Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Administration Guide

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Software Configuration Guide—Release IOS XE 3.6.0E and IOS 15.2(2)E
OL_28731-01
Chapter 46 Configuring 802.1X Port-Based Authentication
Controlling Switch Access with RADIUS
Configuring Settings for All RADIUS Servers
To configure global communication settings between the switch and all RADIUS servers, perform these
steps:
To return to the default setting for the retransmit, timeout, and deadtime, use the no forms of these
commands.
Configuring the Switch to Use Vendor-Specific RADIUS Attributes
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) draft standard specifies a method for communicating
vendor-specific information between the switch and the RADIUS server by using the vendor-specific
attribute (attribute 26). Vendor-specific attributes (VSAs) allow vendors to support their own extended
attributes not suitable for general use. The Cisco RADIUS implementation supports one vendor-specific
option by using the format recommended in the specification. Cisco’s vendor-ID is 9, and the supported
option has vendor-type 1, which is named cisco-avpair. The value is a string with this format:
protocol : attribute sep value *
Protocol is a value of the Cisco protocol attribute for a particular type of authorization. Attribute and
value are an appropriate attribute-value (AV) pair defined in the Cisco TACACS+ specification, and sep
is = for mandatory attributes and is * for optional attributes. The full set of features available for
TACACS+ authorization can then be used for RADIUS.
Command Purpose
Step 1
Switch# configure terminal
Enters global configuration mode.
Step 2
Switch(config)# radius-server key
string
Specifies the shared secret text string used between the switch and all
RADIUS servers.
Note The key is a text string that must match the encryption key used on
the RADIUS server. Leading spaces are ignored, but spaces within
and at the end of the key are used. If you use spaces in your key, do
not enclose the key in quotation marks unless the quotation marks
are part of the key.
Step 3
Switch(config)# radius-server
retransmit retries
Specifies the number of times the switch sends each RADIUS request to the
server before giving up. The default is 3; the range 1 to 1000.
Step 4
Switch(config)# radius-server
timeout seconds
Specifies the number of seconds a switch waits for a reply to a RADIUS
request before resending the request. The default is 5 seconds; the range is
1 to 1000.
Step 5
Switch(config)# radius-server
deadtime minutes
Specifies the number of minutes a RADIUS server, which is not responding
to authentication requests, to be skipped, thus avoiding the wait for the
request to timeout before trying the next configured server. The default is
0; the range is 1 to 1440 minutes.
Step 6
Switch(config)# end
Returns to privileged EXEC mode.
Step 7
Switch# show running-config
Verifies your settings.
Step 8
Switch# copy running-config
startup-config
(Optional) Saves your entries in the configuration file.

Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Specifications

General

Series	Catalyst 4500 Series
Category	Switch
Layer Support	Layer 2, Layer 3
Form Factor	Modular chassis
Stackable	No
Chassis Slots	3, 6, 7, 10
Power Supply Options	AC, DC
Redundancy	Power supply, Supervisor engine
Network Management	Cisco IOS Software CLI, SNMP, Cisco Prime Infrastructure
Features	Security, QoS
Port Density	Up to 384 ports per chassis
Security Features	802.1X, ACLs, DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, IP Source Guard
Supervisor Engine	8-E