Route SSH through VPN Client

[Torson]

The big picture: 2 Asus routers - AC86U local and AX56U remote. Each router has a small (32GB) SSD attached to the USB 3 port.
I backup a small number of files to each router from their local networks. I run rsync (installed from Entware) through a cron job to backup remote files to the local router's storage.

That works well, but on the remote router on the Administration -> System tab I have SSH enabled on both the LAN and WAN interfaces.
On the local router VPN Client 4 connects to the OpenVPN server running on the remote router

What I'm trying to achieve is SSH through the VPN client 4 in order to have LAN only SSH on the remote router.
I used

Example 4 "Services hosted on the router may also be routed via the VPN, ...

as described at https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/wiki/Policy-based-Port-routing-(manual-method).

Here is the outcome (with SSH on the LAN interface only on the remote router)

asmin@RT-AC86U:/tmp/mnt/asus/conf# ssh -p XXXX -i /jffs/dropbear/msg2drb_db asmin@10.8.0.1

ssh: Connection to asmin@10.8.0.1:XXXX exited: Connect failed: Connection refused

...and the outcome with both LAN and WAN SSH enabled on the remote:

asmin@RT-AC86U:/tmp/mnt/asus/conf# ssh -p XXXX -i /jffs/dropbear/msg2drb_db asmin@10.8.0.1

ASUSWRT-Merlin RT-AX56U 384.17_0 Sun Apr 26 02:27:47 UTC 2020
asmin@RT-AX56U:/tmp/home/root#

I'm also using Selective Routing over the first 3 VPN clients and WAN and that works well. Skynet, unbound and Scribe running smoothly on the AC86U.

If required, I can provide the RPDB rules, prerouting and client ovpn information.

Any pointers and suggestions, please?

 

[maxbraketorque]

Something needs to be adjusted in your VPN client or server settings. Without seeing your settings, I can't say much except to point you to the router-to-router bi-directional VPN how-to that I posted.

 

[Torson]

Something needs to be adjusted in your VPN client or server settings. Without seeing your settings, I can't say much except to point you to the router-to-router bi-directional VPN how-to that I posted.

Thanks for the pointer - I have it working now.
I believe there was a problem with SSH on 384.17 so I upgraded the remote router to 384.18 alpha1.
Then I configured the OpenVPN server 2 on the remote router for LAN only and followed the steps in your write-up at https://www.snbforums.com/threads/h...i-directional-router-to-router-openvpn.55400/.
Now SSH works through the OpenVPN client with LAN only configuration between the 2 routers.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Glad its working. Sorry I meant to post the link, but forgot.