How to automate VPN connection on Windows 10 - powershell

Question

I'm going to be traveling for the next month, and I'd like to automate the VPN connection process so that on X event, the script fires and automatically connects me. I've already configured the [L2TP/IPSec] VPN connection in ms-settings:network-vpn & verified it works, but it's automation step that's proving problematic.
Windows GUI: The credentials have been saved.
PowerShell: The RememberCredential property is set to True
VBScript: Curiously, the VPN connection is hidden:
Dim oShell : Set oShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Dim NetConn : Set NetConn = oShell.Namespace(49)
Dim Connections : Set Connections = NetConn.Items
wscript.echo "Connection Count [" & Connections.Count & "]"
For i = 0 to Connections.Count - 1
wscript.echo "Connections.Item(" & i & ").Name: [" & Connections.Item(i).Name & "]"
next
rasdial <entry>: Expectedly returns error 691.
rasphone -d <entry>: Displays the Connection dialog whereas I'd prefer it to just connect automatically and hidden.
Is this even possible in Windows 10? Or am I just overlooking some small yet key detail?

Answer 1

I ended up leveraging Add-VpnConnectionTriggerApplication to trigger an automatic connection of the VPN on the launch of specific executables/UWP applications. The downside is that when doing this, PoSh warns that SplitTunneling must be enabled which is less than ideal.
However after playing around with it for a while (just 2 or so hours now) to ensure the VPN keys off specific executables/UWP's, I ended up disabling SplitTunneling and, paradoxically, it appears to continue working as I would hope/expect. I rebooted a few times, logged on and sure enough by the time the desktop loaded the VPN had been established.
I need to do more testing to confirm, but this is sufficient to help save me from myself.

Answer 2

I do this by checking the Remember my sign-in info checkbox when I created the VPN connection.
You can check this in your PowerShell script by ensuring that Get-VpnConnection returns RememberCredential : True.
If this is the case, then rasdial should automatically connect it.
I do it with this:
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Ensures vpn connection (assumed to have saved credentials) is connected.
#>
function Connect-Vpn
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[object]
$Settings
)
$rr1 = Get-VpnConnection -Verbose:$false | where {$_.ServerAddress -imatch $Settings.VpnConnectionPattern -and $_.RememberCredential} | Select -First 1
if ($rr1.ConnectionStatus -ne 'Connected')
{
rasdial.exe $rr1.Name
If (-not $LASTEXITCODE)
{
throw "Cannot connect to '$($rr1.Name)'."
}
}
else
{
Write-Verbose "Already connected to '$($rr1.Name)'."
}
}
You will have to massage this code to your needs as this uses some fields from my settings file...