How to install PPTP VPN on Rocky Linux 8

PPTP on Rocky Linux is provided by the EPEL repository, so enable EPEL repo by running

dnf install epel-release -y

Install the pptpd package

dnf install -y pptpd

Edit file

vi /etc/pptpd.conf

At end of the file, add

localip 10.0.0.1
remoteip 10.0.0.100-200

Edit file

vi /etc/ppp/options.pptpd

At the end, add

ms-dns 1.1.1.1
ms-dns 8.8.8.8

Start PPTPD VPN

To set PPTPD VPN server to start on boot, run

systemctl enable pptpd

To start VPN

systemctl start pptpd

To stop VPN

systemctl stop pptpd

To check status, run

systemctl status pptpd

Create a VPN user

To create a VPN user, edit the file

vi /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

Inside you can add your VPN user and password. For example

serverok   pptpd   ooyeegei8Ienai      *

This will create a VPN user with the username “serverok” and password “ooyeegei8Ienai”.

After adding a user you need to restart the PPTPD service with the command

systemctl restart pptpd

Confire firewall to allow VPN connection

Install firewalld with command

dnf install firewalld -y

Enable and start firewalld

systemctl enable firewalld
systemctl start firewalld
systemctl status firewalld

Open ports needed for PPTPD VPN on the firewall

firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=1723/tcp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule protocol value="gre" accept'
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-masquerade
firewall-cmd --reload

Enable IP forwarding by editing the file

vi /etc/sysctl.conf

In the file, add

net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

Run

sysctl -p

See PPTPD VPN