Creating a free VPN using Oracle Cloud Always Free and OpenVPN

I recently discovered that Oracle Cloud offers an Always Free tier that includes two virtual machines with 1GB of RAM and 50GB of storage each. I decided to use this to create a VPN server that I can use to access my home network from anywhere.

My brother, based in Qatar, relies on a Private Internet Access subscription for VPN. However, the service has proven to be a letdown for VoIP calls, plagued by frequent disconnections. This issue served as the perfect pretext to explore Oracle Cloud’s Always Free tier.

Installation

I provisioned a VM in Oracle Cloud’s Amsterdam region and deployed OpenVPN. The process was streamlined, thanks to Nyr’s OpenVPN installer. A simple bash command was all it took.

wget https://git.io/vpn -O openvpn-install.sh

The script had to be run as root:

sudo bash openvpn-install.sh

Post-installation, I generated a client configuration and shared it with my brother. The result? Seamless VoIP calls without any hiccups.

A Caveat: Port Configurations

If you opt for UDP during the OpenVPN setup, remember to open the corresponding UDP ports in Oracle Cloud’s console. TCP doesn’t require this step, as Oracle’s default security group permits all TCP traffic.