Reproduction procedure followed for all verification: 1) initial problem: apt install --no-install-recommends -y openvpn touch /etc/openvpn/lp1868127.conf chmod 0600 /etc/openvpn/lp1868127.conf cat << EOF > /etc/openvpn/lp1868127.conf ... EOF systemctl start openvpn@lp1868127 systemctl reload openvpn@lp1868127 # observe reload failing 2) update: # deploy -proposed update echo "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc)-proposed main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list apt update && apt install openvpn 3) confirm fix: systemctl reload openvpn@lp1868127 This last step must print: > Failed to reload