iOS 8 - Two Issues

iPhrankie

Two issues we've encountered -

1. DNS does not seem to be resolving. We can get to internal resources via IP. However, company.local does not work. A couple of users inadvertently upgraded to iOS 8 and now cannot get e-mail or anything else via VPN. The interesting part is that VPN-On-Demand initiates automatically even though you can't access anything. DNS is pushed according to the log in the OpenVPN app.

2. VPN does not connect from the main Settings screen. This is interesting because this was listed as fixed on the recent update for iOS 8. You can connect VPN from Settings > General > VPN. Another user posted this problem as well. It's also interesting that you cannot initiate VPN from the OpenVPN app. The toggle is basically disabled.

https://forums.openvpn.net/topic17062.html

We're avoiding iOS 8 for now.

Rider

I didn't have any DNS problems after upgrading to iOS8.

But as others have mentioned too, OpenVPN regularly disconnects every 5-10 minutes and does not reconnect.

This makes it unusable at the moment under 8.0

jamesyonan

Re: "OpenVPN regularly disconnects every 5-10 minutes", is there any message in the log file about the cause of the disconnection?

Is this on WiFi, Cellular, or both?

James

Rider

James, I tried to figure out the reasons for the disconnects, without much success. Now I'm back to iOS 7.1.2 for this bug. I blame ios8 to be the culprit.

Some observations though:

Ipad2 on wifi router with ADSL.
Disconnects happen NOT because the ipad goes to sleep. Actually, a sleeping ipad would reconnect, but only if it was connected before the sleep.

The disconnects happen during normal use, like browsing with Safari. Then it would not reconnect, but I can reconnect manually with the client.

I even tried the old client 1.0.4 and same result. I believe it is not the client's fault.

Back to ios7, everythings works perfect again, no disconnects and automatic reconnects after sleep.

PS: I have my own private VPS, running the OpenVPN access server under Ubuntu Linux.

jamesyonan

Back to ios7, everythings works perfect again

Is this running 1.0.5 or 1.0.4 on iOS 7?

James

fSeka

Hi,

@jamesyonan, what do you think about the other problem (VPN does not connect from the main Settings screen)?

Is it a known problem?

Many thanks in advance and kind regards,

fSeka

Rider

jamesyonan wrote
Back to ios7, everythings works perfect again
Is this running 1.0.5 or 1.0.4 on iOS 7?

James

I use 1.0.5 with ios 7.1.2 with no problems.

jamesyonan

@jamesyonan, what do you think about the other problem (VPN does not connect from the main Settings screen)?

Is it a known problem?

Not to my knowledge. On iOS 8 with 1.0.5, any OpenVPN autologin profile should be able to connect from the Settings menu.

James

fSeka

Ok,

but on my iPhone (5S iOS 8.0 OpenVPN 1.0.5), it works via "settings -> general -> VPN" but not via "settings and the VPN toggle button" 🙁
I receive a message that is telling me to use the application for that.

Thanks

fSeka

it2

iPhrankie wroteTwo issues we've encountered -

1. DNS does not seem to be resolving. We can get to internal resources via IP. However, company.local does not work. A couple of users inadvertently upgraded to iOS 8 and now cannot get e-mail or anything else via VPN. The interesting part is that VPN-On-Demand initiates automatically even though you can't access anything. DNS is pushed according to the log in the OpenVPN app.

2. VPN does not connect from the main Settings screen. This is interesting because this was listed as fixed on the recent update for iOS 8. You can connect VPN from Settings > General > VPN. Another user posted this problem as well. It's also interesting that you cannot initiate VPN from the OpenVPN app. The toggle is basically disabled.

https://forums.openvpn.net/topic17062.html

We're avoiding iOS 8 for now.

Confirming the problem #1. On iOS 8 dns is pushing but not resolving anything.
I tested the same configuration with ios 7.1.2 and everything works!
Please fix it, it's really important!
Thank you guys 🙂

it2

Internal Dns really not working on ios8, nothing resolving.
On ios7 everything alright!

iPhrankie

Thanks for others confirming the DNS problem. It's important so we can get the problem noticed and hopefully fixed.

There is note in the upcoming 8.0.1 release about fixing "Installing VPN Profiles". Not sure if this is just a vague note or hopefully it will fix the DNS issue.

iPhrankie

Anyone have a chance to test iOS 8.0.2?

jamesyonan

We've been able to confirm the disconnect issue on iOS 8.0 and 8.0.2, and we've informed Apple about it.

James

iPhrankie

How about the reported DNS issue? Has this been tested and reported to Apple?

iPhrankie

Confirmed 8.0.1 and 8.0.2 have not resolved DNS issues.

There is also a thread on discussions.apple.com confirming the issue. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6555023

Has anyone on the OpenDNS team done any testing? Does search domain settings help? What solution is being offered to paying OpenVPN customers?

Has it been reported to Apple? If not, it would probably be helpful to have approved apps report this issue to Apple to escalate the problem.

It's concerning that OpenVPN, which is used by companies and individuals, is not being more communicative about iOS 8. Based on the traffic of this forum, the community and support for OpenVPN is dwindling. It might be time to look for a more active and supported VPN platform?

mahdif62

The disconnect issue is very frustrating. Since upgrading to iOS 8 Openvpn disconnects after a few seconds/minutes or when I open Safari.

It seems to problem with iOS itself, as other vpn clients, including Cisco Anyconnect have the same issue.

jamesyonan

How about the reported DNS issue? Has this been tested and reported to Apple?

We haven't been able to reproduce this particular issue in-house, though we have informed Apple about this thread.

iPhrankie

jamesyonan wroteWe haven't been able to reproduce this particular issue in-house, though we have informed Apple about this thread.

Thank you.

jamesyonan

Re: the DNS issue, I did get some more info from Apple about this. There is a known DNS issue with iOS 8 that can result in failure to reach .local domains.

Someone on the Apple dev forums suggested:

I'm now using a 3rd party VPN (OpenVPN) and if I set the dhcp-options DNS and DOMAIN in the VPN Server Configuration, the search domain will be set and used and I can access all hosts in my .local domain 🙂 [it works for me under iOS 8 and OS X 10.10]

If you are importing your OpenVPN profiles using .mobileconfig files, a workaround is suggested:

<key>DNS</key>
<dict>
<key>SearchDomains</key>
<array>
<string>sbmelab.local</string>
<string>sbmelab.com</string>
</array>
</dict>

James