Bridge installation for VPN connection to a physical adapter

A VPN connection with a physical adapter requires a virtual adapter be associated with the physical adapter to establish the connection. To establish a VPN connection using a physical adapter, follow these steps to create a bridge between the virtual adapter and the physical adapter.
NOTE: See the automated script included in this section as an example.
  1. Script Usage (on demand):
     
    ./setupbridge.sh [--remove] [--dhcp] [--h | --help]
--remove:
--dhcp:
--h, --help:
    • --remove
      : Removes the bridge and associated configurations.
    • --dhcp
      : Configures the bridge to use DHCP and automatically obtain an IP address. By default, you obtain the IP address of the physical adapter.
    • --h
      ,
      --help
      : Displays help messages.
  2. Creating the Bridge and Virtual Adapter:
     When you run the script, it creates the bridge and virtual adapter. However, this configuration is not persistent and gets lost after a system reboot.
  3. Persistent Configuration:
     To ensure persistence, create a configuration file unit managed by
    systemd
    , the system and service manager for Linux. Follow these steps:
    • Copy and paste the following text into a file: 
      [Unit]
Description=FactoryTalkRemoteAccess bridge setup service
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/opt/FTRA/FactoryTalkRemoteAccess/Runtime/bin/setupbridge.sh <adapterName>

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Before=FactoryTalkRemoteAccessRuntimeService.service
      NOTE: The configuration file unit of the
      FactoryTalkRemote Access
       Runtime service is named
      FactoryTalkRemoteAccessRuntimeService.service
      .
    • Replace
      <adapterName>
       with the name of the physical adapter that you want to use to establish a VPN connection.
    • Save the configuration in
      /etc/systemd/system/
       by renaming it with a name ending with
      .service
      , for example
      BridgeSetup.service
      .
  4. Automatic Startup:
     Enable automatic startup of the service: 
    systemctl enable BridgeSetup
    You can also start the service with:
    systemctl start BridgeSetup
    And stop it with:
    systemctl stop BridgeSetup
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