Security
7705 SAR OS System Management Guide Page 35
Security Controls
You can configure the 7705 SAR to use RADIUS, TACACS+, and local authentication to 
validate users requesting access to the network. The order in which password authentication 
is processed among RADIUS, TACACS+ and local passwords can be specifically 
configured. For example, the authentication order can be configured to process authorization 
via TACACS+ first, then RADIUS for authentication and accounting. Local access can be 
specified next in the authentication order in the event that the RADIUS and TACACS+ 
servers are not operational.
When a Server Does Not Respond
A trap is issued if a RADIUS server is unresponsive. An alarm is raised if RADIUS is 
enabled with at least one RADIUS server and no response is received to either accounting or 
user access requests from any server. 
Periodic checks to determine if the primary server is responsive again are performed. If a 
server is down, it will not be contacted for 5 minutes. If a login is attempted after 5 minutes, 
then the server is contacted again. If a server has the health check feature enabled and is 
unresponsive, the server’s status is checked every 30 seconds. Health check is enabled by 
default. When a service response is restored from at least one server, the alarm condition is 
cleared. Alarms are raised and cleared on the Alcatel-Lucent Fault Manager or other third 
party fault management servers.
The servers are accessed in order from lowest to highest specified index (from 1 to 5) for 
authentication requests until a response from a server is received. A higher indexed server is 
only queried if no response is received from a lower indexed server. If a response from the 
server is received, no other server is queried. 
Access Request Flow
In Figure 2, the authentication process is defined in the config>system>security> 
password
 context. The authentication order is determined by specifying the sequence in 
which password authentication is attempted among RADIUS, TACACS+, and local servers. 
This example uses the authentication order of RADIUS, then TACACS+, and finally, local. 
An access request is sent to RADIUS server 1. One of two scenarios can occur. If there is no 
response from the server, the request is passed to the next RADIUS server with the next 
lowest index (RADIUS server 2) and so on, until the last RADIUS server is attempted 
(RADIUS server 5). If server 5 does not respond, the request is passed to the TACACS+ 
server 1. If there is no response from that server, the request is passed to the next TACACS+ 
server with the next lowest index (TACACS+ server 2) and so on.