Converting From Non-MFA VPN to the MFA-Enabled VPN on Windows

If you are using OpenVPN Connect on Windows 10 or 11 to connect to the GI VPN, and you are looking to convert to the new MFA-enabled GI VPN, you have come to the right place. You must already have Duo set up with your CruzID (which most of you do). If for some reason you don't have Duo set up yet on your phone, go here to enroll a device and configure Push Notifications with Duo before continuing:

https://its.ucsc.edu/mfa/enroll.html

OK! Let's get to it.

Disconnect from the VPN if you are already connected.

Then you will need to download the new OpenVPN config file from here:

https://giwiki.gi.ucsc.edu/downloads/prism-duo.ovpn

The credentials to access that website are username: genecats and password: KiloKluster

Download that file by right-clicking on the link above and selecting "Save Link As...", and save it to your Desktop or some other area you will remember.. Launch the OpenVPN GUI app (usually there is an icon for it on your Desktop, but you can search for it if not). It will launch and appear in your system tray on the bottom right (the system tray icon kind of looks like a ^ icon). You should see the OpenVPN icon there, it looks like a little computer screen with a lock on it. Right click on the OpenVPN icon in the system tray, and you should see a small menu appear. Select "Import file". In the resulting window, browse to your Desktop or wherever you saved the prism-duo.ovpn file. Select that file an click "Open".

Once you import the file, you should be able to right click on OpenVPN Connect again in the system tray and select the profile you want to connect to. It should show multiple profiles, one for your old profile and one for your new profile. Select the new one, then select "Connect".

That's it! It will ask you for your usual GI PRISM username and password that you usually use to connect to our VPN, and after that it will send a Duo Push notification to your phone, and then you should be logged in. Other than the Duo Push, the VPN behaves exactly like it did before.

If you have issues you can always revert back to the old configuration, which will still work for a while. We will disable the old VPN soon though, so make every effort to get the new VPN setup working.

As always, please email cluster-admin@soe.ucsc.edu if you need help or have any questions.