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JosephGooderham's avatar
JosephGooderham
Copper Contributor
Jun 01, 2022

IKEv2 and Windows 10/11 drops connectivity but stays connected in Windows

I’ve seen this with 2 different customers using IKEv2 User VPNs (virtual wan) and Point to Site gateways in hub and spoke whereby using the VPN in a Always On configuration (device and user tunnel) that after a specific amount of time (56 minutes) the IKEv2 connection will drop the tunnel but stay connected in Windows.  To restore the connection,  you just reconnect.

 

has anyone else had a similar experience? I’ve seen the issue with ExpressRoute and with/without Azure firewalls in the topology too. 

virtual network
virtual wan

1 Reply

  • Kidd_Ip's avatar
    Kidd_Ip
    MVP
    Oct 25, 2025

    May consider below workarounds and fixes:

     

    1. Configure Custom IPsec/IKE Policies

    • Set longer lifetimes and enable rekeying:
    {
  "ikeEncryption": "AES256",
  "ikeIntegrity": "SHA256",
  "dhGroup": "DHGroup14",
  "pfsGroup": "PFS2",
  "ipsecEncryption": "AES256",
  "ipsecIntegrity": "SHA256",
  "saLifetimeSeconds": 28800,
  "saDataSizeKilobytes": 102400000
}

    2. Use Azure VPN Client Instead of Built-in Windows Client

    • The Azure VPN Client handles tunnel drops and rekeying more reliably.

    3. Enable VPN Reconnect in Windows

    • Use PowerShell or Group Policy to enable VPN Reconnect feature:
    Set-VpnConnection -Name "YourVPN" -ReconnectEnabled $true

    4. Monitor with Azure Network Watcher

    • Use Connection Monitor to detect tunnel drops and automate alerts or reconnection scripts.

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