Always On VPN administrators migrating their endpoints to Windows 11 may encounter a scenario where Always On VPN randomly disconnects when the VPN profile is deployed using Microsoft Intune. The same configuration deployed to Windows 10 devices works reliably, however. In addition, Always On VPN profiles deployed using PowerShell (natively or with SCCM) or Dynamic Profile Configurator (DPC) do not experience this problem.
Troubleshooting
Administrators troubleshooting this issue will find the root cause is associated with the Always On VPN profiles being removed and replaced each time the device syncs with Intune. This occurs even if there are no changes to the configuration. Removing and replacing the Always On VPN profiles on each device sync is unnecessary, of course, but is also highly disruptive to connected users.
Intune and XML
The Intune team identified the issue, and a fix was made available in the August update. However, many of you have reported the issue persists with some Windows 11 clients after installing the latest updates. Further investigation indicates that although the issue has been resolved when using Intune and the native VPN device configuration profile template, the problem still occurs when using the Custom device configuration template.
Workaround
Microsoft is aware of the issues with deploying Always On VPN client configuration settings using XML in Intune, but there’s no indication when or if they will fix it. Until then, administrators have two options to address this problem.
Native VPN Template
When deploying Always On VPN client configuration settings to Windows 11 endpoints, use the native VPN device configuration template, as shown here.
Using the native VPN template does have some limitations, however. The following settings are not exposed using the native VPN template and can only be configured using XML.
- Disable class-based default route
- Application-specific traffic filters
- IPv6 routes (UI doesn’t allow /64 prefix!)
- Exclusion routes
- VPN protocol preferences
XML
If you must use XML, I’ve had some success by ensuring the order and syntax of XML settings is exactly as Intune expects. Follow the steps below to confirm the XML settings order in your XML configuration file.
- Deploy your XML file with Intune.
- Run Get-VpnClientProfileXML.ps1 to extract the deployed XML settings.
- Compare the order of settings to your existing XML.
- Compare the syntax of all settings. For example, the <Servers> section should list the server FQDN twice, separated by a semi-colon.
- Make changes to ensure all settings in your XML are in the same order as the extracted XML.
- Publish a new XML configuration file using Intune and test.
I’ll caution you that this workaround doesn’t always work reliably. Some customers report that this solved their problems entirely, while others have indicated it does not. My testing shows the same results. Let us know in the comments below if this works for you!
Reference XML
I have published an Always On VPN XML configuration file on GitHub for reference. It includes all common settings using the order and syntax required to ensure reliable operation. As a reminder, the sample file includes many settings that aren’t required. It is published as guidance for reference only.
