DevNet Sandbox, Connectivity Issues and VPN

[anilraj_003]

Hey expert,

I am facing to access vpn after sandbox launch env.

There are cert exchange issue

[bigevilbeard]

@anilraj_003 i saw an issue such as this before when a person was using openconnect, is this what you are using?

[anilraj_003]

Hi there,

I read your recent post related to such behavior, and while my issue is somewhat similar, there are some differences. I initially tried OpenConnect but later switched to AnyConnect. The first attempt with OpenConnect was successful, but subsequent connections failed. I then tried using AnyConnect and encountered the error below. I decided to terminate the current environment and currently new env and it's under build phase now. 

Is there a resource constraint at the VPN server level? The VPN session was very slow when it connected, and once it disconnected, I was unable to reconnect until I created a new environment. I am a bit surprised by the type of sandbox being offered; it does not seem seamless.

11/7/2024
12:24:26 PM Ready to connect.
3:06:58 PM Contacting devnetsandbox-usw1-reservation.cisco.com:20355.
3:07:24 PM User credentials entered.
3:07:25 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:07:25 PM The AnyConnect Downloader is performing update checks...
3:07:25 PM Checking for profile updates...
3:07:25 PM Checking for product updates...
3:07:25 PM Checking for customization updates...
3:07:25 PM Performing any required updates...
3:07:25 PM The AnyConnect Downloader updates have been completed.
3:07:25 PM Establishing VPN - Initiating connection...
3:07:25 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:07:27 PM Connection attempt has failed.
3:07:28 PM VPN session ended.
3:07:28 PM Ready to connect.
3:09:54 PM Contacting devnetsandbox-usw1-reservation.cisco.com:20355.
3:10:05 PM User credentials entered.
3:10:06 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:10:06 PM The AnyConnect Downloader is performing update checks...
3:10:06 PM Checking for profile updates...
3:10:06 PM Checking for product updates...
3:10:06 PM Establishing VPN - Initiating connection...
3:10:06 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:10:08 PM Connection attempt has failed.
3:10:08 PM VPN session ended.
3:10:08 PM Ready to connect.
3:10:16 PM Contacting devnetsandbox-usw1-reservation.cisco.com:20355.
3:10:41 PM User credentials entered.
3:10:41 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:10:41 PM The AnyConnect Downloader is performing update checks...
3:10:41 PM Checking for profile updates...
3:10:41 PM Checking for product updates...
3:10:41 PM Establishing VPN - Initiating connection...
3:10:42 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:10:43 PM Connection attempt has failed.
3:10:44 PM VPN session ended.
3:10:44 PM Ready to connect.
3:10:48 PM Contacting devnetsandbox-usw1-reservation.cisco.com:20355.
3:11:03 PM User credentials entered.
3:11:04 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:11:04 PM The AnyConnect Downloader is performing update checks...
3:11:04 PM Checking for profile updates...
3:11:04 PM Checking for product updates...
3:11:04 PM Establishing VPN - Initiating connection...
3:11:04 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:11:06 PM Connection attempt has failed.
3:11:06 PM VPN session ended.
3:11:06 PM Ready to connect.
3:13:08 PM Contacting test.cisco.com.
3:13:34 PM Connection attempt has failed.
3:13:34 PM Unable to contact test.cisco.com.
3:13:49 PM Contacting devnetsandbox-usw1-reservation.cisco.com:20355.
3:14:03 PM User credentials entered.
3:14:13 PM User credentials entered.
3:14:14 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:14:14 PM The AnyConnect Downloader is performing update checks...
3:14:14 PM Checking for profile updates...
3:14:14 PM Checking for product updates...
3:14:14 PM Establishing VPN - Initiating connection...
3:14:14 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:14:16 PM Connection attempt has failed.
3:14:16 PM VPN session ended.
3:14:17 PM Ready to connect.
3:14:25 PM Contacting devnetsandbox-usw1-reservation.cisco.com:20355.
3:14:36 PM User credentials entered.
3:14:37 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:14:37 PM The AnyConnect Downloader is performing update checks...
3:14:37 PM Checking for profile updates...
3:14:37 PM Checking for product updates...
3:14:37 PM Establishing VPN - Initiating connection...
3:14:37 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:14:39 PM Connection attempt has failed.
3:14:40 PM VPN session ended.
3:14:40 PM Ready to connect.
3:15:16 PM Contacting devnetsandbox-usw1-reservation.cisco.com:20355.
3:15:30 PM User credentials entered.
3:15:31 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:15:31 PM The AnyConnect Downloader is performing update checks...
3:15:31 PM Checking for profile updates...
3:15:31 PM Checking for product updates...
3:15:31 PM Establishing VPN - Initiating connection...
3:15:31 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:15:33 PM Connection attempt has failed.
3:15:34 PM VPN session ended.
3:15:34 PM Ready to connect.
3:16:29 PM Contacting devnetsandbox-usw1-reservation.cisco.com:20355.
3:16:40 PM User credentials entered.
3:16:41 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:16:41 PM The AnyConnect Downloader is performing update checks...
3:16:41 PM Checking for profile updates...
3:16:41 PM Checking for product updates...
3:16:41 PM Establishing VPN - Initiating connection...
3:16:41 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:16:43 PM Connection attempt has failed.
3:16:43 PM VPN session ended.
3:16:43 PM Ready to connect.
3:18:24 PM Contacting devnetsandbox-usw1-reservation.cisco.com:20355.
3:18:34 PM User credentials entered.
3:18:35 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:18:35 PM The AnyConnect Downloader is performing update checks...
3:18:35 PM Checking for profile updates...
3:18:35 PM Checking for product updates...
3:18:35 PM Establishing VPN - Initiating connection...
3:18:35 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:18:37 PM Connection attempt has failed.
3:18:38 PM VPN session ended.
3:18:38 PM Ready to connect.
3:19:42 PM Contacting devnetsandbox-usw1-reservation.cisco.com:20355.
3:19:53 PM User credentials entered.
3:19:53 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:19:54 PM The AnyConnect Downloader is performing update checks...
3:19:54 PM Checking for profile updates...
3:19:54 PM Checking for product updates...
3:19:54 PM Establishing VPN - Initiating connection...
3:19:54 PM Establishing VPN session...
3:19:56 PM Connection attempt has failed.
3:19:56 PM VPN session ended.
3:19:56 PM Ready to connect.

[bigevilbeard]

@anilraj_003 there was post from the Cisco team advising of an issue with reservations and the sandbox, not sure if this overflow or something from this. The VPN slowness can be caused by a number of things, if this was an issue with the sandbox side, i would expect to see more comments. When you say slow, what was slow - something loading in the sandbox like a UI? Which sandbox are you trying to use? 

In regards to the 'seemless', sandbox, the sandbox has its quirks and some issues happen, such as outages etc.. But this is a free services used by hundreds of users and issue will happen.

Hope this helps.

[anilraj_003]

@bigevilbeardfirst, thanks for the briefing. I didn't see any posts mentioning an ongoing issue with Sandbox reservations. If you have such a notification, could you please share it with me?

Regarding the slowness, when I reserved Identity Services Engine 3.2-20241107T11201619, I was able to connect to the VPN for only 30 minutes. During this period, I found that the ISE GUI performed very slowly, with noticeable delays after each menu click.

By "seamless," I mean that if I reserve the service for four days, I expect to have at least 2-4 hours of uninterrupted access daily. I completely agree with you that it's a free service, but it should still be reliably available for learners. However, I can overlook the issues of slowness and seamlessness. My main goal is to connect to the VPN, access the ISE node, and practice.

[bigevilbeard]

@anilraj_003 the notice the team put up was yesterday https://community.cisco.com/t5/devnet-sandbox/sandbox-currently-in-maintenance-6nov24/td-p/5220823/jump-to/first-unread-message 

Its interesting your VPN kicked you off, without capturing both ends of the connection, finding out the reason for this will always go unknown. I have only had this happen to me a couple of time in the six years i used the sandbox, but this was my home ISP dropping out and a power cut at my local exchange. Your situation/issue with the drop out is very strange, normally this is solid.

I dont know the ISE sandbox that well, its not an area i jump into so i am unsure again if this lag you saw was lets say 'normal', this sandbox and it could have been a resource issue at the other side, meaning the platform the sandbox lives on, running hot, which caused a slowness, in my time here again i have not seen, heard this about this sandbox having this issue. Some always on sandbox like the APIC one is slow to load for sure somedays. But i would suspect a end resource issue here.

At this stage only the Cisco team can advise if the end side or the ISE sandbox is struggling CPU/MEM side or there was a wider issue on the headend of the VPN.

Be interesting to see if you experience this another time. Happy to test from this location, see what happens.

[anilraj_003 · Accepted solution]

@bigevilbeardAgain! I am a bit surprised here. When we ran Cisco AnyConnect VPN in a hosted Ubuntu environment on our Windows workstation, it was working fine but still slow. It seems that I need to verify what policy, firewall, or other settings might be blocking on my Windows workstation. We can close the conversation, as I figured out it's a local issue. However, the slowness is on the server side, which is acceptable since the environment is public.

Thanks for your input and support.

Have a good day and happy weekend. 

Slowness snip:

Snip of Anyconnect VPN in Ubuntu: it's connected.