Device Authentication Policy - HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

port if it is connected to a switch which does not support authentication. Regardless of the policy, the
E_Port is disabled if the DH-CHAP or FCAP protocol fails to authenticate each other.
ACTIVE: In this state the switch is more tolerant and can connect to a switch with any type of policy.
During switch initialization, authentication begins on all E_Ports, but the port is not disabled if the
connecting switch does not support authentication or the AUTH policy is turned to the OFF state.
The authentication begins automatically during the E_Port initialization. A switch with this policy can safely
connect to pre-6.0 switches, since it continues E_Port initialization if the connecting switch does not support
authentication. The switches with firmware pre-3.2.0 do not support FCAP/DH-CHAP authentication, so an
E_Port initializes without authentication. The switches with firmware version 3.2.0 and later respond to
authentication negotiation and participate in FCAP/DH-CHAP handshaking. Regardless of the policy, the
E_Port gets disabled if the DH-CHAP or FCAP protocol fails to authenticate each other.
PASSIVE (default): In the PASSIVE state the switch does not initiate authentication, but participates in
authentication if the connecting switch initiates authentication.
The switch will not start authentication on E_Ports, but accepts the incoming authentication requests, and
will not disable if the connecting switch does not support authentication or the policy is turned to the OFF
state. This is the safest policy for switches connecting to pre-5.3.0 switches. That means 5.3.0 and later
switches can have authentication enabled and this will not impact the pre-5.3.0 switches. By default the
pre-5.3.0 switches act as passive switches, since they accept incoming authentication requests. Regardless
of the policy, E_Port is disabled if the DH-CHAP or FCAP protocol fails to authenticate each other.
OFF: This setting turns off the policy. The switch will not support authentication and rejects any
authentication negotiation request from another switch. A switch with the policy turned OFF cannot be
connected to a switch with the policy turned ON. The ON state is strict and disables the port if any switch
rejects the authentication. DH-CHAP shared secrets must be configured before changing the policy from the
OFF to the ON state.
The behavior of the policy between two adjacent switches is defined as follows. If the policy is ON or
active, the switch will send an authentication negotiation request to the connecting switch. If the connecting
switch does not support authentication or the policy is OFF, the request will be rejected. Once the
authentication negotiation succeeds, the DH-CHAP authentication will be initiated. If DH-CHAP
authentication fails, the port is disabled and this is applicable in all modes of the policy.

Device authentication policy

Device authentication policy can also be categorized as an HBA authentication policy. Fabric wide
distribution of the device authentication policy is not supported since the device authentication requires
manual interaction in setting the HBA shared secrets and switch shared secrets, and most of the HBAs do
not support the defined DH groups for use in the DH-CHAP protocol.
By default the switch will be in OFF state, which means the switch will clear the security bit in the FLOGI
(fabric login). The authutil command provides an option to change the device policy mode to select
PASSIVE policy, which means switch responds to authentication from any device and does not initiates
authentication to devices.
$authutil --policy -dev <off|passive>
The following lists available policy modes and properties.
OFF (Default): Authentication is not required. Even if device sends FLOGI with security bit set, switch
accepts the FLOGI with security bit OFF. In this case, switch assumes no further authentication requests from
device.
PASSIVE: Authentication is optional. If the attached device is capable of doing the authentication then the
switch participates in authentication; otherwise it will form an F_Port without authentication.
In PASSIVE mode, an F_Port will be disabled if the HBA shared secret does not match with the secret
installed on the switch. If the secret provided by the switch does not match the secrets installed on the HBA
then the HBA will disable the port on its side. On any authentication handshaking rejection, the switch will
disable the F_Port with reason "Authentication rejected".
118 Configuring advanced security features