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Catalyst 2960 and 2960-S Switch Software Configuration Guide
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Chapter 10 Configuring IEEE 802.1x Port-Based Authentication
Configuring 802.1x Authentication
EtherChannel port—Do not configure a port that is an active or a not-yet-active member of an
EtherChannel as an 802.1x port. If you try to enable 802.1x aut hentication on an EtherChannel
port, an error message appears, and 802.1x authentication i s not enabled.
Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) and Remote SPAN (RSPAN) destination ports—You can
enable 802.1x authentication on a port that is a SPAN or RSPAN destination port.
However, 802.1x authentication is disabled until the port is removed as a SPAN or RSPAN
destination port. You can enable 802.1x authentication on a SPAN or RSPAN source port.
Before globally enabling 802.1x authentication on a switch by entering the dot1x
system-auth-control global configuration command, remove the EtherChannel configuration from
the interfaces on which 802.1x authentication and EtherC hannel are configured.
Cisco IOS Release 12.2(55)SE and later supports filtering of system messages related to 802.1x
authentication. See the “Authentication Manager CLI Commands” section on page 10-10.
VLAN Assignment, Guest VLAN, Restricted VLAN, and Inaccessible Authentication Bypass
When 802.1x authentication is enabled on a port, you cannot configure a port VLAN that is equa l
to a voice VLAN.
The 802.1x authentication with VLAN assignment feature is not supported on trunk ports, dyn amic
ports, or with dynamic-access port assignment through a VMPS.
You can configure any VLAN except an RSPAN VLAN or a voice VLAN as an 802.1x guest VLAN.
The guest VLAN feature is not supported on trunk ports; it is supported only on access ports.
After you configure a guest VLAN for an 802.1x port to which a DHCP client is connected, you
might need to get a host IP address from a DHCP server. You can change the settings for restarting
the 802.1x authentication process on the switch before the DHCP process on the client times out and
tries to get a host IP address from the DHCP server. Decrease the settings for the 802.1x
authentication process (authentication timer inactivity or dot1x timeout quiet-period) and
authentication timer reauthentication or dot1x timeout tx-period) interface configuration
commands). The amount to decrease the settings depends on the connected 802.1x client type.
When configuring the inaccessible authentication bypass feature, follow these guidelines:
The feature is supported on 802.1x port in single-host mode and multihosts mode.
If the client is running Windows XP and the port to which the client is connected is in the
critical-authentication state, Windows XP might report that the interface is not authenticated.
If the Windows XP client is configured for DHCP and has an IP address from the DHCP server,
receiving an EAP-Success message on a critical port might not re-initiate the DHCP
configuration process.
You can configure the inaccessible authentication bypass feature and the restricted VLAN on
an 802.1x port. If the switch tries to re-authenticate a critical port in a restricted VLAN and all
the RADIUS servers are unavailable, switch changes the port state to the critical authentication
state and remains in the restricted VLAN.
You can configure the inaccessible bypass feature and port security on the same switch port.
You can configure any VLAN except an RSPAN VLAN or a voice VLAN as an 802.1x restricted
VLAN. The restricted VLAN feature is not supported on trunk ports; it is supported only on access
ports.