Migrated VPN Service Broken with Catalina

My Mac mini has been working just fine with macOS Mojave as a VPN server following the migration method described in https://developer.apple.com/support/downloads/macOS-Server-Service-Migration-Guide.pdf , but after upgrading to macOS Catalina there is trouble:

The VPN clients connect just fine on the internal network, but not on an external network; which makes the VPN server a bit pointless! I can confirm that all was working well with the server running macOS Mojave, and my iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 clients have been connecting just fine; it is the upgrade to macOS Catalina on the server that has caused this problem.

Here are the log entries for a failed connection:

vpnd.log

Posted on Oct 11, 2019 9:42 AM

Top-ranking reply

Grahamh51

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Nov 15, 2019 1:54 AM

I have tried VPN Enabler mention by lcrooks earlier and have managed to get the connection working back to my Catalina OS Mac Mini. I have done this locally from another desktop and remotely from my iphone. The later needed the OpenVPN app installed.

I also needed to edit the config file created by VPN Enabler as it didn't want to work by default. This was a bit of trial and error really as I am certainly no expert on this, but noticed when using the client part of VPN Enabler that the config file didn't seem to reference my server url but the port number instead. I simply replaced the port number with my url and it worked. The lines I changed are below

<key>RemoteAddress</key>

<string>xxx.ddns.net</string> This simply contained "REMOTE"

<key>remote</key>

<string>xxx.ddns.net</string> Note: this is where the port number 1194 was

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120 replies

Apr 12, 2020 10:47 AM in response to Gib Henry

Still broken on 10.15.4.

lcrooks

Level 1

9 points

Apr 14, 2020 6:19 AM in response to e-nando

You are an absolute hero!!! Would you mind providing more precise instructions for us less savvy users?

sahid007

Level 1

35 points

Apr 14, 2020 7:48 AM in response to lcrooks

Oh yes!!! Please can you also send the steps here as well? Many thanks

e-nando

Level 1

4 points

Apr 14, 2020 7:59 AM in response to wa1oui

sudo mount -uw /

or, copy it to say /usr/local/sbin and run it from there...

lcrooks

Level 1

9 points

Apr 14, 2020 11:13 AM in response to e-nando

sure you are busy, but if you could post some step wise instructions we would all really appreciate it!

Apr 14, 2020 1:15 PM in response to lcrooks

If you're still on Mojave and can send the vpnd binary, I can try with that and let you know. Maybe just upload it somewhere so I can download it or if you have any better ideas?

lcrooks

Level 1

9 points

Apr 14, 2020 1:17 PM in response to ElKoeppe10

I'll post a Dropbox link here as soon as I get home.

wa1oui

Level 1

39 points

Apr 16, 2020 7:20 AM in response to wa1oui

Let's try this again with the proper log:

VPN Log

alisa299

Level 1

4 points

Apr 16, 2020 11:38 AM in response to TrainsAndWellbeing

Hello everybody! Found a dumb solution, but it seemed to work =)

And try to connect!

lcrooks

Level 1

9 points

Apr 16, 2020 11:52 AM in response to alisa299

Can others confirm connectivity outside of home network? Would be absolutely incredible and dumb-founding if this works????

wa1oui

Level 1

39 points

Apr 16, 2020 12:12 PM in response to lcrooks

Didn't work here... : (

May 26, 2020 4:36 PM in response to lcrooks

100% what lcrooks just said!

mini-bob

Level 1

4 points

May 27, 2020 7:12 AM in response to TrainsAndWellbeing

unfortunately, issue still continues with macOS 10.15.5

lcrooks

Level 1

9 points

Jun 16, 2020 7:01 PM in response to 6randon

Hopefully, but I am sure that none of us on this thread are holding our breath.

lcrooks

Level 1

9 points

Jun 24, 2020 5:36 PM in response to mini-bob

Anyone holding out hope that Big Sur will fix this issue? Is there a new Server app in Big Sur?

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Migrated VPN Service Broken with Catalina