RADIUS NOOB Question.

[gwatson.com]

Okay here is my question. We are wanting to use RADIUS to authenticate when SSHing in to our equipment. Were currently using a Juniper IC4000 to authenticate users on the network. And I understand how that works along with AD. But here is where I'm stuck. We want 2 types of users, Operator(RO), and Managers(RW). So in AD I have created 2 groups and put the user in them according to their level of access.. This is where I'm stuck.. When I SSH into the switch w/my AD user name and password how do I set it up so that it will authenticate and either give me SwichManager or Operator rights? I know there will be questions so ask away, I'll do my best to provide the answers..

[Jeff Carrell]

Question, which HP Networking (ProCurve) switches does you have.

Depending on which models depends on the answer :-) Some support this feature/function, some don't.

If they are "newer" switches (fully managed and <5'ish years old), they probably do.

Ref this manual section for details: http://cdn.procurve.com/training/Manuals/3500-5400-6200-6600-8200-ASG-Mar10-6-RADIUS.pdf

Specifically you are looking for the 'login privilege-mode' feature.

The config needed on the switch for this feature is a single command entry.

For the config on the radius server side, you will configure 2 access policies to support "operator" and "manager" to sync with the users in the AD profiles. The radius access policies will then each have the specific attribute set to denote access for "operator" or "manager" that is passed to the switch.

Nice bonus with this feature, when enabled, even if an "operator" logs in and knows the "manager" credentials, the switch will not even allow an 'enable' to be accepted.

BE AWARE - configure the radius server FIRST, then configure the switch. Otherwise, if you configure the switch first and the radius server reply does send the appropriate attributes the switch is looking for - you get NO access.

hth...Jeff