Ubuntu
openvpn package

Increase maximum numbers of servers allowed in config file

Bug #1673281 reported by Nathan Rennie-Waldock on 2017-03-15

This bug affects 1 person

	Status	Importance	Assigned to
OpenVPN	Unknown	Unknown	auto-community.openvpn.net #873
openvpn (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	Wishlist	Unassigned
Jammy	New	Undecided	Unassigned

Bug Description

This is a request for a minor config change in the openvpn build.

Can the maximum number of servers per config file be increased to 256?
The default is 64, which may not be enough for some users as many paid VPN services have more than 64 servers and some users would like to be able to pick a random server.
It's set in src/openvpn/options.h: #define CONNECTION_LIST_SIZE 64

Revision history for this message

Nish Aravamudan (nacc) wrote on 2017-03-20:

Hello and thank you for filing this bug report.

Given your statement, this seems like something upstream should weigh in on in terms of changing the default. Minimally, I assume this means there can be greater memory consumption from openvpn, but are there are other potential issues?

Would you be willing to file an issue against the upstream project?

Changed in openvpn (Ubuntu):
importance:	Undecided → Wishlist
status:	New → Incomplete

Revision history for this message

Nathan Rennie-Waldock (nathan-renniewaldock) wrote on 2017-04-08:

Forwarded to OpenVPN: https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/ticket/873
Looking through the code, there shouldn't be any issues (other than a small memory usage increase).

Michał Małoszewski (michal-maloszewski99) on 2022-10-19

Changed in openvpn (Ubuntu):
assignee:	nobody → Michał Małoszewski (michal-maloszewski99)

Revision history for this message

Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer) wrote on 2023-10-10:

Hi, thanks for forwarding it upstream.
The solution is even better than any bump of the default value, it is now dynamic.
See the upstream ticket
https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/ticket/873

"Someone needed to write code to make the internal structure dynamic ("just make it big" is usually a waste of memory for most users, and still too small for some others, so it needs to be re-coded to be more dynamic).
This has now happened and will be in 2.6.0, to be released in the coming weeks."

And 2.6.x is in Ubuntu Lunar (2.6.1) and Mantic (2.6.5).
Hence while this was not tracked touched for a while it is fixed in those releases.

This needs to be considered for an SRU where the new code does not exist and it would be a trade of memory vs ability.

Changed in openvpn (Ubuntu):
status:	Incomplete → Fix Released
assignee:	Michał Małoszewski (michal-maloszewski99) → nobody

Revision history for this message

Robie Basak (racb) wrote on 2023-12-13:

Whether or not this is suitable for SRU depends on some consideration of any downsides - for example memory consumption. If someone wants 22.04 updated then progress on that is blocked on such an analysis please. If someone wants to volunteer that work, then please do and comment on this bug.

> The default is 64, which may not be enough for some users as many paid VPN services have more than 64 servers...

What's the trade-off here? Are their users who are really blocked from being able to use such services, or is just that they have to limit random choices to a pool of 64?