Starting OpenVPN using Systemd

config.md

As root:

Copy your config file .ovpn to /etc/openvpn/config.ovpn

Add a file /etc/openvpn/auth.txt with two lines:

your_username
your_password

Remove all permission on it and add it back only read for root:

chmod a-rwx /etc/openvpn/auth.txt
chmod ug+r /etc/openvpn/auth.txt

Copy the systemd service to your system and enable it systemctl enable myopenvpn.service

lib..systemd..system..openvpn-instance.conf

[Unit]
Description=Job that runs the openVpn
Wants=network-online.target
After=network.target network-online.target

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/config.ovpn --auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/auth.txt

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target