Difficulty connect to HDA remotely

[jaberbob]

I have what seems like it should be a simple question, but I can't seem to find answers by searching around. I am relatively new to the world of linux and servers. I have a few questions, but it is possible that they all have the same answers.
I setup my HDA with Amahi, and I can successfully connect to it via clients on the network. I cannot, however, figure out how to connect to it, in any way remotely.

I have installed OpenVPN and have tested on the control panel that it appears to be working properly, and I have looked at the Amahi wiki page on OpenVPN config and have set it up so that the OpenVPN client on my remote computer accepts the config file I created. It won't connect to the VPN -- it will say that the connection timed out.

I have also tried ssh-ing into the HDA remotely, but I do not know what address to provide -- obviously the local IP address will not work, but also the public IP also did not work - the connection timed out. I believe I'm missing something fundamental here.

Finally, I also tried connecting remotely with Pydio, and I ran into similar issues where I did not know what address to use, and for everything I tried the connection timed out. Ultimately I would like to set up Pydio, but I feel like perhaps the fact that nothing else is working indicates that there is something more fundamentally wrong/misunderstood.

I'd appreciate any tips!

[bigfoot65]

In order to connect with apps, you need to follow the hosting a web site wiki guidance.

If you are having problems with VPN, recommend you check out OpenVPN troubleshooting.

BTW, for have you seen the OpenVPN clients page?

Also ensure you don't have any firewalls in your network, or they could be blocking the connection.

To SSH in from a remote location, you have to forward port 22 to some port via your router. Then you would use the Amahi Dynamic DNS address of username.yourhda.com (replace username with your HDA username).

[jaberbob]

Thanks for the info -- it helped a lot. I set up the web hosting, and I am trying to set up SSL for the server. I have followed the wiki page as much as possible and also used this page (https://bugs.amahi.org/issues/1315) in fixing some errors. I get an error when restarting the httpd service: "Job for httpd.service failed. See 'systemctl status httpd.service' and 'journalctl -xn' for details."

When I pull up the systemctl status I see:
"httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sat 2015-07-11 15:27:21 EDT; 10s ago
Process: 13011 ExecStop=/usr/sbin/httpd $OPTIONS -k graceful-stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 13009 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/httpd $OPTIONS -DFOREGROUND (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Status: "Total requests: 0; Current requests/sec: 0; Current traffic: 0 B/sec"

Jul 11 15:27:20 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Se...
Jul 11 15:27:21 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: httpd.service: main process...
Jul 11 15:27:21 localhost.localdomain httpd[13011]: httpd (pid 4116?) not run...
Jul 11 15:27:21 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Failed to start The Apache ...
Jul 11 15:27:21 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Unit httpd.service entered ..."

It seems like the problem might have to do with not having the appropriate /etc/hosts file configuration, but I'm not sure. I have tried removing the SSL service and reinstalling and I get the same message. Any tips would be appreciated!

Thanks

[bigfoot65]

What did you do for SSL? That may have caused the issue. Did you follow the Secure App Access guidance? If so, recommend you undo it. This was contributed by a user and has been known to break things. We don't officially support it.

Also can you show what the full error lines say as they are cut off.

[jaberbob]

I did follow the wiki guidance for Secure App Access. Can you recommend any other resources that would help me learn how to set this up properly?

Here is the full error message
"httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sat 2015-07-11 20:07:30 EDT; 1min 25s ago
Process: 15697 ExecStop=/usr/sbin/httpd $OPTIONS -k graceful-stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 15695 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/httpd $OPTIONS -DFOREGROUND (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Status: "Total requests: 0; Current requests/sec: 0; Current traffic: 0 B/sec"

Jul 11 20:07:30 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: httpd.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jul 11 20:07:30 localhost.localdomain httpd[15697]: httpd (pid 4116?) not running
Jul 11 20:07:30 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Failed to start The Apache HTTP Server.
Jul 11 20:07:30 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Unit httpd.service entered failed state."

Thanks much for the help.

[bigfoot65]

I would recommend you undo that guidance.

As for setting up SSL, unless you are accessing apps outside your network its unnecessary.

Not much I can do to advise other than suggest you check the internet. Sorry if you break your HDA, we will not be able to provide support.

Can you explain again what you are trying to do? BTW, exposing your network to the internet can be dangerous if you are not experienced.