Executing the ExecReload= command with full privileges (adding '+') indeed fixes the reload failure (I ran my tests in a Bionic and Focal VMs but it should apply to the other releases):
May 26 10:01:41 openvpn-reload kill[1764]: kill: (1738): Operation not permitted I mean the command 'systemctl reload openvpn@<server>' does not fail (returns 0). However, after checking the journal log I found the following error messages: May 26 10:30:57 openvpn-reload ovpn-server[10626]: SIGHUP[hard,] received, process restarting May 26 10:30:57 openvpn-reload ovpn-server[10626]: Options error: --dh fails with 'dh.pem': Permission denied (errno=13) May 26 10:30:57 openvpn-reload ovpn-server[10626]: Options error: --ca fails with 'ca.crt': Permission denied (errno=13) May 26 10:30:57 openvpn-reload ovpn-server[10626]: Options error: --cert fails with 'server.crt': Permission denied (errno=13) May 26 10:30:57 openvpn-reload ovpn-server[10626]: Options error: --key fails with 'server.key': Permission denied (errno=13) May 26 10:30:57 openvpn-reload ovpn-server[10626]: Options error: --tls-auth fails with 'ta.key': Permission denied (errno=13) May 26 10:30:57 openvpn-reload ovpn-server[10626]: Options error: --writepid fails with '/run/openvpn/server.pid': Permission denied (errno=13) May 26 10:30:57 openvpn-reload ovpn-server[10626]: Options error: --status fails with '/var/log/openvpn/openvpn-status.log': Permission denied (errno=13) May 26 10:30:57 openvpn-reload ovpn-server[10626]: Options error: Please correct these errors. May 26 10:30:57 openvpn-reload ovpn-server[10626]: Use --help for more information. As discussed above I am not quite sure about the practical difference between restarting the service and sending the SIGHUP signal to the process. The upstream message when handling this signal is "process restarting". Since defining a reload command is optional and the difference between restart and reload is not clear, we may want to remove the ExecReload= from this unit file. Maybe run the ExecReload= with full privileges ('+') in the supported releases to not remove this feature and avoid the failure, and remove the ExecReload= from the development release (stop supporting reload)? -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1868127 Title: OpenVPN will not reload due to misconfigured .service file To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openvpn/+bug/1868127/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs