VPN Nooby.. question

[Pigpen]

I am getting ready to setup a remote location to run a few servers (80). I simply want to be able to login from home and do minor updates to these servers via their local IP. Originally i was just going to setup a cheap pc with something like Chrome remote desktop or Teamviewer. After some research it would seem a bit more appropriate as the server numbers may grow to 500 to setup my own small VPN. I have purchased some cisco switches and was trying to learn how to setup a VPN. It appears as though the Asus RT-AC86U is the router of choice around here. I am aiming for super easy setup and will only ever need one maybe 2 people to login to do maintenance. Now for the Noob questions.. i apologize now for my ignorance.

With the Asus router do i also need a PC locally on site to have openvpn or is this server built into the router?
If i need a pc can it be a simple lower end PC with windows 10 and basic 4gb ram?
Is there a completely different way to do this much simpler that i'm overlooking?

thanks!

 

[RMerlin]

The OpenVPN server is built in the router, no need for a local PC on site. Note however that your remote client's IP will be from a different subnet, so if your servers are highly secured and reject your tunnel subnet, you might want to have a low-end machine within that LAN to access through Remote Desktop, and then connect from that computer to your servers. The router's OpenVPN would still serve to secure your connection.

For reference, for one of my customers who has a virtualized setup hosting close to 150 VMs, I have set up two OpenVPN VMs for remote access. The second one is to act as a backup in case the hardware server hosting the primary VPN VMs went down. More flexible/reliable than having a single hardware-based router acting as VPN server.

Seeing that this network can grow to up to 500 servers, I would strongly recommend going with a business-class product however, both for security and reliability reasons. See if your fronting firewall (you DO have a firewall protecting these, right?) wouldn't provide you with VPN support (either IPSec, OpenVPN or SSL).

Avoid PPTP at all cost. Totally insecure in 2018.

 

[charlieminty]

The Asus router is woefully under powered for this application.