---
name: "openvpn3-service-configmgr"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "openvpn3-client"
version: "24.1+dfsg-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/openvpn3-service-configmgr"
---

# openvpn3-service-configmgr(8)

OpenVPN 3 Linux Configuration Manager Service

## NAME

openvpn3-service-configmgr - OpenVPN 3 Linux Configuration Manager Service

## SYNOPSIS

```
openvpn3-service-configmgr [OPTIONS]
openvpn3-service-configmgr -h | --help
```

## DESCRIPTION

The **openvpn3-service-configmgr** is a backend service for OpenVPN 3 Linux, responsible for managing OpenVPN configuration profiles.  Once a configuration profile has been imported, either via **openvpn3 config-import**, **openvpn3 session-start** or [**openvpn2**(1)](/openvpn2/1.md), it will run in the background as a D-Bus service as long as it has at least one configuration profile in memory.

The VPN backend process (**openvpn3-service-client**) will retrieve the contents of the VPN configuration profile from the configuration manager when initializing and preparing to connect.

Only one configuration manager process can run on the system.

Configuration profiles are managed via the **openvpn3 config-manage** and **openvpn3 config-acl** commands and  new VPN sessions are started using the **openvpn3 session-start** command.

This service is normally started automatically when needed, via the *net.openvpn.v3.configmgr.service* auto-start configuration by the [**dbus-daemon**(1)](/dbus-daemon/1.md), but can also be started manually on the command line.  This process should run as the *\_openvpn* user and will automatically switch to this user account if it has the needed privileges to do so.  Beware that changing this to another user account also requires updating the D-Bus policy as well.

## OPTIONS

- **-h, --help**

  Print  usage and help details to the terminal

- **--version**

  Prints the version of the program and exists

- **--log-level** *LEVEL*

  Sets the default log verbosity for log events generated by this service.  The default is **4**.  Valid values are **0** to **6**.  Higher log levels results in more verbose logs and log level **6** will contain all debug log events.

- **--log-file** *LOG\_DESTINATION*

  By default, logging will go via the **openvpn3-service-log** service.  By providing this argument, logging will also be sent to *LOG\_DESTINATION*, which can be either a filename or **stdout:** where the latter one sends log data to the console.

- **--colour**

  This will add colours to log events when logging to file or terminal.  Log events will be coloured based on the log level of the event.

- **--idle-exit** *MINUTES*

  The **openvpn3-service-configmgr** service will exit automatically if it is being idle for *MINUTES* minutes.  By being idle, it means no configuration profiles are being managed by this service.  This can be validated by running **openvpn3 configs-list**.  If this results in an empty list, no configuration profiles are being managed.

- **--state-dir** *DIRECTORY*

  Sets the directory the configuration manager must use for storing persistent configuration profiles.  When this argument is given, the service will scan this directory for configuration profiles and load them automatically at start-up.  Default directory is **/var/lib/openvpn3/configs**

## SEE ALSO

[**dbus-daemon**(1)](/dbus-daemon/1.md) [**openvpn2**(1)](/openvpn2/1.md) [**openvpn3**(1)](/openvpn3/1.md) [**openvpn3-config-acl**(1)](/openvpn3-config-acl/1.md) [**openvpn3-config-import**(1)](/openvpn3-config-import/1.md) [**openvpn3-config-manage**(1)](/openvpn3-config-manage/1.md) [**openvpn3-config-remove**(1)](/openvpn3-config-remove/1.md) [**openvpn3-config-dump**(1)](/openvpn3-config-dump/1.md) [**openvpn3-configs-list**(1)](/openvpn3-configs-list/1.md) [**openvpn3-session-start**(1)](/openvpn3-session-start/1.md)