Client VPN Overview

Key Considerations

• Uplink Support: Client VPN connections can only be established on the primary uplink of the MX device.

• Routing: Client VPN traffic can be routed through Site-to-Site VPNs, including both AutoVPN and Non-Meraki VPNs.

IKEv2

Client VPN can be configured to use Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2), which supports modern VPN connections with strong security and flexibility.

Encryption and Security

• Phase 1 
  • Encryption: AES-CBC-256
  • Hashing Algorithm: HMAC-SHA2-256-128 or HMAC-SHA2-256
  • DH Groups: 1 or 14
• Phase 2
  • Encryption: AES-CBC-256
  • Hashing Algorithm: HMAC-SHA2-256-128 or HMAC-SHA1-96
• Server Certificate Generation Method
  • Autogenerated: Meraki-managed publicly-trusted certificate with DDNS hostname of your MX network. This name can be found on the Client VPN configuration page as "Hostname" 
  • Custom: Custom hostname signed by a certificate authority of your choice
  • For detailed guidance on Client VPN certificates, including troubleshooting, please refer to the Managing and Troubleshooting AnyConnect Certificates document. Note that the certificate process is the same for both AnyConnect and IKEv2 Client VPN.

Limitations

• As of the 26.1.2 release, only RADIUS authentication is supported. Additional authentication methods will be added in the future.

Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)

Client VPN can be configured to use the Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP), and can be deployed without any additional software on devices with native support for L2TP VPN connections. Linux-based operating systems might require third-party packages support L2TP/IP VPN connections

Encryption and Security

• Phase 1
  • Encryption: 3DES
  • Hashing Algorithm: SHA1
• Phase 2
  • Encryption: AES-128 or 3DES
  • Hashing Algorithm: SHA1.
    • Note: Starting with MX19 firmware on vMX platforms, 3DES encryption for Phase 2 is being deprecated due to security concerns.
• Pre-shared Key: This is configured by the administrator. As a best practice the shared secret (pre-shared key) should not contain special characters at the beginning or end.

Limitations

• L2TP over IPsec supports only IKEv1; IKEv2 is not supported for L2TP. The MX assigns IP addresses using LCP, so DHCP and static IP assignment are not supported for VPN clients.

Meraki Cloud Authentication

If an Active Directory or RADIUS server is not available, VPN users can be managed with Meraki cloud. Email addresses that are used for Dashboard administrators will automatically populate as Client VPN users, and these administrators will need to log in with their dashboard credentials.

1. To add or remove additional users, use the User Management section at the bottom of the Security & SD-WAN > Configure > Client VPN page.
2. Add a user by clicking "Add new user" and entering the following information:
   • Description: Username
   • Email: User email address
   • Password: Enter a password for the user or click "Generate" to automatically generate a password
   • Authorized: Select whether this user is authorized to use the client VPN

To edit an existing user, click on the username in the User Management section.

To delete a user, click the X next to the username on the right side of the user list.

RADIUS

Use this option to authenticate users on a RADIUS server.

1. In Security & SD-WAN > Configure > Client VPN click Add a RADIUS server to configure the server(s) to use
2. In the Host field, enter the IP address of the RADIUS server
3. In the Port field, enter the port to be used for RADIUS communication
4. In the Secret field, enter the shared secret for the RADIUS server

For more information on how to configure RADIUS authentication server for client VPN, see Configuring RADIUS Authentication with Client VPN.

Active Directory

Use this option if user authentication should be done with Active Directory domain credentials.

In Security & SD-WAN > Configure > Active Directory > Active Directory servers, the following information is required for configuration:

• Short domain: The short name of the Active Directory domain
• Server IP: The IP address of an Active Directory server on the MX LAN or a remote subnet routable through Auto VPN
• Domain admin: The domain administrator account the MX should use to query the server
• Password: The password for the domain administrator account

For more information on how to configure the Active Directory authentication server for client VPN, see Configuring Active Directory with MX Security Appliances.

Systems Manager Sentry VPN Security

When using Meraki Cloud Authentication, Systems Manager Sentry VPN security can be configured if your dashboard organization contains one or more Mobile Device Management (MDM) networks. Systems Manager Sentry VPN security allows for devices enrolled in Systems Manager to receive the configuration to connect to the client VPN through the Systems Manager profile on the device.

To enable Systems Manager Sentry VPN security, go to Security & SD-WAN > Configure > Client VPN > IPsec Settings page. Under the Client VPN Server drop-down menu, select Enabled. You can configure the following options:

• Install scope: The install scope allows for a selection of Systems Manager tags for a particular MDM network. Devices with these tags applied in a Systems Manager network will receive a configuration to connect to this network's client VPN server through their Systems Manager profile.
  • Send all traffic: Select whether all client traffic should be sent to the MX.
• Proxy: Whether a proxy should be used for this VPN connection. This can be set to automatic, manual, or disabled.

 

Client VPN Connections

After configuring the client VPN and users starting to connect, it may be useful to see how many and which client devices are connected to your network. To see connected client VPN devices, navigate to Network-wide > Monitor > Clients. Click on the Search drop-down menu and select the following options: Status = Online, offline (or both), Client type = Client VPN. 

Group Policies

It is possible to manually apply group policies to clients connected via client VPN. A group policy applied to a client VPN user is associated with the username and not the device. Different devices that connect to client VPN with the same username will receive the same group policy. For more help on assigning or removing group policies applied to a client, refer to the Creating and Applying Group Policies document.

Traceroute

The following is expected behavior: When you run a traceroute from a client who is connected to Client VPN to other destinations, one of the hops will appear as IP 192.168.100.1.