Not clear for how long does openVPN caches the resolved IP address of remote host

[teneri]

Currently when running openVPN client in log it says:

    Preserving recently used remote address:

For how long it will cache it? How to tune it?

Maybe best to add some info into man?

[Antonio Quartulli]

There is no "timing" option to tune. The IP is either cached or not.
This particular behaviour can be activated when using "--persist-remote-ip".

However, before going into the details, I'd like to ask if you are having any issue with this option.

If this is not a bug or a feature request, I'd rather move the discussion tot he user mailing list where more people can express their opinion in this regard.

[teneri]

Thank you, it's clear now.

Thought I don't have the "persist-remote-ip" option set but seeing the "Preserving recently used remote address" events in the log. Anything else except the "persist-remote-ip" option may be triggering this event?

[tct]

Unqualified comment:
This must also be effected by other factors, such as having only one connection profile. I do not use --persist-remote-ip ever and yet almost all of my client logs show that the remote IP is preserved.

[Pippin]

Another unqualified comment :)

Using

remote 1
remote 2
remote 3
remote 4
remote 5

remote-random

shows

Preserving recently used remote address:

but remote is actually random.

[tct]

If the message:

Preserving recently used remote address:

is logged when openvpn is not preserving recently used remote address then this is a bug.

[Gert Döring]

I have no idea what OpenVPN is trying to tell us there, TBH. That message has been there "since ever", but the surrounding code was rewritten a couple of times - so it might not send the "right" message today.

@plaisthos might know, or @themiron