Failed to initialize SAM Access Method on Windows 10 Enterprise and PulseSecure 9.1.8

[tandbwms]

My Pulse Secure was working correctly until I answered "yes" to the prompt to update and after that, I can no longer make a VPN connection.

Initially, the connection is made and the status shows Connected and a message says "Meets security policies".  Within a couple of seconds, the status changes to "Checking compliance" and then the message shows "Failed to initialize SAM Access Method" and the status is "Waiting to Connect".  This cycle continues until I cancel the connection.

I looked at the Windows Event Viewer and the System log is showing a number of events from "PulseSAM" that say:

The description for Event ID 1 from source PulseSAM cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event: 

\Device\PulseSAM
StartUDPv4Interception

Each event looks similar with the last line changed for various devices.

\Device\PulseSAM
StopUDPv4Interception Entry

\Device\PulseSAM
StopUDPv4Interception Exit

etc..

I'm also seeing a DistributedCOM error near this same time that could be related:

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID 
{2593F8B9-4EAF-457C-B68A-50F6B8EA6B54}
 and APPID 
{15C20B67-12E7-4BB6-92BB-7AFF07997402}
 to the user <myuseridhere> SID (S-1-5-21-104493759-1744129103-782452203-15493) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

The <myuseridhere> is changed to my network user.

Any ideas what could be wrong?  I've completely uninstalled Pulse and reinstalled to no avail.

[jchettid · Accepted solution]

Please confirm from which version you upgraded to 9.1R8 client.

Also please enable "Enable fail-over to TDI for Pulse SAM connection" under the user role->SAM->options and test the behavior.

[tandbwms]

Thank you for your suggestion.  I'm an end-user when it comes to PulseSecure, but with your suggestion about enabling the "Fail-over to TDI for Pulse Secure Connection" I was able to pass that along to somebody who can modify the other side of the connection.  

As for the version, I can't say for sure what version I had previously.  I'm suspecting it was a pre 9.x version though based upon the issues that I've had.  I tried absolutely everything I could think of including uninstalling PulseSecure, removing registry entires related to PulseSecure, but I kept getting the same error. 

Thank you for responding!