Here is a brief guide to installing SSL-Explorer, a great SSL VPN solution, on Centos. I used Centos 4.4, as there is currently no Server CD for version 5. I had to search around a bit in order to find out how to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to the correct location, so here it is – to save you time.

Centos was installed with a minimum of options – no Apache, no X. If you install Apache, you’ll have to either change the ports it listens on, or change the ports SSL-Explorer listens on. If you don’t, then you’ll get conflicts. Configure the firewall to allow port 443, as that’s what SSLExplorer will be running on.

[root@server ~]# service ipchains stop
[root@server ~]# cd /root
[root@server ~]# wget http://link.to.sf.net/download
[root@server ~]# chmod 755 sslexplorer_linux_0_2_12.rpm

Download JRE, and copy to /root. I used FileZilla with FTP/SSH to put the file on the linux box

[root@server ~]# chmod 755 jre-6u1-linux-i586-rpm.bin
[root@server ~]# ./jre-6u1-linux-i586-rpm.bin
[root@server ~]# /usr/local/bin/install-sslexplorer

Configure using Web interface

[root@server /]# export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.6.0_01
[root@server /]# /opt/sslexplorer/install/platforms/linux/install-service
[root@server /]# service sslexplorer start

Note that if you’re copying and pasting these directions, get the link to the newest version from sourceforge, and replace the generic link on the 3rd line.