How to remotely configure Sophos VPN for iOS/iPadOS devices?

Description

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) ensures only authorized users can access confidential corporate data, from any public network by transmitting all device-web communication on a secure channel. VPN also boosts productivity as it ensures employees can work from anywhere, without worrying about lack of access to specific resource/data. With remote work being adopted extensively, it has become mandatory for IT admins to configure VPN on mobile devices. Configuring VPN can be easily and efficiently done using MDM.

Steps

Follow the steps given below, to configure VPN plug-ins:

  • On the MDM console, click on Device Mgmt tab and select Profiles.
  • Choose iOS/iPadOS and click Continue.
  • Select the VPN tab and fill the requisite parameters as explained below:

Policy Description

PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Connection type

Select OpenVPN as the connection type.

Connection name

Provide a name for the VPN connection to be configured

Account Specify the account that needs access to this VPN. Type %username% to get the appropriate user name, mapped to the device
Custom Data Upload the .opvn file downloaded from your VPN vendor
User authentication Specify the authentication type as Password or Certificate or Both
Password (If Password is selected for authentication) Specify the password to be used for user authentication
Identity Certificate (If Certificate is selected for authentication) Specify the identity certificate to be used for certificate-based authentication. You can also use SCEP for this.
Enable On-Demand VPN Enabling On-Demand VPN ensures that a device not present in the corporate network, will be automatically connected to VPN whenever the specified list of server/domains are accessed. If you specify multiple domain names, they should be comma separated.
Proxy  Configure the proxy settings to be used for this VPN connection

For more information, refer here