Create an AWS Client VPN endpoint - AWS Client VPN

Create an AWS Client VPN endpoint

Create a Client VPN endpoint to enable your clients to establish a VPN session using either the Amazon VPC Console or the AWS CLI.

Before creating an endpoint, familiarize yourself with the requirements. For more information on endpoint requirements, see Requirements for creating Client VPN endpoints.

To create a Client VPN endpoint (console)

  1. Open the Amazon VPC console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/vpc/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Client VPN Endpoints and then choose Create Client VPN Endpoint.

  3. (Optional) Provide a name tag and description for the Client VPN endpoint.

  4. For Client IPv4 CIDR, specify an IP address range, in CIDR notation, from which to assign client IP addresses. For example, 10.0.0.0/22.

    Note

    The address range cannot overlap with the target network address range, the VPC address range or any of the routes that will be associated with the Client VPN endpoint. The client address range must be at minimum /22 and not greater than /12 CIDR block size. You cannot change the client address range after you create the Client VPN endpoint.

  5. For Server certificate ARN, specify the ARN for the TLS certificate to be used by the server. Clients use the server certificate to authenticate the Client VPN endpoint to which they are connecting.

    Note

    The server certificate must be present in AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) in the region you are creating the Client VPN endpoint. The certificate can either be provisioned with ACM or imported into ACM.

  6. Specify the authentication method to be used to authenticate clients when they establish a VPN connection. You must select an authentication method.

    • To use user-based authentication, select Use user-based authentication, and then choose one of the following:

      • Active Directory authentication: Choose this option for Active Directory authentication. For Directory ID, specify the ID of the Active Directory to use.

      • Federated authentication: Choose this option for SAML-based federated authentication.

        For SAML provider ARN, specify the ARN of the IAM SAML identity provider.

        (Optional) For Self-service SAML provider ARN, specify the ARN of the IAM SAML identity provider that you created to support the self-service portal, if applicable.

    • To use mutual certificate authentication, select Use mutual authentication, and then for Client certificate ARN, specify the ARN of the client certificate that's provisioned in AWS Certificate Manager (ACM).

      Note

      If the server and client certificates have been issued by the same Certificate Authority (CA), you can use the server certificate ARN for both server and client. If the client certificate was issued by a different CA, then the client certificate ARN should be specified.

  7. (Optional) For Connection logging, specify whether to log data about client connections using Amazon CloudWatch Logs. Turn on Enable log details on client connections. For CloudWatch Logs log group name, enter the name of the log group to use. For CloudWatch Logs log stream name, enter the name of the log stream to use, or leave this option blank to let us create a log stream for you.

  8. (Optional) For Client Connect Handler, turn on Enable client connect handler to run custom code that allows or denies a new connection to the Client VPN endpoint. For Client Connect Handler ARN, specify the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the Lambda function that contains the logic that allows or denies connections.

  9. (Optional) Specify which DNS servers to use for DNS resolution. To use custom DNS servers, for DNS Server 1 IP address and DNS Server 2 IP address, specify the IP addresses of the DNS servers to use. To use VPC DNS server, for either DNS Server 1 IP address or DNS Server 2 IP address, specify the IP addresses, and add the VPC DNS server IP address.

    Note

    Verify that the DNS servers can be reached by clients.

  10. (Optional) By default, the Client VPN endpoint uses the UDP transport protocol. To use the TCP transport protocol instead, for Transport Protocol, select TCP.

    Note

    UDP typically offers better performance than TCP. You cannot change the transport protocol after you create the Client VPN endpoint.

  11. (Optional) To have the endpoint be a split-tunnel Client VPN endpoint, turn on Enable split-tunnel. By default, split-tunnel on a Client VPN endpoint is disabled.

  12. (Optional) For VPC ID, choose the VPC to associate with the Client VPN endpoint. For Security Group IDs, choose one or more of the VPC's security groups to apply to the Client VPN endpoint.

  13. (Optional) For VPN port, choose the VPN port number. The default is 443.

  14. (Optional) To generate a self-service portal URL for clients, turn on Enable self-service portal.

  15. (Optional) For Session timeout hours, choose the desired maximum VPN session duration time in hours from the available options, or leave set to default of 24 hours.

  16. (Optional) Specify whether to enable client login banner text. Turn on Enable client login banner. For Client login banner text, enter the text that will be displayed in a banner on AWS provided clients when a VPN session is established. UTF-8 encoded characters only. Maximum of 1400 characters.

  17. Choose Create Client VPN endpoint.

After you create the Client VPN endpoint, do the following to complete the configuration and enable clients to connect:

  • The initial state of the Client VPN endpoint is pending-associate. Clients can only connect to the Client VPN endpoint after you associate the first target network.

  • Create an authorization rule to specify which clients have access to the network.

  • Download and prepare the Client VPN endpoint configuration file to distribute to your clients.

  • Instruct your clients to use the AWS provided client or another OpenVPN-based client application to connect to the Client VPN endpoint. For more information, see the AWS Client VPN User Guide.

To create a Client VPN endpoint (AWS CLI)

Use the create-client-vpn-endpoint command.