How to fix OpenVPN 'failed to find GID for group openvpn'

Problem:

In your OpenVPN server logs you see this error message

failed to find GID for group openvpn

followed by a server restart (Exiting due to fatal error).

Solution

Run this command to add the OpenVPN group:

sudo groupadd openvpn

In most cases, you’ll see this in your server log after doing that:

failed to find UID for user openvpn
Exiting due to fatal error

In that case, refer to our previous post on How to fix OpenVPN “failed to find UID for user openvpn”