HP PROCURVE 2910AL, Access Security Manual

Page: 175 / 594

RADIUS Authentication and Accounting
Configuring the Switch for RADIUS Authentication
radius-server timeout < 1 - 15 >
Specifies the maximum time the switch waits for a
response to an authentication request before counting
the attempt as a failure. (Default: 3 seconds; Range: 1
- 15 seconds)
radius-server retransmit < 1 - 5 >
If a RADIUS server fails to respond to an authentica­
tion request, specifies how many retries to attempt
before closing the session. Default: 3; Range: 1 - 5)
N o t e
Where the switch has multiple RADIUS servers configured to support authen­
tication requests, if the first server fails to respond, then the switch tries the
next server in the list, and so-on. If none of the servers respond, then the switch
attempts to use the secondary authentication method configured for the type
of access being attempted (console, Telnet, or SSH). If this occurs, refer to
“RADIUS-Related Problems” in the Troubleshooting chapter of the Manage­
ment and Configuration Guide for your switch.
For example, suppose that your switch is configured to use three RADIUS
servers for authenticating access through Telnet and SSH. Two of these servers
use the same encryption key. In this case your plan is to configure the switch
with the following global authentication parameters:
■ Allow only two tries to correctly enter username and password.
■ Use the global encryption key to support the two servers that use the
same key. (For this example, assume that you did not configure these
two servers with a server-specific key.)
■ Use a dead-time of five minutes for a server that fails to respond to
an authentication request.
■ Allow three seconds for request timeouts.
■ Allow two retries following a request that did not receive a response.
Figure 5-6. Example of Global Configuration Exercise for RADIUS Authentication
5-19