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Catalyst 2928 Switch Software Configuration Guide
OL-23389-01
Chapter 9 Configuring IEEE 802.1x Port-Based Authentication
Understanding IEEE 802.1x Port-Based Authentication
If re-authentication is based on the Session-Timeout RADIUS attribute (Attribute[27]) and the
Termination-Action RADIUS attribute (Attribute [29]) and if the Termination-Action RADIUS attribute
(Attribute [29]) action is
Initialize,
(the attribute value is
DEFAULT
), the MAC authentication bypass
session ends, and connectivity is lost during re-authentication. If MAC authentication bypass is enabled
and the IEEE 802.1x authentication times out, the switch uses the MAC authentication bypass feature to
initiate re-authorization. For more information about these AV pairs, see RFC 3580, “IEEE 802.1X
Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) Usage Guidelines.”
MAC authentication bypass interacts with the features:
•
IEEE 802.1x authentication—You can enable MAC authentication bypass only if IEEE 802.1x
authentication is enabled on the port.
•
Guest VLAN—If a client has an invalid MAC address identity, the switch assigns the client to a
guest VLAN if one is configured.
•
Restricted VLAN—This feature is not supported when the client connected to an IEEE 802.lx port
is authenticated with MAC authentication bypass.
•
Port security—See the
“Using IEEE 802.1x Authentication with Port Security” section on
.
•
“Using IEEE 802.1x Authentication with Voice VLAN Ports” section on
.
•
VLAN Membership Policy Server (VMPS)—IEEE802.1x and VMPS are mutually exclusive.
•
Private VLAN—You can assign a client to a private VLAN.
802.1x Authentication with Restricted VLAN
You can configure a restricted VLAN (also referred to as an
authentication failed VLAN
) for each 802.1x
port on a switch to provide limited services to clients that cannot access the guest VLAN. These clients
are 802.1x-compliant and cannot access another VLAN because they fail the authentication process. A
restricted VLAN allows users without valid credentials in an authentication server (typically, visitors to
an enterprise) to access a limited set of services. The administrator can control the services available to
the restricted VLAN.
Note
You can configure a VLAN to be both the guest VLAN and the restricted VLAN if you want to provide
the same services to both types of users.
Without this feature, the client attempts and fails authentication indefinitely, and the switch port remains
in the spanning-tree blocking state. With this feature, you can configure the switch port to be in the
restricted VLAN after a specified number of authentication attempts (the default value is 3 attempts).
The authenticator counts the failed authentication attempts for the client. When this count exceeds the
configured maximum number of authentication attempts, the port moves to the restricted VLAN. The
failed attempt count increments when the RADIUS server replies with either an
EAP failure
or an empty
response without an EAP packet. When the port moves into the restricted VLAN, the failed attempt
counter resets.
