1️⃣ Prepare your Ubuntu jump server

• Make sure your EC2 instance:

  • Is in a public subnet with an Elastic IP.

  • Has Security Group rules allowing:

    • UDP 1194 (OpenVPN default)
    • TCP 22 (for SSH)
    • Optional: Restrict source IPs to your office/home IP for security.

2️⃣ Install OpenVPN

SSH into the server:

ssh ubuntu@<JUMP_SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>

Run:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y curl
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/angristan/openvpn-install/master/openvpn-install.sh
chmod +x openvpn-install.sh
sudo ./openvpn-install.sh

3️⃣ Answer the prompts

The script will ask:

• Public IP → accept default (Elastic IP of EC2)
• Protocol → UDP
• Port → 1194
• DNS → choose 1 for current system resolvers
• Client name → e.g. ahmad-laptop
• Extra security → you can skip for speed

It will then generate:

/root/ahmad-laptop.ovpn

4️⃣ Copy the .ovpn file to your laptop

On your laptop:

scp ubuntu@<JUMP_SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>:/root/ahmad-laptop.ovpn .

5️⃣ Connect from your laptop

• Linux/Mac:

  sudo openvpn --config ahmad-laptop.ovpn

• Windows:

  • Install OpenVPN GUI (opens in a new tab).
  • Import the .ovpn file and connect.

6️⃣ Test connection

Once connected, you should be able to hit the EKS API endpoint directly:

aws eks describe-cluster \
  --name tracemypods-premium \
  --query "cluster.endpoint" \
  --output text

Then:

curl -vk $(aws eks describe-cluster --name tracemypods-premium --query "cluster.endpoint" --output text) \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $(aws eks get-token --cluster-name tracemypods-premium --query 'status.token' --output text)" \
  --cacert <(aws eks describe-cluster --name tracemypods-premium --query "cluster.certificateAuthority.data" --output text | base64 -d)

If that returns JSON with Kubernetes version info → VPN works ✅.

Do you want me to add IP forwarding & route config so that only EKS traffic goes through the VPN instead of all your internet traffic? That’ll make it faster and less disruptive while working.