• Run the following command to download the latest stable version of SoftEther VPN server:

 wget https://www.softether-download.com/files/softether/v4.42-9798-rtm-2023.06.30-tree/Linux/SoftEther_VPN_Server/64bit_-_Intel_x64_or_AMD64/softether-vpnserver-v4.42-9798-rtm-2023.06.30-linux-x64-64bit.tar.gz

• Extract the archive:

tar xvf softether-vpnserver-*.tar.gz

• Change to the vpnserver directory.

cd vpnserver/

• Install the following dependency packages on the server:

sudo apt install gcc binutils gzip libreadline-dev libssl-dev libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev libpthread-stubs0-dev

• Then run the following command to start the build process:

make

• 'make' will make two binaries from the source code.

1. vpnserver: The server binary.
2. vpncmd: SoftEther VPN command line management utility

• move the vpnserver directory to /opt/ (standardize):

cd ..
sudo mv vpnserver /opt/softether

• The VPN server can be started with:

sudo /opt/softether/vpnserver start

• Stop it with:

sudo /opt/softether/vpnserver stop

To make SoftEther VPN server automatically start at boot time, we can create a systemd service unit for it:

• sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/softether-vpnserver.service

Add the following lines to this file:

[Unit]
Description=SoftEther VPN server
After=network-online.target
After=dbus.service

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/opt/softether/vpnserver start
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Save and close the file. Then start the VPN server:

sudo systemctl start softether-vpnserver

• Enable auto-start at boot time:

sudo systemctl enable softether-vpnserver

• You can check its status with:

systemctl status softether-vpnserver


* If it’s not running, check the journal to find out what’s wrong:

sudo journalctl -eu softether-vpnserver

• Check the listening ports:

sudo  ss -lnptu | grep vpnserver