Removing Always On VPN Connections

Removing Always On VPN ConnectionsMuch has been written about provisioning Windows 10 Always On VPN client connections over the past few years. While the preferred method for deploying Always On VPN is Microsoft Intune, using PowerShell is often helpful for initial testing, and required for production deployment with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM). That said, there will invariably come a time when an administrator has to remove an Always On VPN connection. It is not as simple as you might think.

Important Note! The PowerShell script mentioned in this post is broken in Windows 11 and some later versions of Windows 10. This is due to an apparent bug whereby the MDM_VPNv2_01 WMI class can’t be enumerated. Microsoft is aware of the issue and hopefully it will be resolved in the near future.

PowerShell

There are a variety of ways to remove an existing Always On VPN connection, with the quickest and simplest being PowerShell and the Remove-VpnConnection cmdlet.

Get-VpnConnection -Name ‘Always On VPN’ | Remove-VpnConnection -Force

There are several limitations to this method, however.

Active Connections

Administrators will quickly realize that PowerShell fails to remove a VPN connection that is currently connected. As shown here, attempting to remove an active VPN connection will return the following error message.

“The VPN connection [connection name] cannot be removed from the local user connections. Cannot delete a connection while it is connected.”

Removing Always On VPN Connections

Registry Artifacts

Removing Always On VPN connections using PowerShell commonly leaves behind registry artifacts that can potentially cause problems. For example, there are several Always On VPN-related registry entries in several locations including the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\EnterpriseResourceManager\Tracked hive that may not be deleted when removing an Always On VPN connection. When provisioning a new Always On VPN connection after deleting one with the same name previously, the administrator may encounter the following error message.

“Unable to create [connection name] profile: A general error occurred that is not covered by a more specific error code.”

Removing Always On VPN Connections

Note: This error can also be caused by improperly formatted XML configuration files. More details here.

Remove-AovpnConnection Script

Veteran Always On VPN administrators are likely familiar with PowerShell scripts I’ve created called New-AovpnConneciton.ps1 and New-AovpnDeviceConnection.ps1, which are hosted on my GitHub. These scripts are adapted from code samples published by Microsoft to which I have included additional functionality. To address the limitations highlighted in this article I have published a new PowerShell script called Remove-AovpnConnection.ps1. It will remove any Always On VPN connection, even those that are currently active. It also includes logic to remove known registry artifacts common to Always On VPN. Download the script from GitHub and use the following syntax to remove an Always On VPN connection, established or not.

.\Remove-AovpnConnection.ps1 -ProfileName [connection name]

Running this PowerShell command will forcibly remove an Always On VPN connection. Use the -DeviceTunnel switch when removing a device tunnel connection (requires running in the system context). I have also included a -CleanUpOnly switch to remove registry artifacts when the VPN connection was previously removed using another method.

Updated Installation Scripts

I have also updated New-AovpnConnection.ps1 to include these registry clean up steps. This will prevent future errors when provisioning an Always On VPN client where a connection of the same name was removed previously.

Note: New-AovpnConnection.ps1 has also been updated to support device tunnel deployments. As such, I have deprecated New-AovpnDeviceConnection.ps1. Simply use New-AovpnConnection.ps1 with the -DeviceTunnel switch to deploy an Always On VPN device tunnel.

Additional Information

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Configuration using PowerShell

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Unable to Create Profile General Error

Always On VPN Device Tunnel with Azure VPN Gateway

Always On VPN Device Tunnel with Azure VPN GatewayAlways On VPN is infrastructure independent, which allows for many different deployment scenarios including on-premises and cloud-based. In Microsoft Azure, the Azure VPN gateway can be configured to support Windows 10 Always On VPN client connections in some scenarios. Recently I wrote about using the Azure VPN gateway for Always On VPN user tunnels. In this post I’ll describe how to configure the Azure VPN gateway to support an Always On VPN device tunnel.

Limitations

There are a few crucial limitations that come with using the Azure VPN gateway for Always On VPN. Importantly, the Azure VPN gateway can support either user tunnels or device tunnels, not both at the same time. In addition, Azure supports only a single VPN gateway per VNet, so deploying an additional VPN gateway in the same VNet to support Always On VPN user tunnels is not an option.

Root CA Certificate

The Always On VPN device tunnel is authenticated using a machine certificate issued to domain-joined Windows 10 Enterprise edition clients by the organization’s internal Certification Authority (CA). The CA’s root certificate must be uploaded to Azure for the VPN gateway to authorize device tunnel connections. The root CA certificate can be exported using the Certification Authority management console (certsrv.msc) or via the command line.

Export Certificate – GUI

Follow the steps below to export a root CA certificate using the Certification Authority management console.

1. On the root CA server, open the Certification Authority management console.
2. Right-click the CA and choose Properties.
3. Select the CA server’s certificate and choose View Certificate.
4. Select the Details tab and click Copy to File.
5. Click Next.
6. Choose Base-64 encoded X.509 (.CER).

Always On VPN Device Tunnel with Azure VPN Gateway

7. Click Next.
8. Enter a location to save the file to.
9. Click Next, Finish, and Ok.

Export Certificate – Command Line

Follow the steps below to export a root CA certificate using the command line.

1. On the root CA server, open an elevated command window (not a PowerShell window).
2. Enter certutil.exe -ca.cert root_certificate.cer.
3. Enter certutil.exe -encode root.cer root_certificate_base64.cer.

Copy Public Key

1. Open the saved root certificate file using Notepad.
2. Copy the file contents between the BEGIN CERTIFICATE and END CERTIFICATE tags, as shown here. Use caution and don’t copy the carriage return at the end of the string.

Always On VPN Device Tunnel with Azure VPN Gateway

Point-to-Site Configuration

The Azure VPN gateway must be deployed as a Route-Based gateway to support point-to-site VPN connections. Detailed requirements for the gateway can be found here. Once the VPN gateway has been provisioned, follow the steps below to enable point-to-site configuration for Always On VPN device tunnels.

1. In the navigation pane of the Azure VPN gateway settings click Point-to-site configuration.
2. Click the Configure now link and specify an IPv4 address pool to be assigned to VPN clients. This IP address pool must be unique in the organization and must not overlap with an IP address ranges defined in the Azure virtual network.
3. From the Tunnel type drop-down list select IKEv2.
4. In the Root certificates section enter a descriptive name for the certificate in the Name field.
5. Copy and paste the Base64 encoded public key copied previously into the Public certificate data field.
6. Click Save to save the configuration.

Always On VPN Device Tunnel with Azure VPN Gateway

VPN Client Configuration

To support the Always On VPN device tunnel, the client must have a certificate issued by the internal CA with the Client Authentication Enhanced Key Usage (EKU). Detailed guidance for deploying a Windows 10 Always On VPN device tunnel can be found here.

Download VPN Configuration

1. Click Point-to-site configuration.
2. Click Download VPN client.
3. Click Save.
4. Open the downloaded zip file and extract the VpnSettings.xml file from the Generic folder.
5. Copy the FQDN in the VpnServer element in VpnSettings.xml. This is the FQDN that will be used in the template VPN connection and later in ProfileXML.

Create a Test VPN Connection

It is recommended to create a test VPN connection to perform validation testing of the Azure VPN gateway before provisioning an Always On VPN device tunnel broadly. On a domain-joined Windows 10 enterprise client, create a new VPN connection using IKEv2 with machine certificate authentication. Use the VPN server FQDN copied from the VpnSettings.xml file previously.

Always On VPN Device Tunnel with Azure VPN Gateway

Create an Always On VPN Connection

Once the VPN has been validated using the test profile created previously, an Always On VPN profile can be created and deployed using Intune, SCCM, or PowerShell. The following articles can be used for reference.

Deploy Always On VPN device tunnel using PowerShell

Deploy Always On VPN device tunnel using Intune

IKEv2 Security Configuration

The default IKEv2 security parameters used by the Azure VPN gateway are better than Windows Server, but the administrator will notice that a weak Diffie-Hellman (DH) key (Group 2 – 1024 bit) is used during IPsec phase 1 negotiation.

Always On VPN Device Tunnel with Azure VPN Gateway

Use the following PowerShell commands to update the default IKEv2 security parameters to recommended baseline defaults, including 2048-bit keys (DH group 14) and AES-128 for improved performance.

Connect-AzAccount
Select-AzSubscription -SubscriptionName [Azure Subscription Name]

$Gateway = [Gateway Name]
$ResourceGroup = [Resource Group Name]

$IPsecPolicy = New-AzVpnClientIpsecParameter -IpsecEncryption AES128 -IpsecIntegrity SHA256 -SALifeTime 28800 -SADataSize 102400000 -IkeEncryption AES128 -IkeIntegrity SHA256 -DhGroup DHGroup14 -PfsGroup PFS14

Set-AzVpnClientIpsecParameter -VirtualNetworkGatewayName $Gateway -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroup -VpnClientIPsecParameter $IPsecPolicy

Note: Be sure to update the cryptography settings on the test VPN connection and in ProfileXML for Always On VPN connections to match the new VPN gateway settings. Failing to do so will result in an IPsec policy mismatch error.

Additional Information

Windows 10 Always On VPN User Tunnel with Azure VPN Gateway

Windows 10 Always On VPN IKEv2 Security Configuration

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Configuration using Microsoft Intune

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Configuration using PowerShell

Windows 10 Always On VPN Options for Azure Deployments

Windows 10 Always On VPN IKEv2 Features and Limitations

Always On VPN with Azure Gateway

Always On VPN with Azure GatewayRecently I wrote about VPN server deployment options for Windows 10 Always On VPN in Azure. In that post I indicated the native Azure VPN gateway could be used to support Always On VPN connections using Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) and Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP). In this post I’ll outline the requirements and configuration steps for implementing this solution.

Requirements

To support Always On VPN, point-to-site VPN connections must be enabled on the Azure VPN gateway. Not all Azure VPN gateways are alike, and point-to-site connections are not supported in all scenarios. For Always On VPN, the Azure VPN gateway must meet the following requirements.

VPN SKU

The Azure VPN gateway SKU must be VpnGw1, VpnGw2, VpnGw3, VpnGw1AZ, VpnGw2AZ, or VpnGw3AZ. The Basic SKU is not supported.

VPN Type

The VPN type must be route-based. Policy-based VPN gateways are not supported for point-to-site VPN connections.

Limitations

Using the Azure VPN gateway for Always On VPN may not be ideal in all scenarios. The following limitations should be considered thoroughly before choosing the Azure VPN gateway for Always On VPN.

Device Tunnel

RADIUS/EAP authentication for user tunnel connections is not supported if the Azure VPN gateway is configured to support device tunnel with machine certificate authentication.

Maximum Connections

A maximum of 250, 500, and 1000 concurrent IKEv2 connections are supported when using the VpnGw1/AZ, VpnGw2/AZ, and VpnGw3/AZ SKUs, respectively (x2 for active/active gateway deployments). In addition, a maximum of 128 concurrent SSTP connections are supported for all VPN gateway SKUs (x2 for active/active gateway deployments).

Always On VPN with Azure Gateway

Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vpn-gateway/vpn-gateway-about-vpngateways#gwsku

RADIUS Requirements

To support Always On VPN connections, the Azure VPN gateway must be configured to authenticate to a RADIUS server. The RADIUS server must be reachable from the VPN gateway subnet. The RADIUS server can be hosted in Azure or on-premises. Before proceeding, ensure that any network routes, firewall rules, and site-to-site VPN tunnel configuration is in place to allow this communication.

RADIUS Configuration

Guidance for configuring Windows Server NPS for Always On VPN can be found here. The only difference when configuring NPS for use with Azure VPN gateway is the RADIUS client configuration.

Open the NPS management console (nps.msc) and follow the steps below to configure Windows Server NPS to support Always On VPN client connections from the Azure VPN gateway.

1. Expand RADIUS Clients and Servers.
2. Right-click RADIUS Clients and choose New.
3. Enter a descriptive name in the Friendly name field.
4. Enter the Azure VPN gateway subnet using CIDR notation in the Address (IP or DNS) field. The gateway subnet can be found by viewing the properties of the Azure VPN gateway in the Azure portal.
5. Enter the shared secret to be used for RADIUS communication in the Shared secret field.

Always On VPN with Azure Gateway

Azure VPN Gateway Configuration

To begin, provision a Virtual Network Gateway in Azure that meets the requirements outlined above. Guidance for implementing an Azure VPN gateway can be found here. Once complete, follow the steps below to enable support for Always On VPN client connections.

Enable Point-to-Site

Perform the following steps to enable point-to-site VPN connectivity.

1. In the navigation pane of the Azure VPN gateway settings click Point-to-site configuration.
2. Click Configure Now and specify an IPv4 address pool to be assigned to VPN clients. This IP address pool must be unique in the organization and must not overlap with any IP address ranges defined in the Azure virtual network.
3. From the Tunnel type drop-down list select IKEv2 and SSTP (SSL).
4. In the RADIUS authentication field enter the IPv4 address of the RADIUS server. At the time of this writing only a single IPv4 address is supported. If RADIUS redundancy is required, consider creating a load balanced NPS cluster.
5. In the Server secret field enter the RADIUS shared secret.
6. Click Save to save the configuration.

Always On VPN with Azure Gateway

VPN Client Configuration

Perform the following steps to configure a Windows 10 VPN client to connect to the Azure VPN gateway.

Download VPN Configuration

1. Click Point-to-site configuration.
2. Click Download VPN client.
3. Select EAPMSCHAv2 (yes, that’s correct even if EAP-TLS will be used!)
4. Click Download.
5. Open the downloaded zip file and extract the VpnSettings.XML file from the Generic folder.
6. Copy the FQDN in the VpnServer element in VpnSettings.XML. This is the FQDN that will be used in the template VPN connection and later in ProfileXML.

Always On VPN with Azure Gateway

Create a Test VPN Connection

On a Windows 10 device create a test VPN profile using the VPN server address copied previously. Configure EAP settings to match those configured on the NPS server and test connectivity.

Create an Always On VPN Connection

Once the VPN has been validated using the test profile created previously, the VPN server and EAP configuration from the test profile can be used to create the Always On VPN profile for publishing using Intune, SCCM, or PowerShell.

IKEv2 Security Configuration

The default IKEv2 security parameters used by the Azure VPN gateway are better than Windows Server, but the administrator will notice that a weak DH key (1024 bit) is used in phase 1 negotiation.

Always On VPN with Azure Gateway

Use the following PowerShell commands to update the default IKEv2 security parameters to recommended baseline defaults, including 2048-bit keys (DH group 14) and AES-128 for improved performance.

Connect-AzAccount
Select-AzSubscription -SubscriptionName [Azure Subscription Name]

$Gateway = [Gateway Name]
$ResourceGroup = [Resource Group Name]

$IPsecPolicy = New-AzVpnClientIpsecParameter -IpsecEncryption AES128 -IpsecIntegrity SHA256 -SALifeTime 28800 -SADataSize 102400000 -IkeEncryption AES128 -IkeIntegrity SHA256 -DhGroup DHGroup14 -PfsGroup PFS14

Set-AzVpnClientIpsecParameter -VirtualNetworkGatewayName $Gateway -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroup -VpnClientIPsecParameter $IPsecPolicy

Note: Be sure to update the cryptography settings on the test VPN connection and in ProfileXML for Always On VPN connections to match the new VPN gateway settings. Failing to do so will result in an IPsec policy mismatch error.

Additional Information

Microsoft Azure VPN Gateway Overview

About Microsoft Azure Point-to-Site VPN

Windows 10 Always On VPN IKEv2 Security Configuration

 

 

 

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