Vendor-Specific Attributes - Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Configuration Manual

Configuring RADIUS
a RADIUS server changes to the dead or alive state, a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) trap
is generated and the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch displays an error message that a failure is taking place.
Figure 2: RADIUS Server States
The monitoring interval for alive servers and dead servers are different and can be configured by the user.
Note
The RADIUS server monitoring is performed by sending a test authentication request to the RADIUS
server.

Vendor-Specific Attributes

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) draft standard specifies a method for communicating
vendor-specific attributes (VSAs) between the network access server and the RADIUS server. The IETF uses
attribute 26. VSAs allow vendors to support their own extended attributes that are not suitable for general
use. The Cisco RADIUS implementation supports one vendor-specific option using the format recommended
in the specification. The Cisco vendor ID is 9, and the supported option is vendor type 1, which is named
cisco-av-pair. The value is a string with the following format:
protocol : attribute separator value *
The protocol is a Cisco attribute for a particular type of authorization, the separator is an equal sign (=) for
mandatory attributes, and an asterisk (*) indicates optional attributes.
When you use RADIUS servers for authentication on a Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch, the RADIUS protocol
directs the RADIUS server to return user attributes, such as authorization information, along with authentication
results. This authorization information is specified through VSAs.
The following VSA protocol options are supported by the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch:
• Shell— Used in access-accept packets to provide user profile information.
• Accounting— Used in accounting-request packets. If a value contains any white spaces, you should
The Nexus 5000 Series switch supports the following attributes:
OL-20919-01
enclose the value within double quotation marks.
Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Security Configuration Guide
Vendor-Specific Attributes
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