IOLAN SDS/SCS/STS/MDC User’s Guide, Version 4.0 213
Configuring Security Chapter 9
9
Introduction
The Security group includes the following con fig uration options:
zAuthentication—When a serial port is configured for the
Console Management or TCP Sockets profile, the user can be
authenticated either locally in the IOLAN user profile or
externally. This option configures the external authentication
server. See Authentication on page 213 for more information.
zSSH—This config uration window configures the SSH server in
the IOLAN. See SSH on page 223 for more inf or mat ion.
zSSL/TLS—This configuration window configures global
SSL/TLS settings, which can be overridden on the serial port
level. See SSL/TLS on page 226 for more information.
zVPN—This configuration window config ures the Virtual Personal Network (VPN) IPsec and
L2TP/IPsec tunn el p a ram e ters. See VPN on page 231 for more information.
zServices—This configuration window is used to enable/disabled client and daemon services that
run in the IOLAN. See Services on page 240 for more information.

Authentication

Authentication can be handled by the IOLAN or through an external authentication server.
Authentication is different from authorization, which can restrict a users access to the network
(although this can be done through the concept of creating sessions for a user, see Sessions Tab on
page 209 for more information). Authenti cation ensures that the user is defined wit hin the
authentication database—with the exception of using the Guest authentication option under Local
Authentication, which can accept any user ID as long as the user knows the configured password.
For external authentication, the IOLAN supports RADIUS, Kerberos, LDAP, TACACS+, SecurID,
and NIS. You can specify a primary authentication method and a secondary authentication method. If
the primary authentication method fails (cannot connect to the server or authentication fails), the
secondary authentication metho d is tri ed (unless you enable the Only Use as backup option, in
which case the secondary authentication method will be tried only when the IOLAN cannot
communicate with the primary authentication host). This allows you to specify tw o different
authentication methods. If you do specify two different authentication methods, the user will be
prompted for his/her username once, but will be prompted for a password for each authentication
method tried. For example, user Alfred’s user ID is maintained in the secondary authentication
database, therefore, he will be prompted for his password twice, because he is not in the primary
authentication database.
Unlike the other external authentication methods, RADIUS and TACACS+ can also send back Serial
Port and User parameters that are used for the duration of the connection. Therefore, any parameters
configured by RADIUS or TACACS+ wil l overrid e the same parameters configured in the IOLAN.
See Appendix A, RADIUS and TACACS+ on page 347 f or more information.