Example for Configuring Multiple Authentication Modes

Owned by Tracy Yang
Nov 18, 2024
6 min read

Networking Requirements

As shown in Figure 1, there are different types of terminal access the network in a company. For the security of the company network, the administrator needs to employ different types of NAC authentication modes on the access switch to control the access rights of different users.

Figure1. Topology for Configuring Multiple Authentication Modes

Figure 1 shows the topology for configuring multiple authentication modes. Follow the configuration roadmap below to complete the configuration.

Prerequisite

  • Ensure that PICA8 Switch is properly connected to the AAA server. In this example, the switch uses the management port Eth0 to connect to the AAA server.
  • Complete the NAC configurations on the AAA server. For details about how to configure NAC on AAA server, please refer to documents Typical Configuration of NAC.

Configuration Roadmap on PICA8 Switch

  • A printer accesses the network through interface ge-1/1/1 of the switch. It is a dumb terminal and lacks the supplicant feature which is needed to pass on the 802.1X authentication credentials between the client and the authentication server. In this case, you can configure MAB authentication. You can use the set protocols dot1x interface <interface-name> auth-mode mac-radius command to enable MAB authentication mode on the interface.
  • A guest user accesses the network through interface ge-1/1/2 of the switch, it doesn’t have proper 802.1X or MAC Radius credentials saved on the authentication servers. In this case, you can configure CWA authentication to control the guest user's network access rights. Remember to enable MAB authentication before using CWA authentication.
  • On interface ge-1/1/3, a PC and an IP telephone are connected to the switch so that both data and voice services can be transmitted.
    • Enable LLDP protocol for OUI learning from LLDP packets.
    • Configure 802.1X authentication on the ge-1/1/3 interface to perform access authentication on the connected PC.
    • Since there are two devices, a PC and an IP telephone, on port ge-1/1/3, you need to configure access port ge-1/1/3 for multiple host mode authentication.
    • It is strongly recommended not to use both voice VLAN and dynamic VLAN on the port enabled with NAC function. If both voice VLAN and dynamic VLAN are enabled on the port, dynamic VLAN A has a higher priority. 
    • In this example, on the AAA server, you have to configure voice VLAN 300 for IP phone communication and dynamic VLAN 400 for data communication for the PC on the ge-1/1/3 interface.
    • On the switch, you need to use the set vlans vlan-id <vlan-id> command to create the dynamic VLANs in advance. And the link type of interface ge-1/1/3 should be configured as trunk port.
  • Multiple PCs are connected to the switch on ge-1/1/4 interface. Enable 802.1X authentication on ge-1/1/4, and configure access port ge-1/1/4 for multiple host mode authentication.

Procedure

Step1         Create VLANs on the switch for dynamic VLAN.

admin@XorPlus# set vlans vlan-id 300
admin@XorPlus# set vlans vlan-id 400

Step2         Configure the access ports to trunk mode.

admin@XorPlus# set interface gigabit-ethernet ge-1/1/1 family ethernet-switching port-mode trunk
admin@XorPlus# set interface gigabit-ethernet ge-1/1/2 family ethernet-switching port-mode trunk
admin@XorPlus# set interface gigabit-ethernet ge-1/1/3 family ethernet-switching port-mode trunk
admin@XorPlus# set interface gigabit-ethernet ge-1/1/4 family ethernet-switching port-mode trunk

Step3         Enable the authentication mode.

admin@XorPlus# set protocols dot1x interface ge-1/1/1 auth-mode mac-radius
admin@XorPlus# set protocols dot1x interface ge-1/1/2 auth-mode web
admin@XorPlus# set protocols dot1x interface ge-1/1/2 auth-mode mac-radius
admin@XorPlus# set protocols dot1x interface ge-1/1/3 auth-mode 802.1x
admin@XorPlus# set protocols dot1x interface ge-1/1/3 auth-mode mac-radius
admin@XorPlus# set protocols dot1x interface ge-1/1/4 auth-mode 802.1x

Step4         Configure IP address of AAA server, DNS server and CoA client.

admin@XorPlus# set protocols dot1x aaa radius authentication server-ip 10.10.51.4 shared-key pica8
admin@XorPlus# set protocols dot1x aaa radius dynamic-author client 10.10.51.4 shared-key pica8
admin@Xorplus# set system dns-server-ip 192.168.10.1

Step5         Configure a block VLAN for CWA authentication.

admin@Xorplus# set protocols dot1x block-vlan-id 200
admin@XorPlus# set interface gigabit-ethernet ge-1/1/2 family ethernet-switching native-vlan-id 200
admin@XorPlus# set vlans vlan-id 200 l3-interface vlan200
admin@XorPlus# set l3-interface vlan-interface vlan200 address 10.10.51.11 prefix-length 24

Step6         Configure the NAS IP address to the IP of the management interface eth0 which connected to the AAA server.

admin@XorPlus# set protocols dot1x aaa radius nas-ip 10.10.51.100

This command is to set the nas-ip field in RADIUS access-request message. If you use the management interface eth0/eth1 to connect to the AAA server, the IP address of the management interface eth0/eth1 should be used for the NAS IP address configured here.

Step7         Configure the host mode for NAC authentication interface.

admin@XorPlus# set protocols dot1x interface ge-1/1/3 host-mode multiple
admin@XorPlus# set protocols dot1x interface ge-1/1/4 host-mode multiple

Step8         Enable LLDP protocol for OUI learning from LLDP packets.

admin@XorPlus# set protocols lldp enable true

Step9         (Optional) Enable PoE function on the interface ge-1/1/3 if the IP telephone obtains power through the PoE port of the switch.

admin@XorPlus# set poe interface ge-1/1/3 enable true

Step10        Commit the configuration.

admin@XorPlus# commit

Verify the configuration

a)  Run the run show dot1x interface or run show dot1x interface gigabit-ethernet <interface-name> to check the NAC authentication configurations. The command output shows that the NAC authentication has been enabled and the terminals are successfully authenticated on each port.

admin@Xorplus# run show dot1x interface
Interface  802.1x   MAC-RADIUS  WEB     HOST-MODE   Session-Timeout    CLIENT-MAC  CLIENT-STATUS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ge-1/1/1   disable  enable      disable      single(1)    0    f8:9e:01:9e:cc:a1    authorized   
ge-1/1/2   disable  enable      enable       single(2)    0    23:5e:81:77:ac:a2    authorized   
ge-1/1/3   enable   enable      disable      multiple(2)  0    ad:ee:02:45:d3:a3    authorized
                                                               6d:33:12:4b:ef:a4    authorized
ge-1/1/4   enable   enable      disable      multiple(3)  0    f2:3e:00:8a:90:a5    authorized 
                                                               a2:44:00:5a:90:3d    authorized  
                                                               56:33:a0:ee:f0:ab    authorized


admin@Xorplus# run show dot1x interface gigabit-ethernet ge-1/1/3
Interface ge-1/1/3:
============================================================
  Client MAC                : ad:ee:02:45:d3:a3
  Status                    : authorized
  Success Auth Method       : MAB
  Traffic Class             : Voice
  Dynamic VLAN ID           : 300 (active)
============================================================
  Client MAC                : 6d:33:12:4b:ef:a4
  Status                    : authorized
  Success Auth Method       : MAB
  Traffic Class             : Other
  Dynamic VLAN ID           : 400 (active) 
============================================================

b)  Use run show lldp neighbor command to check the LLDP neighbor information on interface ge-1/1/3.

admin@Xorplus# run show lldp neighbor
LLDP Remote Devices Information
LocalPort   ChassisId                 PortId             Management Address  System Name      Platform           Capability
----------  ------------------------  -----------------  ------------------  ---------------  -----------------  -----------------
ge-1/1/3    3C:2C:99:41:47:E1         ge-1/1/13          10.10.51.100        Xorplus          as4610_30t         B, R

c)  The terminal can access the network after passed the corresponding authentication method.

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