Why is OpenVPN "Production" service so flakey?

[Guest]

The OpenVPN "production" service seems to go down almost every week. It's really quite irritating.

[Guest Elmatador]

Yep, got nailed again early this morning. Had to recycle my router. The beta vpn was more reliable.

[kgc]

The servers that run the OpenVPN services need to receive regular updates, just like any other server. Typically, this will result in about one reboot a month with a couple of minutes of downtime after hours. We had some trouble with the virtualization network stack that resulted in a series of updates and outages while we attempted to fix it but that's been resolved and I don't anticipate anything other than regular system maintenance and this point.

(The beta server still isn't part of our regular system maintenance routines and that's likely to change soon.)

[virtualmike]

Maybe VPN service should be listed in the MOTD that announces the downtime? Currently, only Webmail, Membertools, Sonic.com website, and FTP service are listed.

[kgc]

That's a good point Mike, I'll remind everyone to call specific attention to the VPN services if they'll be affected.

[virtualmike]

Thanks, Kelsey!