Radius Client Support; Overview - Avaya P580 User Manual

Chapter 4

RADIUS Client Support

Overview

Purpose of
RADIUS
4-18
In a network with many Avaya switches, tracking all of the user accounts on
each of the switches can be difficult. You can centralize the user accounts by
using a Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) server.
RADIUS is a service that authenticates users when they attempt to log in to
a Network Access Device (NAD) such as an Avaya switch. RADIUS
typically runs on a Windows or Linux server; however, it can run on other
platforms as well depending on the vendor.
RADIUS is a client/server architecture where each device that uses the
RADIUS server is a RADIUS client. The client sends Access Request
messages to the RADIUS server. These messages include the user's login
name, the password encrypted, and optional parameters depending on
configuration.
* Important: The RADIUS Client and Server must be configured
with the exact same parameters.
Once the RADIUS server receives the access request message, it searches
its database for the user account. If it finds an account, the password is
correct, and the optional parameters match, an Access Accepted message is
returned to the RADIUS client indicating that the user account exists, the
password was correct, and the user has a certain access type (for example:
Administrative or Read-Only). If not found, the password is incorrect, or the
optional parameters do not match, then an Access Rejected message is sent.
* Note: Due to an interoperability issue, the P580 and P882 RADIUS
client does accept Access Accept messages from Windows
2000 RADIUS servers. To resolve this issue, obtain Windows
2000 service pack 3 or later. After installing the latest service
pack, set the Generate-Class-Attribute field to FALSE.
This interoperability issue occurs because Microsoft RADIUS
server includes a Class attribute in Access Accept messages
that the P580 and P882 RADIUS client does not support. With
service pack 3, you can disable generation of a class attribute.
For more information on this issue, see
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-
US;Q297317.
User Guide for the Avaya P580 and P882 Multiservice Switches, v6.0