OpenVPN

OpenVPN has a build-in mechanism to automatically detect dead links and reconnect. In Network Manager go to "Edit Connections", select your VPN connection and choose "Edit". In the "VPN" tab click on "Advanced..." and go to the "General" Tab. There you have two relevant options:

"Specify ping interval" tell OpenVPN how frequently to check if the link is still alive. "Specify exit or restart ping" tells it how long to wait until it takes action and which action to take.

Example: My setting are "30 / ping-restart / 300". This means OpenVPN checks every 30 seconds if the link is still active. If the link is down for 300 seconds it initiates a restart.

This way there is no need for external scripts...