.

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
echo "net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1" | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

Install the PVS deb file

sudo dpkg -i -f /tmp/pvs-build/bin/pvs_0.0.1_amd64.deb

Add ExpressVPN credentials to the openvpn-credentials.txt file

sudo echo "vpnusername" | sudo tee /config/openvpn-credentials.txt
sudo echo "vpnpassword" | sudo tee -a /config/openvpn-credentials.txt

Remove the last commands from the bash history to prevent the password from being stored in the bash history file

for i in {1..2}; do history -d $(($HISTCMD-1)); done

Add the service to systemd and start it

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable pvs.service
sudo systemctl start pvs.service

A log file can be found at

tail -f /var/log/pvs.log