The desc explicitly states this is the count of IKE errors, failures in the Internet Key Exchange negotiation process used to establish or rekey VPN tunnels. This is specifically about key negotiation, not data-plane encryption, so a rising value here points at problems establishing or rekeying tunnels, such as mismatched pre-shared keys, certificate issues, or expired proposals, rather than at a tunnel that's already up and passing traffic. e.g. cpvErrIke spiking right when a peer's certificate expired, causing repeated failed rekey attempts every few hours until the tunnel eventually drops.