Chapter 3
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Using the local LDAP database only
When you run the Setup utility, you are not required to configure an external
LDAP or RADIUS database to manage user authentication. Instead, you can
use the default authentication mechanism, which is the 3-DNS Controller’s
local LDAP database. In this case, the local LDAP database manages not
only authorization for your 3-DNS users, but also authentication. All users
subsequently attempting to log on to a 3-DNS Controller must enter a user
name and password, which are checked against user data stored in the local
database. If the user name and password are found and verified in that
database, the user is authenticated.
Configuring the unit to use an external LDAP or RADIUS server
When you run the Setup utility, you can configure an external (remote)
server, either LDAP or RADIUS, to manage user authentication for the
3-DNS Controller. When you choose this configuration option, all users
subsequently attempting to log on to a 3-DNS Controller must enter a user
name and password, which are checked against user data stored in that
external database. If the user name and password are found and verified in
that database, the user is authenticated.
Note
In the event that authentication fails with an external LDAP or RADIUS
server, you can log in with accounts locally, such as the root and admin
accounts.

Configuring external LDAP authentication

When you configure the unit to use an external LDAP server for user
authentication, you need the following information:
• The IP address of the LDAP server, or the IP address of the primary
server if you have more than one LDAP server.
• The base distinguished name of each LDAP server. This name must be
the same for each server.
• Optionally, the user name of the account that you want to bind to the
LDAP server as the search account. The search account is a read-only
account used to do searches. This account must be able to access
passwords. If you have more than one LDAP server, this account must be
the same on each server.
• If you configure an LDAP search account, you need the password for
that account. If you have more than one LDAP server, you must use the
same search account and password.
• After you configure external authentication, you need to set the
authorization level, or role, for each user you want to allow to access the
controller. You can do this after you complete the Setup utility. Add an
account and role for each user in the User Administration screen of the
Configuration utility. Since the external authentication server handles the
password authentication, you do not need to enter a password for these