Configure P2S VPN clients: certificate authentication - native VPN client - macOS

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If your point-to-site (P2S) VPN gateway is configured to use IKEv2 and certificate authentication, you can connect to your virtual network using the native VPN client that's part of your macOS operating system. This article walks you through the steps to configure the native VPN client and connect to your virtual network.

Before you begin

Before you begin configuring your client, verify that you're on the correct article. The following table shows the configuration articles available for Azure VPN Gateway P2S VPN clients. Steps differ, depending on the authentication type, tunnel type, and the client OS.

Authentication Tunnel type Client OS VPN client
Certificate
IKEv2, SSTP Windows Native VPN client
IKEv2 macOS Native VPN client
IKEv2 Linux strongSwan
OpenVPN Windows Azure VPN client
OpenVPN client version 2.x
OpenVPN client version 3.x
OpenVPN macOS OpenVPN client
OpenVPN Linux Azure VPN Client
OpenVPN client
Microsoft Entra ID
OpenVPN Windows Azure VPN client

Prerequisites

This article assumes that you've already performed the following prerequisites:

Workflow

The workflow for this article is as follows:

  1. Generate client certificates if you haven't already done so.
  2. View the VPN client profile configuration files contained in the VPN client profile configuration package that you generated.
  3. Install certificates.
  4. Configure the native VPN client that's already installed your OS.
  5. Connect to Azure.

Generate certificates

For certificate authentication, a client certificate must be installed on each client computer. The client certificate you want to use must be exported with the private key, and must contain all certificates in the certification path. Additionally, for some configurations, you'll also need to install root certificate information.

For information about working with certificates, see Generate and export certificates.

View the VPN client profile configuration files

All of the necessary configuration settings for the VPN clients are contained in a VPN client profile configuration zip file. You can generate client profile configuration files using PowerShell, or by using the Azure portal. Either method returns the same zip file.

The VPN client profile configuration files are specific to the P2S VPN gateway configuration for the virtual network. If there are any changes to the P2S VPN configuration after you generate the files, such as changes to the VPN protocol type or authentication type, you need to generate new VPN client profile configuration files and apply the new configuration to all of the VPN clients that you want to connect.

Unzip the file to view the folders. When you configure macOS native clients, you use the files in the Generic folder. The Generic folder is present if IKEv2 was configured on the gateway. If you don't see the Generic folder, check the following items, then generate the zip file again.

  • Check the tunnel type for your configuration. It's likely that IKEv2 wasn't selected as a tunnel type.
  • Verify that the gateway isn't configured with the Basic SKU. The VPN Gateway Basic SKU doesn't support IKEv2. You'll have to rebuild the gateway with the appropriate SKU and tunnel type if you want macOS clients to connect.

The Generic folder contains the following files.

  • VpnSettings.xml, which contains important settings like server address and tunnel type.
  • VpnServerRoot.cer, which contains the root certificate required to validate the Azure VPN gateway during P2S connection setup.

Install certificates

You'll need both the root certificate and the child certificate installed on your Mac. The child certificate must be exported with the private key and must contain all certificates in the certification path.

Root certificate

  1. Copy the root certificate file (the .cer file) - to your Mac. Double-click the certificate. Depending on your operating system, the certificate will either automatically install, or you'll see the Add Certificates page.
  2. If you see the Add Certificates page, for Keychain: click the arrows and select login from the dropdown.
  3. Click Add to import the file.

Client certificate

The client certificate (.pfx file) is used for authentication and is required. Typically, you can just click the client certificate to install. For more information about how to install a client certificate, see Install a client certificate.

Verify certificates are installed

Verify that both the client and the root certificate are installed.

  1. Open Keychain Access.
  2. Go to the Certificates tab.
  3. Verify that both the client and the root certificate are installed.

Configure VPN client profile

Use the steps in the Mac User Guide that are appropriate for your operating system version to add a VPN client profile configuration with the following settings.

  • Select IKEv2 as the VPN type.

  • For Display Name, select a friendly name for the profile.

  • For both Server Address and Remote ID, use the value from the VpnServer tag in the VpnSettings.xml file.

    Screenshot to click Select.

  • For Authentication settings, select Certificate.

  • For the Certificate, choose the child certificate you want to use for authentication. If you have multiple certificates, you can select Show Certificate to see more information about each certificate.

  • For Local ID, type the name of the child certificate that you selected.

Once you finished configuring the VPN client profile, save the profile.

Connect

The steps to connect are specific to the macOS operating system version. Refer to the Mac User Guide. Select the operating system version that you're using and follow the steps to connect.

Once the connection has been established, the status shows as Connected. The IP address is allocated from the VPN client address pool.

Next steps

Follow up with any additional server or connection settings. See Point-to-site configuration steps.