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Cisco ME 3800X and 3600X Switch Software Configuration Guide
OL-23400-01
Chapter 8 Configuring Switch-Based Authentication
Controlling Switch Access with RADIUS
As mentioned earlier, to configure RADIUS (whether vendor-proprietary or IETF draft-compliant), you
must specify the host running the RADIUS server daemon and the secret text string it shares with the
switch. You specify the RADIUS host and secret text string by using the radius-server global
configuration commands.
Beginning in privileged EXEC mode, follow these steps to specify a vendor-proprietary RADIUS server
host and a shared secret text string:
To delete the vendor-proprietary RADIUS host, use the no radius-server host {hostname | ip-address}
non-standard global configuration command. To disable the key, use the no radius-server key global
configuration command.
This example shows how to specify a vendor-proprietary RADIUS host and to use a secret key of rad124
between the switch and the server:
Switch(config)#
radius-server host 172.20.30.15 nonstandard
Switch(config)#
radius-server key rad124
Configuring RADIUS Server Load Balancing
This feature allows access and authentication requests to be evenly across all RADIUS servers in a server
group. For more information, see the “RADIUS Server Load Balancing” chapter of the “Cisco IOS
Security Configuration Guide”, Release 12.2:
http://www.ciscosystems.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2sb/feature/guide/sbrdldbl.html
Displaying the RADIUS Configuration
To display the RADIUS configuration, use the show running-config privileged EXEC command.
Command
Purpose
Step 1
configure terminal
Enter global configuration mode.
Step 2
radius-server host {hostname | ip-address} non-standard
Specify the IP address or hostname of the remote
RADIUS server host and identify that it is using a
vendor-proprietary implementation of RADIUS.
Step 3
radius-server key string
Specify the shared secret text string used between the
switch and the vendor-proprietary RADIUS server.
The switch and the RADIUS server use this text
string to encrypt passwords and exchange responses.
Note
The key is a text string that must match the
encryption key used on the RADIUS server.
Leading spaces are ignored, but spaces within
and at the end of the key are used. If you use
spaces in your key, do not enclose the key in
quotation marks unless the quotation marks
are part of the key.
Step 4
end
Return to privileged EXEC mode.
Step 5
show running-config
Verify your settings.
Step 6
copy running-config startup-config
(Optional) Save your entries in the configuration file.
