Always On VPN at MMSMOA 2022

I am excited to announce that I will be presenting at this year’s Midwest Management Summit at the Mall of America (MMSMOA) in Bloomington, Minnesota. The conference takes place the week of May 2. This is my first time presenting at this event, and I’m looking forward to sharing my experience deploying enterprise mobility and security infrastructure solutions with systems management professionals from around the world.

Sessions

I will be delivering three talks at the conference addressing various secure remote access and certificate services topics.

Managing Always On VPN with Intune

This session will provide administrators with everything they need to know about provisioning and managing Always On VPN client configuration settings using Intune. I’ll be providing tips, tricks, and best practices for Always On VPN profile configuration and demonstrating many of the limitations associated with using Intune. I will provide workarounds whenever possible.

Managing Always On VPN with Intune: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Always On VPN Gateway Options in Azure

Deploying Always On VPN in Azure is increasingly common. However, administrators are unaware of the limitations of supporting Always On VPN connections with native Azure VPN gateway solutions. In this session, I’ll describe in detail what’s required to support Always On VPN and, importantly, what the limitations are.

Always On VPN Gateway Options in Azure

Deploying On-premises PKI Certificates with Intune

As organizations continue to migrate applications, services, and infrastructure to the cloud, the requirement for endpoints to be joined to an on-premises domain is fading. Moving to full Intune management and native Azure Active Directory join for endpoints is increasingly common. However, deploying enterprise PKI certificates o these endpoints is often required. This session will provide detailed guidance for choosing the best solution to deliver on-premises certificates to Azure AD joined devices using Intune.

Deploying on-premises PKI Certificates with Intune

Let’s Connect

I’m looking forward to meeting so many folks who have helped me get up to speed with Microsoft Endpoint Manager/Intune over the years. If you’re attending the conference, or if you are in the area, be sure to reach out. Let’s grab a beer and chat!

Additional Information

Midwest Management Summit at Mall of America (MMSMOA) 2022

Managing Always On VPN with Intune: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Always On VPN Gateway Options in Azure

Deploying on-premises PKI Certificates with Intune

Always On VPN PowerShell Script Issues in Windows 11

Many administrators are now beginning to test Always On VPN functionality on the latest Microsoft Windows client operating system, Windows 11. Initially, Microsoft had some issues with provisioning and managing Always On VPN profiles on Windows 11 using Microsoft Endpoint Manager/Intune, but those have been resolved. However, some lingering problems may delay enterprise deployments of Always On VPN on Windows 11 for some organizations, specifically those using PowerShell with Active Directory group policy startup scripts or System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).

MakeProfile.ps1

Microsoft has published guidance for deploying Always On VPN profiles using PowerShell with their MakeProfile.ps1 script. This script extracts configuration details from a template VPN profile to create another PowerShell script called VPN_Profile.ps1, which is used to create the Always On VPN profile. SCCM administrators commonly use VPN_Proifle.ps1 to deploy Always On VPN profiles. However, running this script on Windows 11 fails and returns the following error message.

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

This issue appears to be related to a problem with the WMI-to-CSP bridge, specifically enumerating the MDM_VPNv2_01 class in the root\cimv2\mdm\dmmap namespace. Here you can see the template VPN profile with PowerShell and Get-VpnConnection.

However, attempts to view the MDM_VPNv2_01 class of this VPN profile using PowerShell and Get-CimInstance fail.

New-AovpnConnection.ps1

Interestingly, administrators may find that my Always On VPN PowerShell deployment script works more reliably on Windows 11, although not always. In my experience, I’ve found that it sometimes fails once (profile is loaded, but the configuration is incomplete), then works after deleting the profile and creating it again. If the Microsoft-provided script isn’t working, give mine a try and see if it works better for you.

Note: When deploying Always On VPN profiles using my PowerShell deployment script via Active Directory startup scripts, it seems to fail consistently for some reason. Go figure. 😉

Remove-AovpnConnection.ps1

The issues described previously with Windows 11 are also negatively affecting some of my other PowerShell scripts. For example, running Remove-Aovpnconnection.ps1 on Windows 11 fails and returns the following error message.

“A general error occurred that is not covered by a more specific error code.”

Current Status

Microsoft is currently aware of this issue. However, I am aware of no timeframe for resolution at the time of this writing. Hopefully, Microsoft addresses this soon so organizations can move forward with their Windows 11 migration projects.

Additional Information

Microsoft Windows Always On VPN Windows 11 Issues with Microsoft Endpoint Manager/Intune

Microsoft Windows Always On VPN Profile Deployment Script

Microsoft Windows Always On VPN Remove Always On VPN Profile Script

Always On VPN PowerShell Script Repository on GitHub

Always On VPN Windows 11 Issues with Intune

Always On VPN RasMan Errors in Windows 10 1903

Since the introduction of Windows 11, there have been numerous reports of issues with Always On VPN when deployed using Microsoft Endpoint Manager/Intune. Specifically, administrators have been reporting that Always On VPN profiles are being deleted, then later reappearing. Obviously, this is highly disruptive to users in the field.

Update January 25, 2022: Microsoft has released a fix for the issues described in this article. It is included with KB5008353 (build 22000.469).

Causes

According to Microsoft, there are several causes for deleted VPN profiles.

Changes to an Existing Profile

Missing Always On VPN profiles commonly occurs when updating settings for an existing VPN profile applied to Windows 11 endpoints. In this scenario, the VPN profile is deleted but not immediately replaced. Synchronize the device with Microsoft Endpoint Manager/Intune once more to return the VPN profile.

Multiple Profiles

Issues with Always On VPN profiles may also occur if two new VPN profiles are applied to the endpoint simultaneously.

Remove and Replace

Removing and replacing an Always On VPN profile at the same time will also result in connectivity issues.

Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/configuration/vpn-settings-configure

Workaround

There is no known workaround for these issues at this time. Microsoft is aware of the problem and is working on a fix, and until then, rolling out Windows 11 with Always On VPN should be avoided.

Additional Issues

There have been reports of other known issues with Windows 11 and Always On VPN. For instance, my PowerShell script that removes an Always On VPN connection doesn’t work with Windows 11. I’m working to resolve that issue as we speak.

Are you experiencing any issues with Always On VPN on Windows 11? Please share them in the comments below!

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