FortiClient "unsync" status between console and icon on OS X High Sierra

[samtan]

Hi All,

I am having an unusual problem affecting Mac OS X users.

When a user connects to SSL VPN, some of the users will report the VPN does not sync, e.g. if connected using the VPN console, it will show connected but the FortiClient icon will show otherwise (refer to images). Another symptom is the connection duration will stuck and never increments.

What happens thereafter, should the user disconnect the VPN and connects again, the VPN will stuck at "connecting"

I infer it may be due to the OS X is unable to determine if the VPN is disconnected or still connecting.

The workaround we employed is by having the user to re-install Fortigate when a VPN is required, but this is getting out of hand as our most affected user are road warriors.

All our Mac OS X is running 10.13.4 High Sierra

Affecting both MacBook Air (Early 2015) and MacBook Pro (Early 2015)

Any ideas are greatly welcomed.

[emret]

Hi,

I have the same issue with the same OS.

When i first boot my macbook pro Forticlient connects to VPN successfully.

But if i disconnect and try to connect again, it stucks and couldn't connect to VPN as described above.

When i reboot the comp. and try it connects again.

So, it works only once when the comp. is up.

Need to reboot comp. every VPN reconnection.

Please help.

Regards.

Emre

[samtan]

Hi Emre,

Thanks for your post,

I guess that's the workaround for now,

I have advised my users to do that everytime before they connect to the VPN.

Perhaps we can try again when a new version of FortiClient is published.

Have a good day 

Best Regards,

Sam Tan

[dennis2712 · Accepted solution]

You can go into Activity Monitor and force kill the VPN connector process (fctctld), and then you should be able to VPN again after disconnecting. 

It seems this process hangs after disconnecting and prevents you from connecting again.

[emret]

dennis2712 wrote:

You can go into Activity Monitor and force kill the VPN connector process (fctctld), and then you should be able to VPN again after disconnecting. 

It seems this process hangs after disconnecting and prevents you from connecting again.

Works for me, this workaround is easier to apply.

Thanks :)

[samtan]

dennis2712 wrote:

You can go into Activity Monitor and force kill the VPN connector process (fctctld), and then you should be able to VPN again after disconnecting. 

It seems this process hangs after disconnecting and prevents you from connecting again.

Works for me too, thanks for your time and research on this Dennis!

Also it seems the issue is not occurring on the FortiClient running on latest version 6.0.1

I haven't test this on others yet but my gut feeling says it will work on others.

Cheers.