I have had a problem with a new OpenVPN server on an OpenBSD box. I have solved the problem (I think) but was looking for some insight as to why this solved it.
The problem was with the "ping" that happens between OpenVPN endpoints not being returned and the connection resetting every minute or so. One suggested issue was that perhaps there was a lot of large transfers or heavy traffic that caused it to not respond in time... So I took a look at it late one night... One one computer I was watching it drop and reconnect. On the console I was watching a netstat dump which showed between 1 to 9 pkts a second. (This is respectable hardware with gigabit cards). So maybe it was some service running... so I hit up vmstat and aside from the random tumbleweed, all was dead quiet. top showed nothing going on. Anyway, in the end I started the OpenVPN server with "nice -1" which has seemed to work. I've not had a drop in about 48 hours straight. My question is - on a dead quiet box, how could bumping the priority just a tad help? I've asked for idea's on the OpenVPN list, but no answer. Or am I crazy? Thanks
