NAC Solution Components
Enterasys NAC Design Guide 1-9
NetSight Management
The
NAC
appliances
are
configured,
monitored,
and
managed
through
management
applications
within
the
Enterasys
NetSight
Suite.
NetSight
is
a
family
of
products
comprised
of
NetSight
Console
and
a
suite
of
plugin
applications.
Of
the
following
NetSight
applications,
NetSight
NAC
Manager
and
NetSight
Console
are
required
for
all
four
NAC
deployment
models,
while
NetSight
Policy
Manager
and
NetSight
Inventory
Manager
are
optional,
depending
on
your
network
configuration
and
the
network
access
control
features
you
wish
to
implement.
Following
is
a
description
of
the
NetSight
applications.
NetSight NAC Manager
NetSight
NAC
Manager
is
a
required
core
component
in
the
Enterasys
NAC
solution.
NAC
Manager
and
NAC
appliances
work
in
conjunction
to
implement
network
access
control.
NAC
Manager
provides
configurations
for
the
assessment,
authentication,
authorization,
and
remediation
parameters
for
all
NAC
appliances
(NAC
Gateways
and
NAC
Controllers)
from
one
centralized
interface.
After
these
configurations
are
enforced,
the
NAC
appliances
can
detect,
authenticate,
assess,
authorize,
and
remediate
end
‐
systems
connecting
to
the
network
according
to
those
configuration
specifications.
NAC Granularity
Advantage:
The NAC Gateway is always aware of
the MAC address of the device
connecting to the network, and its
associated IP address, username,
and location (switch IP address and
port). Therefore, NAC can be
configured to uniquely authenticate,
assess, and authorize specific end-
systems and users in particular
locations in the network.
Disadvantage:
While the Layer 2 NAC Controller
knows the MAC address of the
connecting end-system and can obtain
the associated username, the Layer 3
NAC Controller may not have this
information. Therefore, the Layer 3
NAC Controller lacks the ability to
uniquely authenticate, assess, and
authorize specific devices and users,
and implements NAC for all connected
end-systems in the same way.
Furthermore, Layer 2 and Layer 3
NAC Controllers do not provide
visibility down to the access layer port
to which an end-system is connected,
and cannot control access to the
network based on switch access layer
port connection.
Scalability
Advantage:
Very scalable because little if any
end-system data traffic is processed
by the NAC Gateway (being out-of-
band). Therefore, an increased
number of end-systems are
supported per NAC Gateway.
Advantage:
Very scalable because hardware-
based forwarding of data traffic using
Enterasys-built custom ASICs is
implemented to achieve multi-gigabit
throughput speeds for the NAC
Controller.
Table 1-3 Comparison of Appliance Advantages and Disadvantages (continued)
Features
NAC Gateway
NAC Controller
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