Cisco Systems 3750E manual

%RADIUS-4-RADIUS_DEAD

Chapter 9 Configuring Switch-Based Authentication

Controlling Switch Access with RADIUS

You identify RADIUS security servers by their hostname or IP address, hostname and specific UDP port numbers, or their IP address and specific UDP port numbers. The combination of the IP address and the UDP port number creates a unique identifier, allowing different ports to be individually defined as RADIUS hosts providing a specific AAA service. This unique identifier enables RADIUS requests to be sent to multiple UDP ports on a server at the same IP address.

If two different host entries on the same RADIUS server are configured for the same service—for example, accounting—the second host entry configured acts as a fail-over backup to the first one. Using this example, if the first host entry fails to provide accounting services, the

message appears, and then the switch tries the second host entry configured on the same device for accounting services. (The RADIUS host entries are tried in the order that they are configured.)

A RADIUS server and the switch use a shared secret text string to encrypt passwords and exchange responses. To configure RADIUS to use the AAA security commands, you must specify the host running the RADIUS server daemon and a secret text (key) string that it shares with the switch.

The timeout, retransmission, and encryption key values can be configured globally for all RADIUS servers, on a per-server basis, or in some combination of global and per-server settings. To apply these settings globally to all RADIUS servers communicating with the switch, use the three unique global configuration commands: radius-server timeout, radius-server retransmit, and radius-server key. To apply these values on a specific RADIUS server, use the radius-server host global configuration command.

Note If you configure both global and per-server functions (timeout, retransmission, and key commands) on the switch, the per-server timer, retransmission, and key value commands override global timer, retransmission, and key value commands. For information on configuring these settings on all RADIUS servers, see the “Configuring Settings for All RADIUS Servers” section on page 9-29.

You can configure the switch to use AAA server groups to group existing server hosts for authentication. For more information, see the “Defining AAA Server Groups” section on page 9-25.

Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E Switch Software Configuration Guide

OL-9775-02 9-21