I am happy to announce the public release of VIA 2.0.0 for MacOS, which is now available on the support website. Unlike VIA 1.0 for MacOS, which was simply a wrapper around the MacOS built-in VPN client, VIA 2.0 is 100% Aruba code that shares common features with VIA on other operating systems. In the past, customers have needed to use different AAA profiles and open different ports through firewalls to allow Mac clients to connect. This is no longer necessary – VIA 2.0 for MacOS will operate just as VIA for Windows/iOS/Android does.
We are still incorporating feedback from beta customers (mostly look and feel related), but we’re now at a point where we feel the product can go out for release. As usual with a brand new “dot-zero release” product, we advise customers to do a bit more extensive testing in their own environment before doing a mass rollout.
I want to address one particular issue up front – and that is that VIA requires the user’s password to be typed in each time VIA is started. This requirement is being enforced by Apple as a condition for signing VIA’s VPN plug-in – they would not allow us to ship the product without that requirement being met. We are not happy with the usability results and have raised this issue with Apple. They have agreed to re-evaluate; however we did not want to keep customers waiting until the issue is resolved. Hopefully we can remove that requirement in a future release.
If you are a Mac user, I hope this product meets your needs. If you have any comments, questions, or feedback, please feel free to post on this thread.