Overview
Designed and deployed a secure MikroTik OpenVPN solution connecting a remote site to HQ using certificate-based authentication, restricted routing, and hardened firewall policies.
The objective was to enable secure remote administration while preventing public exposure of management services and maintaining strict access boundaries between networks.
Key Achievements
- Secure HQ-to-site VPN connectivity
- Certificate-based authentication
- Restricted management access
- Controlled routing and NAT policies
- Repeatable deployment workflow
- Monitoring integration with Zabbix and Grafana
Implementation Highlights
- Designed the network topology and trust model
- Configured MikroTik RouterOS devices
- Implemented OpenVPN connectivity
- Created firewall and NAT policies
- Restricted management services to trusted networks
- Integrated monitoring and validation workflows
Technologies
- MikroTik RouterOS 7.x
- OpenVPN
- Certificate-based Authentication
- Firewall & NAT
- DHCP / DNS / NTP
- Zabbix
- Grafana
Architecture
Topology diagram displayed below.
The deployment uses a two-stage rollout process:
- Bootstrap configuration establishes WAN access and VPN connectivity.
- Full configuration is applied after secure remote access is verified.
This minimizes deployment risk and simplifies recovery for remote installations.
Security & Validation
The solution uses certificate-based authentication, explicit firewall policies, and least-privilege access controls.
Validation included:
- VPN tunnel establishment
- Route verification
- Firewall policy testing
- Administrative path validation
- Monitoring visibility checks
Sensitive information such as credentials, certificates, internal addressing, and full configurations has been intentionally excluded from this public write-up.
Results
- VPN tunnel established successfully
- Secure remote administration enabled
- Management access limited to trusted networks
- Remote LAN isolated from unrestricted HQ access
- Repeatable deployment model for future sites
- Continuous visibility through Zabbix and Grafana
Evidence
Screenshots and demonstration clips show:
- VPN tunnel status
- Routing and firewall validation
- Zabbix monitoring
- Grafana dashboards
- End-to-end remote administration workflow
