HP PROCURVE 2910AL, Access Security Manual

Page: 166 / 594

RADIUS Authentication and Accounting
Configuring the Switch for RADIUS Authentication
• Timeout Period: The timeout period the switch waits for a RADIUS
server to reply. (Default: 5 seconds; range: 1 to 15 seconds.)
• Retransmit Attempts: The number of retries when there is no server
response to a RADIUS authentication request. (Default: 3; range of 1
to 5.)
• Server Dead-Time: The period during which the switch will not send
new authentication requests to a RADIUS server that has failed to
respond to a previous request. This avoids a wait for a request to time
out on a server that is unavailable. If you want to use this feature,
select a dead-time period of 1 to 1440 minutes. (Default: 0—disabled;
range: 1 - 1440 minutes.) If your first-choice server was initially
unavailable, but then becomes available before the dead-time expires,
you can nullify the dead-time by resetting it to zero and then trying to
log on again. As an alternative, you can reboot the switch, (thus
resetting the dead-time counter to assume the server is available) and
then try to log on again.
• Number of Login Attempts: This is actually an
aaa authentication
command. It controls how many times per session a RADIUS client
(and clients using other forms of access) can try to log in with the
correct username and password. (Default: Three times per session.)
(For RADIUS accounting features, refer to “Configuring RADIUS Accounting”
on page 5-35.)
1. Configure Authentication for the Access Methods
You Want RADIUS To Protect
This section describes how to configure the switch for RADIUS authentication
through the following access methods:
■ Console: Either direct serial-port connection or modem connection.
■ Telnet: Inbound Telnet must be enabled (the default).
■ SSH: To use RADIUS for SSH access, first configure the switch for
SSH operation. Refer to chapter 7, “Configuring Secure Shell (SSH)” .
■ Web: You can enable RADIUS authentication for web browser inter­
face access to the switch.
You can configure RADIUS as the primary password authentication method
for the above access methods. You also need to select either
local
,
none, or
authorized
as a secondary, or backup, method. Note that for console access, if
you configure
radius
(or
tacacs
) for primary authentication, you must config­
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