Designing Access Controls

Choose RADIUS Servers

requires six NAC 800 ESs (preferably in at least two clusters) and one NAC 800 MS. In each cluster, only one or two NAC 800 ESs must act as RADIUS servers. The others ES can simply provide testing.

4.In a multi-site network, where will you place NAC 800s (at a central site or at each site)?

The same access control architectures for RADIUS servers apply to NAC 800s. See “Choose an Access Control Architecture” on page 3-84.

However, you must take into account the fact that at least one NAC 800 ES (and more for the sake of redundancy) must receive mirrored DHCP traffic. Unless your switches support remote traffic mirroring (as do the ProCurve Switches 3500yl, 5400zl, and 6200yl), you must connect the NAC 800 ESs to the same switch to which DHCP servers connect. Even if your switches do support remote mirroring, it is best practice to locate the NAC 800s as close to the DHCP servers as possible.

Note that one NAC 800 MS can manage up to 10 NAC ESs (with up to five ESs per-cluster). So, wherever you place MSs, you must have a least one for every 10 ESs.

3-97