AOVPN: How to use Task Scheduler to Deploy the VPN_Profile.ps1 Script
If you want to know how I used task scheduler to run the AOVPN VPN_Profile.ps1 script then read this post.
I am in the middle of a migration project from Direct Access to Microsoft Always on VPN and so far it’s going really well. Both VPN solutions are running side-by-side until I complete the user migration.
In my early days of testing though, I was working from home and wanted to test all of the tweaks and fine-tune adjustments to my VPN_Profile.ps1 script without having to deploy from Configuration Manager each time. (Some of the tweaks I was testing included adding routing, configuring NPS failover and certificate filtering and these will become blog posts in their own right soon.)
Non-Admin account? No Problem.
My test user account did not have any local or domain administrator privileges and I needed a method of quickly redeploying the tweaked VPN_Profile in order to test the new configuration.
I did this through a scheduled task - it’s easy enough to do and this is how I achieved it:
Step 1: Generate the VPN_Profile.ps1 Script
Follow the methods in the Microsoft documentation to generate your VPN_Profile.ps1 script.
Step 2: Obtain the SID for Your Test User Account
Obtain the SID for your test user. To do this, in a PowerShell prompt, run the following command:
Get-ADUser fred.bloggs
Replacing fred.bloggs with the name of your test user account.
Make a note of the SID from the PowerShell output:
Step 3: Edit the VPN_Profile.ps1 Script
Open the VPN_Profile.ps1 script in the ISE of your choice.
In the first ‘Try \ Catch’ block in the script, edit the lines as shown in my screenshot below.
Essentially the following adjustments need to be made:
- Set the variable $Username to domain\Username eg Mydomain\fred.bloggs (Line 67 in my screenshot) This user name should be your non-privileged test account user.
- Comment out (by placing # in front of the line) the lines that start with $objuser and $sid (Lines 68 and 69 in my screenshot)
- Set the variable $SidValue to the SID you obtained from step 2 (Line 70 in my screenshot)
- Save the script
Step 4: Create a Scheduled Task
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Whilst logged in as your test user account, open Task Scheduler using an account with local admin rights:
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Right-Click the top node and select Create task…:
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Give your task a name, in this example it’s called AOVPN Testing and then click the Change User or Group… button:
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The Select User or Group dialog box is displayed:
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Type SYSTEM and then click the Check Names button:
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Ensure that SYSTEM becomes underlined, then click the OK button:
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Back on the General tab, ensure that you tick Run with highest privileges:
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Select the Actions tab and then click the New… button:
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Type the following in the Program/script text field:
powershell.exe -executionpolicy bypass -file c:\path\to\your\vpn_deploy.ps1
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Click the Yes button when prompted about the arguments:
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Check that you have not made any typos, then click the OK button:
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To run the task, simply right-click it in the list of tasks and choose Run:
Anytime you make a new change to the VPN_Profile.ps1 script, delete the existing VPN connection settings, launch an elevated Task Scheduler and run the scheduled task again.
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