Always On VPN Traffic Filters and IPv6

Always On VPN Windows Server RRAS Service Does Not Start

Using Traffic Filters with Always On VPN provides administrators the option to configure a true Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solution for their field-based users and devices. By enabling traffic filtering, network access over the Always On VPN connection can be controlled using fine-grained policies. Traffic Filter rules can be configured to restrict access based source and destination IP addresses, protocols, and source and destination ports. Administrators can further restrict access based on the application generating the traffic.

IPv6

While testing these features recently, I learned that the Microsoft Endpoint Manager (formerly Intune) user interface does not appear to support IPv6 when configuring traffic filter rules. As you can see here, the UI explicitly asks for an IPv4 address and complains when entering an IPv6 address in the address field, as shown here.

Interestingly, it is possible to add IPv6 addresses in XML, as follows.

<TrafficFilter>
   <App>
      <Id>Microsoft.RemoteDesktop_8wekyb3d8bbwe</Id>
   </App>
   <Protocol>6</Protocol>
   <RemotePortRanges>3389</RemotePortRanges>
   <RemoteAddressRanges>2001:470:f109::/48</RemoteAddressRanges>
</TrafficFilter>

Connection Failure

Unfortunately, after loading the XML on a test client, the Always On VPN connection fails with the following error message.

“Can’t connect to <ConnectionName>. Catastrophic failure.”

In addition, the Application event log records an event ID 20227 from the RasClient source with the following error.

“The user <UserName> dialed a connection name <ConnectionName> which has failed. The error code returned on failure is -2147418113.”

Workaround

At this time, the only known workaround is to update the configuration on the RRAS server to use IPv4 addressing for VPN clients.

Summary

Unfortunately, IPv6 is still a second-class citizen when it comes to Always On VPN. Although enabling IPv6 works well in most common deployment scenarios, the Microsoft Endpoint Manager management console often fails to accept IPv6 entries in IP address fields. In addition, some advanced features such as traffic filtering are incompatible with IPv6.

Additional Information

Windows 10 Always On VPN and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)

Windows 10 Always On VPN Windows Server RRAS Service Does Not Start

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2A while back I wrote about troubleshooting and resolving Windows 10 Always On VPN errors 691 and 812. There are numerous issues that can result in these errors, and in that post I pointed out they can be caused by disabling TLS 1.0 on Windows Servers prior to Windows Server 2016. However, administrators may encounter a another scenario in which they receive errors 691 or 812 which is related to Active Directory user account configuration.

SSTP and Error 691

When attempting to establish an Always On VPN connection using the Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP), administrators may encounter the following error message.

“The remote connection was denied because the user name and password combination you provided is not recognized, or the selected authentication protocol is not permitted on the remote access server.”

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

In addition, an error 691 with event ID 20227 from the RasClient source can be found in the Application event log on the client.

“The user <domain\user> dialed a connection named which has failed. The error code returned on failure is 691.”

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

IKEv2 and Error 812

When attempting to establish an Always On VPN connection using Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2), administrators may encounter the following error message.

“The connection as prevented because of a policy configured on your RAS/VPN server. Specifically, the authentication method used by the server to verify your username and password may not match the authentication method configured in your connection profile. Please contact the Administrator of the RAS server and notify them of this error.”

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

In addition, an error 812 with event ID 20227 from the RasClient source can be found in the Application event log on the client.

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

NPS Event Log

On the NPS server the administrator will find an entry in the application event log with event ID 6273 from the Microsoft Windows security auditing source and the Network Policy Server task category indicating the network policy server denied access to the user. Looking closely at this event log message shows Reason Code 65 and the following reason.

“The Network Access Permission setting in the dial-in properties of the user account in Active Directory is set to Deny access to the user. To change the Network Access permission setting to either Allow access or Control access through NPS Network Policy, obtain the properties of the user account in Active Directory Users and Computers, click the Dial-in tab, and change Network Access Permission.”

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

Resolution

There are two options available to address this issue. The user account in Active Directory can be configured to grant access or allow access to be controlled via NPS network policy, or the NPS network policy can be configured to ignore user account dial-in properties.

User Account

Follow the steps below to change Network Access Permission on an individual user’s Active Directory account.

  1. Open the Active Directory User and Computers (ADUC) management console (dsa.msc) and double-click the user’s account.
  2. Select the Dial-in tab.
  3. In the Network Access Permission section select the option to Allow access or Control access through NPS Network Policy.

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

Note: If you do not see the dial-in tab, open the ADUC console on a domain controller. The dial-in tab is not displayed when using the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows clients.

Network Policy

Follow the steps below to configure NPS network policy to ignore user account dial-in properties.

  1. Open the NPS management console (nps.msc) and double-click the Always On VPN network policy.
  2. In the Access Permission section select Ignore user account dial-in properties.
  3. Click Ok to save the changes.

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

Additional Information

Windows 10 Always On VPN Troubleshooting Error 691 and 812

Always On VPN Error Code 858

Always On VPN Error Code 858When configuring Windows 10 Always On VPN using Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), the administrator may encounter a scenario in which the client connection fails. The event log will include an event ID 20227 from the RasClient source that includes the following error message.

“The user [domain\username] dialed a connection named [connection name] which has failed. The error code returned on failure is 858.”

Always On VPN Error Code 858

RasClient Error 858

RasClient error code 858 translates to ERROR_EAP_SERVER_CERT_EXPIRED. Intuitively, this indicates that the Server Authentication certificate installed on the Network Policy Server (NPS) has expired. To resolve this issue, renew the certificate on the NPS server.

Additional Information

Windows 10 Always On VPN Network Policy Server (NPS) Load Balancing

Windows 10 Always On VPN and Windows Server 2019 NPS Bug

Windows 10 Always On VPN Error Code 864