Upgrade Microsoft Tunnel for Microsoft Intune

Microsoft Tunnel, a VPN gateway solution for Microsoft Intune, periodically receives software upgrades, which must install on the tunnel servers to keep them in support. To stay in support, servers must run the most recent release, or at most be one version behind. The information in this article explains:

  • The upgrade process
  • Upgrade controls
  • Status reports you can use to understand the software version of tunnel servers
  • When upgrades are available
  • How to control when upgrades happen.

Intune handles the upgrade of servers assigned to each tunnel site for you. When upgrades for site begin, all servers in the site upgrade one at a time, which is referred to as an upgrade cycle. While a server is upgrading, the Microsoft Tunnel on the server isn't available for use. Upgrading a single server at a time helps minimize disruptions to users when the site includes multiple servers.

During an upgrade cycle:

  • Intune begins by upgrading one server in the site. The upgrade can start as soon as 10 minutes after the release becomes available.
  • If a server was off, upgrade begins after the server turns on.
  • After a successful upgrade of one server at a site, Intune waits a short time before it starts the upgrade of the next server.

Use upgrade controls

To help control when Intune begins the upgrade cycle, configure the following settings at each site. You can configure the settings when creating a new site, or by editing the properties of an existing site:

  • Automatically upgrade servers at this site
  • Limit server upgrades to maintenance window

Automatically upgrade servers at this site

This setting determines if an upgrade cycle for the site can begin automatically, or if an admin must explicitly approve the upgrade before the cycle can begin.

  • Yes (default) – When set to Yes, the site automatically upgrade servers as soon as possible after a new tunnel version becomes available. Upgrades begin without admin intervention.

    If you set a maintenance window for the site, the upgrade cycle begins between the windows start and end time. When no maintenance window is set, the upgrade cycle starts as soon as possible.

  • No – When set to No, Intune doesn't upgrade servers until an admin explicitly chooses to begin the upgrade cycle.

    After upgrade is approved for a site with a maintenance window, the upgrade cycle begins between the windows start and end time. If there's no maintenance window, the upgrade cycle starts as soon as possible.

    Important

    When you configure site for manual upgrades, periodically review the Health check tab to understand when newer versions of Microsoft Tunnel are available to install. The report also identifies when the current tunnel version at the site is out of support.

Limit server upgrades to maintenance window

Use this setting to define a maintenance window for the site.

When configured for site, the server upgrade cycle can begin only during the configured period. However, once begun, the cycle continues to update servers one-by-one until all servers assigned to the site complete the upgrade.

  • No (default) – No maintenance window is set. Sites that are configured to upgrade automatically do so as soon as possible. Sites configured to require explicit action to start the upgrade will do so as soon as possible after the upgrade is approved.

  • Yes – Set a maintenance window. The window limits when a server upgrade cycle can begin at the site. The maintenance window doesn’t define when individual servers assigned to the site might start to upgrade.

    Sites that are configured to upgrade automatically start the upgrade cycle only during the configured period. Sites configured to require the admin to approve the upgrade before beginning, will do during the next maintenance window after the upgrade is approved.

    When set to Yes, configure the following options:

    • Time zone – The time zone you select determines when the maintenance window starts and ends on all servers in the site. The time zone of individual servers isn't used.
    • Start time – Specify the earliest time that the upgrade cycle can start, based on the time zone you selected.
    • End time - Specify the latest time that upgrade cycle can start, based on the time zone you selected. Upgrade cycles that start before this time will continue to run and can complete after this time.

View tunnel server status

You can view information about the status of Microsoft Tunnel servers, including the version of Microsoft Tunnel on a server.

For sites that don't support automatic upgrade, you can also view when upgrades to a new version are available.

Sign in to Microsoft Intune admin center > Tenant administration > Microsoft Tunnel Gateway > Health status. Select a server and then open the Health check tab to view the following information about it:

  • Server version - The status of the Tunnel Gateway Server software, in the context of the most recent version available.

    • Healthy - Up to date with the most recent software version.
    • Warning - One version behind.
    • Unhealthy - Two or more versions behind, and out of support.

When a server doesn’t run the most recent software version, plan to install an available upgrade to keep the Microsoft Tunnel in support.

Approve upgrades

Sites that have the setting Automatically upgrade servers at this site set to No don't automatically upgrade servers. Instead, an admin must approve upgrades for servers at that site before the upgrade cycle starts.

To understand when an upgrade is available for servers, use the Health check tab to review server status.

To approve an upgrade

  1. Sign in to Microsoft Intune admin center > Tenant administration > Microsoft Tunnel Gateway > Sites.

  2. Select the site with an Upgrade type of Manual.

  3. On the site’s properties, select Upgrade servers.

After you choose to upgrade servers, Intune starts the process to do so, which can't be canceled. The time that upgrades begin at the site depends on the configuration of maintenance windows for the site.

Microsoft Tunnel update history

Updates for the Microsoft Tunnel release periodically. When a new version is available, read about the changes here.

After an update releases, it rolls out to tenants over the following days. This rollout time means new updates might not be available for your tunnel servers for a few days.

The Microsoft Tunnel version for a server isn’t available in the Intune UI at this time. Instead, run the following command on the Linux server that hosts the tunnel to identify the hash values of agentImageDigest and serverImageDiegest: cat /etc/mstunnel/images_configured

Important

Container releases take place in stages. If you notice that your container images are not the most recent, please be assured that they will be updated and delivered within the following week.

December 2, 2024

Image hash values:

  • agentImageDigest: sha256:bf93470b1a4b74b5d4aa8144c09f05fa59a9647d1aeefcdffef29697a172aa6a

  • serverImageDigest: sha256:9886240ee473583753daf10929921f7c7c54bbf6f68095395aa2089688090fb3

Changes in this release: -Diagnostic tool improvements -Bug fixes for rootless container mode in mst-cli -Localization improvements in mstunnel-setup

October 2, 2024

Image hash values:

  • agentImageDigest: sha256:7921c2e97217fa17de4ab69396d943e4975d323417b8b813211e2f8b639f64e1

  • serverImageDigest: sha256:0efab5013351bcd81f186973e75ed5d9f91bbe6271e3be481721500f946fc9ec

Changes in this release: -Upgrade from .NET 6 to .NET 8

  • Upgrade ocserv to version 1.3.0
  • Fix rootless container bug in installer

September 12, 2024

Image hash values:

  • agentImageDigest: sha256:17158c73750ff2c7157e979c2f4ff4e175318730c16aa8d0ee6526a969c37c59

  • serverImageDigest: sha256:6484d311d1bd6cbe55d71306595715bafa6a20a000be6fd6f9e530716cef6c16

Changes in this release:

  • Add diagnostic tools for host troubleshooting
  • Upgrade Azure Linux image to 2.0.20240829

August 12, 2024

Image hash values:

  • agentImageDigest: sha256:4d16b1f458c69c3423626906b0b577cb42c8d22f4240205299355c6217e08a6b

  • serverImageDigest: sha256:66559e142d489491ca8f090b50f4a444a3394f850a5ec09fb9f3e6f986d93c46

Changes in this release:

  • Support customizing container registry during installation
  • Support customizing container creation options during installation
  • Security updates on the base image

June 20, 2024

Image hash values:

  • agentImageDigest: sha256:2c700282bbb525ca42c4da0827a62bee6e8079b36572cf777db72810dac3a788

  • serverImageDigest: sha256:5ba3c960be6b9da4569a019fcd57509c25a89106fc689fbf4fe38f0bdb98fbdd

Changes in this release:

  • AL base image - Use Azure Linux as the base image for the Tunnel containers
  • Improvement on cert revocation check

May 16, 2024

Image hash values:

  • agentImageDigest: sha256:50b62c1d7f81e2941fc73a09856583ea752fe821e9fef448114fe7e00f90f25a

  • serverImageDigest: sha256:f6249bc16f90abc9e6fb278c74e07b1c3e295cc0614d38ae20036cee50ff5c56

Changes in this release:

  • Hardened containers by reducing the container capabilities to minimum
  • Security updates on the base image

Next steps

Reference for Microsoft Tunnel