I am running OS 10.9.4 and Server 3.1.2.
I had a L2TP VPN configured and working well. I suspect the 10.9.4 update caused the following issue.
ISSUE: After waking from sleep, the VPN service requires a restart in order to accept connections. Clients timeout and receive an error message saying the server is not accepting connections. A quick OFF/ON toggle in the Server GUI fixes the problem.
Any advice or do I need to wait this one out?
No advice but something is seriously wrong with MacOS Servers vpn even in 2017. My server never sleeps but shuts down at night and starts up every morning.
The L2TP VPN service does not accept incoming connections unless manually switched off and on again.
Anyone found a solution?
Might I ask why you are letting your server sleep? The server should be set to never sleep.
Its just a home server running on my MacBook Pro for remote file access and internet security. I let it sleep overnight when I'm home so as not to waste energy. It is not being accessed by anyone but me.
Strontium90 wrote:
Might I ask why you are letting your server sleep? The server should be set to never sleep.
What he said 😉
You might get away with letting the hard disk sleep but that's about it. (I don't even bother doing that for a server.)
Ok, I understand how you do things. Any advice for the actual issue?
Schedule an automated shutdown at night and and auto power on in the morning. Then you don't have to manually do it and you avoid sleep issues with all services.
If the server is asleep there is nothing awake to answer the clients VPN connection request. As such there is nothing to fix because you are 'holding it wrong' 😉
The nearest solution is to first issue a 'wake on LAN' packet which wakes a sleeping computer, then once it is awake it should answer the request. Except Wake on LAN is designed to only work locally on the same LAN and is aimed more at waking sleeping client devices not sleeping servers.
As both Strontium90 and myself indicated servers are not designed to sleep. They normally have to be running all the time so they are always ready to answer client requests.
A Mac mini acting as a server especially if you use an SSD drive or perhaps as I suggested limit it to just sleeping the hard drive uses a tiny amount of power. You can turn off the monitor as well.
The issue is that after the computer wakes from sleep, the VPN service needs a restart. The computer is awake and Server indicates that it is ready to accept connections. But it does not do so.
Any advice?
Mac Server VPN Requires Restart When Waking from Sleep
