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Specifying RADIUS Server Connections on an EX Series Switch (CLI Procedure)

IEEE 802.1X and MAC RADIUS authentication both provide network edge security, protecting Ethernet LANs from unauthorized user access by blocking all traffic to and from devices at the interface until the supplicant's credentials or MAC address are presented and matched on the authentication server (a RADIUS server). When the supplicant is authenticated, the switch stops blocking access and opens the interface to the supplicant.

To use 802.1X or MAC RADIUS authentication, you must specify the connections on the switch for each RADIUS server to which you will connect.

To configure a RADIUS server on the switch:

  1. Define the IP address of the RADIUS server, the RADIUS server authentication port number, and the secret password. You can define more than one RADIUS server. The secret password on the switch must match the secret password on the server:
    [edit access]
    user@switch# set radius-server 10.0.0.100 port 1812 secret abc

    Note: Specifying the authentication port is optional, and port 1812 is the default. However, we recommend that you configure it in order to avoid confusion as some RADIUS servers might refer to an older default.

  2. (Optional) Specify the IP address by which the switch is identified by the RADIUS server. If you do not specify this, the RADIUS server uses the address of the interface sending the RADIUS request. We recommend that you specify this IP address because if the request gets diverted on an alternate route to the RADIUS server, the interface relaying the request might not be an interface on the switch.
    [edit access]
    user@switch# set access radius-server source-address 10.93.14.100
  3. Configure the authentication order, making radius the first method of authentication:
    [edit access]
    user@switch# set profile profile1 authentication-order radius
  4. Create a profile and specify the list of RADIUS servers to be associated with the profile. For example, you might choose to group your RADIUS servers geographically by city. This feature enables easy modification whenever you want to change to a different sent of authentication servers.
    [edit access profile]
    user@switch# set atlanta radius authentication-server 10.0.0.100 10.2.14.200
  5. Specify the group of servers to be used for 802.1X or MAC RADIUS authentication by identifying the profile name:
    [edit access profile]
    user@switch# set protocols dot1x authenticator authentication-profile-name denver
  6. Configure the IP address of the EX Series switch in the list of clients on the RADIUS server. For specifics on configuring the RADIUS server, consult the documentation for your server.
 

Related Documentation

 

Published: 2014-04-23

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