systemd-resolved, resolvconf.service, resolvconf and openresolv. Why, which and how?

I'm using a VPN client which adds two name servers to /etc/resolv.conf. All my connections are managed by Network-Manager.

I have to use this VPN client for my work VPN but after Ubuntu went to systemd-resolved in 16.10 I am having problems with my connection and DNS. Looks like systemd-resolved changes /etc/resolv.conf back to default name servers for some reason which makes internal pages not resolve. I looked into this some more and ended up replacing resolvconf with openresolv. That helped a lot, but still systemd-resolved resets /etc/resolv.conf after the VPN has been up for a while.

It could be just as the connection is up or after a few minutes or sometimes not at all. I then disabled systemd-resolved and the systemd resolvconf.service and only run openresolv. It all works well it seems.

However, this is all very confusing. Is there a reason for using systemd-resolved with one of the others? It was enabled in Ubuntu 16.10 so I thought there must be a reason for it but it seems to cause a fight over /etc/resolv.conf.

It would be great if I could just run operesolv and get this explained. I have done quite a bit of reading on it but I still do not understand why /etc/resolv.conf is managed like it is, only that when I use systemd for it I can't use my VPN client.

3 Answers

I managed to change the script that handles these configuration items in OpenVPN in Ubuntu (tested on 18.04). Here is a patch for that:

--- /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf.orig 2019-03-13 19:14:16.163914424 +0400
+++ /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf 2019-03-13 19:29:30.380420708 +0400
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ # foreign_option_3='dhcp-option DOMAIN be.bnc.ch' #
-[ -x /sbin/resolvconf ] || exit 0
+[ -x /usr/bin/systemd-resolve ] || exit 0 [ "$script_type" ] || exit 0 [ "$dev" ] || exit 0
@@ -43,16 +43,16 @@ fi done R=""
- [ "$SRCHS" ] && R="search $SRCHS
-"
+ for SRCH in $SRCHS ; do
+ R="${R}--set-domain=$SRCH "
+ done for NS in $NMSRVRS ; do
- R="${R}nameserver $NS
-"
+ R="${R}--set-dns=$NS " done
- echo -n "$R" | /sbin/resolvconf -a "${dev}.openvpn"
+ /usr/bin/systemd-resolve -i ${dev} ${R} ;; down)
- /sbin/resolvconf -d "${dev}.openvpn"
+ echo "Doing nothing, interface disappears." ;; esac

You will need to add the following items to your OpenVPN configuration file:

script-security 2
up /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf
down /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf

Which VPN client are you using? I was having trouble with straight OpenVPN, but installing the NM version of the client cleared up the problems. Well, most of them, I could not prevent a route being pushed, but that's a completely different issue.

The point is: your VPN client has to know about how to interact with systemd's idea of how to manage DNS service. I don't recommend this, but you may try to disabling the resolvd service (systemctl disable systemd-resolved.service) to see if it improves things, but ultimately you will have to get a client that understands how to submit to systemd's caprices :)

(The systemd ship sailed a long time ago, let's not open a discussion on why some things were done.)

An update to the VPN client I used resolved (pun intended) the problem. It was the OpenFortiGui client for Fortinet VPN.