User Submitted Documentation¶

This is user submitted documentation. This will eventually contain tip and tricks from users.

VPN alternatives¶

While the official way to connect to Rāpoi is using the Cisco Anyconnect client, there are some alternatives if that is causing problems.

ECS ssh bastions¶

ECS users can come in via the ECS ssh bastions greta-pt.ecs.vuw.ac.nz or barretts.ecs.vuw.ac.nz. Note that this will only work for users with valid ECS credentials.

The best way to do this is with a ProxyJump either in the ssh command directly, or you can add it to your ssh_config file.

Directly

ssh -J <ecs user>@barretts.ecs.vuw.ac.nz <raapoi user>@raapoi.vuw.ac.nz

Or via you ssh_config file

Host raapoi
    HostName raapoi.vuw.ac.nz
    ProxyJump <ECS user>@greta-pt.ecs.vuw.ac.nz
    User <Raapoi user>

OpenConnect¶

OpenConnect is an opensource implimentation of the Cisco anyconnect clients. Some users find this easier to use than the official client.

As all VPN connections currently require 2FA you need to use the openconnect-sso python package. This has only been tested in Linux, it should be possible to make this work in a windows WSL2 terminal as well as in MacOS, but it may require modifications.

Step 0: make sure you've already setup the Microsoft Authenticator App on your phone or setup SMS as the 2FA method.

sudo apt install pipx
pipx install "openconnect-sso[full]"  # can just use "openconnect-sso" if Qt 5.x already installed
pipx ensurepath

Now you can connect using CLI:

openconnect-sso --server vpn.vuw.ac.nz --user <firstname.lastname>@vuw.ac.nz

It remembers the last used server so after the first time you can reconnect with just

openconnect-sso

You then just leave a tab of your command line open on this, and in a different tab connect to Raapoi.

If this doesn't work for you, ogten due to the difficulty in resolving the QT5 dependancies on macOS silicon you could try Alternative Openconnect-sso