I am receiving an error the first time I am starting the direct access management on a server 2012 r2
direct access configuration load error element not found

Try to reload the configuration

There is no configuration - I just installed it...

Ideas anyone?

I see the following at config.:

Updating DirectAccess NRPT settings

Retrieving server GPO details...

Opening the server GPO...

Opening the client GPOs...

Checking for edit permissions on the client GPOs...

Checking for edit permissions on the server GPOs...

Error: Element not found.

Finishing operations after applying configuration

Information: Attempting to roll back the configuration...

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Element not found?

Have you configured the role after installation?

It is done in routing and remote access - right click on the server and choose to configure direct access.

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Yes it is when I try to configure that I receive this error:

Updating DirectAccess NRPT settings

Retrieving server GPO details...

Opening the server GPO...

Opening the client GPOs...

Checking for edit permissions on the client GPOs...

Checking for edit permissions on the server GPOs...

Error: Element not found.

Finishing operations after applying configuration

Information: Attempting to roll back the configuration...

This is a single NIC install behind a NAT on the corporate LAN

VPN is already configured with SSL VPN and - unusually - the LAN domain name is the same as the external certificate domain name

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Don't worry about the domain thing - disable the VPN component and when you configure routing and remote access again afterward, stick to direct access.

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Just to explain, the ‘element not found’ is the domain certificate authority which needs to be specified if you plan to use direct access with Windows 7. This is a far more complicated option and needs some configuration to explain which domain cert authority to use. If you just leave every option as default in the direct access quick config. Wizard, you will be able to run direct access with Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 as long as they are education or enterprise edition. Direct access is not a component on Windows Pro.

Use the self signed cert as suggested too and use a public facing domain that differs from your internal network DNS domain.

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