Openvpn howto question

[Shwick]

I'm going through the openvpn howto, section "Configuring client-specific rules and access policies", HOWTO.

I understand how the network is segregated, different subnets for employees, sys admins and contractors.

I don't understand how openvpn identifies a user as either an employee, sys admin or contractor.

Is that what the next section, "Using alternative authentication methods" deals with? Does it involve using the openvpn-auth-pam plugin?

I don't see where else openvpn could recognize a user, other than if the client built it into their certificate.

For example, is this how it works:

You login with user sysadmin1 / some password via the openvpn-auth-pam plugin, openvpn recognizes the sysadmin1 user and invokes "ifconfig-push 10.8.1.1 10.8.1.2".

[secondmouse]

The identification is done through the common name when you create the certificates.
You can find this information from the sample server configuration file

# EXAMPLE: Suppose the client
# having the certificate common name "Thelonious"
# also has a small subnet behind his connecting
# machine, such as 192.168.40.128/255.255.255.248.
# First, uncomment out these lines:
;client-config-dir ccd
;route 192.168.40.128 255.255.255.248
# Then create a file ccd/Thelonious with this line:
# iroute 192.168.40.128 255.255.255.248

with duplicate-cn on you can use the same certificates for a group of people, for example, the employees.