Library VPN: Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting

Pulse Secure is a free client application used to connect to the library’s Virtual Private Network (VPN). The library VPN establishes a secure connection between your computer or mobile device and the campus network.

You will need to install and use Pulse Secure to access some UC Davis Library resources, including licensed materials, when you are off campus or on-campus but connected to a wi-fi connection other than UC Davis Eduroam (e.g., UCD Guest) or UCDH Prod on the health campus (e.g., UCDH Guest).

Once connected, you will have access to licensed library resources—those electronic materials, journal articles, library databases, streaming media services and other online tools that the library pays for on behalf of the university, but are not freely available to the public.

You need to connect to the library VPN if you are:

• Located off-campus
• On the Davis campus but connected to a wi-fi connection other than UC Davis Eduroam (e.g., UCD Guest)
• At UC Davis Health but connected to a wi-fi connection other than UCDH Prod (e.g., UCDH Guest)

If you are at UC Davis Health, the best option is to connect to UCDH Prod. 

No. Not all library resources require VPN. UC Library Search and other free resources are open to all and do not require use of the VPN.

Once connected, you will have access to licensed library resources—those electronic materials, journal articles, library databases, streaming media services and other online tools that the library pays for on behalf of the university, but are not freely available to the public.

Some vendors allow single sign-on; to access these materials, you can choose to use the Library VPN or sign into the vendor’s website using your UC Davis Kerberos (CAS) login and password instead.

To connect to the library VPN, you must first download and install the Pulse Secure client on your computer or device. You only need to install Pulse Secure once on each device you want to use to access library resources. Once installed and configured to connect to the library VPN, you will sign into Pulse Secure using your UC Davis Kerberos (CAS) username and password.

The library VPN now requires Duo when connecting with Pulse Secure. After entering your UC Davis Kerberos (CAS) username and password, a secondary prompt will appear asking for your Duo code or command.

Please use one of the following options:

• Push: Enter the word “push” and click Connect. You will receive a push notification to your Duo app that you must then approve. *This is the recommended method
• Phone: Enter the word “phone” and click Connect. Duo will call your registered phone number for authorization.
• Code: Enter your passcode from your Duo hard token or the Duo app and click Connect.

Note: For the “push” or “phone” options, if you wish to have Pulse Secure use that method every time you connect, click the “save settings” box before clicking connect.

Due to differences in computer networks at UC Davis Health, the library offers other options for accessing library-licensed resources from the UC Davis Health campus or other affiliated clinical sites.

Pulse Secure should work for the majority of faculty, staff, and students. Please refer to the Pulse Secure installation instructions for your operating system and/or mobile device. Keep in mind that once you install Pulse Secure, you will need to update it periodically, as you would with any software.

Yes, there is a Pulse Secure client for Linux users. Please note, Linux is not an officially supported operating system. Users may try this client at their own risk.

Two package types are available for the two most used methods, rpm and deb:

• RPM for RedHat/CentOS 7 or higher (64bit)
• DEB for Ubuntu 16 or higher (64bit)

An icon for Pulse Secure will be added to your applications menu. Launch the application and add a connection. Use “vpn.library.ucdavis.edu” as the URL setting. Once a connection is created, click connect and log in with your campus ID and passphrase.

For command line use, use the following to launch the VPN client:

/usr/local/pulse/PulseClient.sh -h vpn.library.ucdavis.edu -u <your kerberos id> -r Library

You will be prompted for your kerberos passphrase. More information about the client can be found at Pulse Secure’s Knowledge Base.

Once Pulse Secure is connected to the library VPN, you may use the browser of your choice to browse directly to your desired electronic resource, or you may browse databases.

Yes. You must sign into the library VPN using your UC Davis Kerberos (CAS) credentials every time you want to access licensed library resources from off campus.

On a Mac, you can find the Pulse Secure icon at the top right of your display. On Windows, you can find the client by searching for Pulse Secure in the Start menu. For easy access on Windows, we recommend pinning the Pulse Secure client to your taskbar.

You must be on campus or use the library VPN to access many journal articles. Additionally, to access the full-text of articles you must customize the “Library Links” settings within Google Scholar. See Google Scholar tutorial video.

Yes, you may open multiple windows or multiple tabs. Either method works using Pulse Secure.

Yes, once Pulse Secure is connected to the library VPN, you may use your bookmarks normally.

Mac OS X 10.15 (Catalina): “PulseSecure.pkg can’t be opened.”

The latest version of Pulse Secure will work with Catalina. You may encounter a warning when trying to install that “PulseSecure.pkg can’t be opened because Apple cannot check if for malicious software” with no option to continue the installation. This is from double-clicking on the pkg file. If you right-click or control-click on the file and choose open, the same warning dialog will appear, but it will then present an open button in that dialog box to let you proceed with installation. Click open to continue the installation.

Mac OS X 10.14 (Mojave).

The latest version of Pulse Secure will work with Mojave. You may encounter a periodic warning that Pulse Secure “is not optimized for your Mac and needs to be updated.” This is because the current version is still 32-bit, but it will run on your 64-bit Mac. Please click “ok” to dismiss the warning notice. More information about 32-bit apps on the latest macOS can be found here.

Mac OS X 10.13+ “Failed to setup virtual adapter. (Error:1205).”

Go to your System Preferences and select Security & Privacy. On the “General” tab, look towards the bottom of the window for a message indicating that Pulse Secure is being blocked. Click the “allow” button. You should now be able to log in with Pulse Secure.

Mac OS X 10.12 and lower.

Pulse Secure requires Mac OS X 10.13 or higher. We would highly recommend upgrading your Mac to at least 10.13 in order to utilize Pulse Secure. Please contact Apple support if you are unsure whether your Mac can be upgraded.

Windows 10 “Failed to setup virtual adapter. (Error:1205).”

Go to your Control Panel and open “Programs and Features”. Uninstall any listings with either “Juniper Networks” or “Pulse Secure” in the name. Reboot your computer and then download and install a new copy of the Pulse Secure client from our library VPN page.

Pulse Secure installation fails with Microsoft.VC80.CRT error.

Installation fails with message below or similar:

Please try the following:

1. Open command prompt window as admin and run the following command:
   fsutil resource setautoreset true C:\
2. Reboot system.
3. Open Services and ensure the following services are in a running state:
   • Windows Installer
   • Windows Management Instrumentation
4. Try Pulse Secure installation again.

The Server or URL setting to use with Pulse Secure for the library VPN is vpn.library.ucdavis.edu.

The library VPN uses your UC Davis Kerberos (CAS) username and password for authentication. If they are not working, then the campus service that the library VPN uses for authentication is not synced properly with your campus computing account and you will need to reset your passphrase.

Please visit UC Davis Knowledge Base for instructions on how to change your passphrase. Once reset, you should then be able to log into the library VPN.

The Library VPN only allows one session at a time per user. You will get this error if you are using Pulse Secure on a mobile device and then try to connect with your laptop or desktop computer. You must disconnect the previous session first before starting the next session on your other device.

Closing Pulse Secure without disconnecting first can also cause this error. Please ensure that you are disconnecting Pulse Secure when you are done searching for articles/journals. To ensure Pulse Secure has no lingering sessions or connections, please try completely exiting Pulse Secure and then relaunching it from your Start menu (Windows) or Applications folder (Mac), or by rebooting your computer.

Please note, any sessions will timeout after 15 minutes of idle use, or at a maximum session of four hours, so you should be able to log in at that time if this issue occurs.

Please see the options for connecting to the library VPN from UC Davis Health, including using Citrix.

Please restart your computer and try to connect Pulse Secure to the library VPN again.

Try clearing your cache/cookies before starting the VPN client.

If you are running antivirus or Internet security software on your device, it may  conflict with Pulse Secure. Temporarily disabling the software should allow Pulse Secure to install/connect/work without issue. 

The library VPN is intended for access to electronic library resources only. Per UC Davis Cyber Safety policies, service ports on the library VPN have been restricted to web browsing and email only (access to campus services and networks remains unrestricted). Other Internet applications to external services, such as FTP or SSH, will not function until the library VPN is disconnected.

We recommend connecting to the library VPN when needing to access electronic library resources and then disconnect once your search is completed to limit disruption of your other Internet applications.

Some campus units have switched to using IPv6 for their network access. Please be aware that licensed resource vendors do not currently recognize UC Davis IPv6 networks for allowing access to electronic resources. 

If you are on an IPv6 network and cannot access an electronic resource, please try using the library VPN, until such time that the vendors can be notified and updated to allow UC Davis IPv6 networks. You can also choose to disable your IPv6 interface when needing to access licensed resources so that you are then using an IPv4 campus address.

Some vendors, such as IEEE, are using IPv6 for their networks. If you are also using IPv6, this can create a problem when attempting to access resources on that vendor’s site while using the library VPN. This is due to IPv6 taking precedence over IPv4, which is what the library VPN uses. So while the library VPN may be connected, your browser is opting to send traffic to the particular vendor site via IPv6 instead of IPv4, causing the vendor to think you are not on a valid UC Davis IP address and requesting that you sign in or pay for access. 

If you are having this issue, we have set up institutional logins with many of these vendors so that you can access the materials using your UC Davis kerberos account. Please see our Single Sign-On page for a list of vendors that support this.

If the vendor you are trying to access is not listed on the Single Sign-On page or you are still having an issue accessing resources, please submit a technical support request detailing your issue.

List of known vendors using IPv6

• American Institute of Physics
• Annual Reviews (~2,000 journals)
• De Gruyter (~7,000 journals and ebooks)
• Docunight
• Economist Intelligence Unit
• Henry Stewart Talks Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection (~3,000 videos)
• IEEE  (~47,000 journals & ebooks)
• Journal of Veterinary Medical Education
• www.psychotherapy.net  (~100 videos)
• Wiley