Juniper Network Connect VPN on 64-bit Arch Linux

There are several guides out there that describe running Juniper Network Connect VPN client on linux (see particularly MadScientist's guide for Ubuntu). These are just some notes on running the client from the command-line on a 64-bit Arch Linux system.

Since the netsvc client is 32-bit, we need to install some 32-bit support software. The method I use is to install 32-bit compatibility libs (effectively making my system multilib). Another solution would be to install and run netsvc from a 32-bit chroot environment.

To download Network Connect, connect to your VPN server with a browser and click the Network Connect Start button. This will download the software to ~/.juniper_networks.

Install 32-bit libs:

  pacman -S lib32-glibc lib32-gcc-libs lib32-zlib

Extract your certificate:

  cd ~/.juniper_networks
  jar -xf ncLinuxApp.jar getx509certificate.sh
  sh getx509certificate.sh your.vpn.server.com certfile

You can now run netsvc as follows:

  netsvc -h your.vpn.server.com -u username -f certfile -r realm -p passwd

Your realm can be found from the HTML code of the server page. Look for something like:

  <input name="realm" value="Your Realm" type="hidden">

The following simple script takes care of the whole thing:

  #!/bin/bash
  ## Install as vpn.sh.
  ## Run as 'vpn.sh start' and input your password.
  ## It should be as simple as that.

  ## settings
  HOST="your.vpn.server.com"
  USER="YourUsername"
  REALM="Your Realm"
  JAR="/opt/java/bin/jar"
  JUNIPER="${HOME}/.juniper_networks"
  CERT="${JUNIPER}/network_connect/${HOST}.cert"
  NCSVC="${JUNIPER}/network_connect/ncsvc"

  start () {
    ## get passwd
    read -s -p "Password: " passwd
    echo ""

    ## get server certificate
    pushd ${JUNIPER}
    if [ ! -x "getx509certificate.sh" ]; then
      ${JAR} -xf ncLinuxApp.jar getx509certificate.sh
    fi
    sh getx509certificate.sh "${HOST}" "${CERT}" || die "failed get cert from $HOST"
    popd

    ## run the network connect program
    "${NCSVC}" -h "$HOST" -u "$USER" -f "$CERT" -r "$REALM" -p $passwd &
  }

  stop () {
    ## kill Network Connect
    ${NCSVC} -K
  }

  case "$1" in
    start)
      start
      ;;
    stop)
      stop
      ;;
    restart)
      stop
      start
      ;;
    *)
      echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
      ;;
  esac