6-13
Cisco Systems Intelligent Gigabit Ethernet Switch Modules for the IBM BladeCenter, Software Configuration Guide
24R9746
Chapter 6 Configuring IEEE 802.1x Port-Based Authentication
Configuring IEEE 802.1x Authentication
• When IEEE 802.1x is enabled on a port, you cannot configure a port VLAN that is equal to a voice
VLAN.
• The IEEE 802.1x with VLAN assignment feature is not supported on trunk ports, dynamic ports, or
with dynamic-access port assignment through a VMPS.
• Before globally enabling IEEE 802.1x on a switch by entering the dot1x system-auth-control
global configuration command, remove the EtherChannel configuration from the interfaces on
which IEEE 802.1x and EtherChannel are configured.
• If you are using a device running the Cisco Access Control Server (ACS) application for IEEE
802.1x authentication with EAP-Transparent LAN Services (TLS) and EAP-MD5 and your switch
is running Cisco IOS Release 12.1(14)EA1, make sure that the device is running ACS Version 3.2.1
or later.
Enabling IEEE 802.1x Authentication
To enable IEEE 802.1x port-based authentication, you must enable authentication, authorization, and
accounting (AAA) and specify the authentication method list. A method list describes the sequence and
authentication method to be queried to authenticate a user.
To allow VLAN assignment, you must enable AAA authorization to configure the switch for all
network-related service requests.
Beginning in privileged EXEC mode, follow these steps to configure IEEE 802.1x port-based
authentication. This procedure is required.
Command Purpose
Step 1
configure terminal Enter global configuration mode.
Step 2
aaa new-model Enable AAA.
Step 3
aaa authentication dot1x {default}
method1
Create an IEEE 802.1x authentication method list.
To create a default list that is used when a named list is not specified in
the authentication command, use the default keyword followed by the
method that is to be used in default situations. The default method list is
automatically applied to all ports.
For method1, enter the group radius keyword to use the list of all
RADIUS servers for authentication.
Note Though other keywords are visible in the command-line help
string, only the default and group radius keywords are
supported.
Step 4
dot1x system-auth-control Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication globally on the switch.
Step 5
aaa authorization network {default}
group radius
(Optional) Configure the switch for user RADIUS authorization for all
network-related service requests, such as VLAN assignment.
Step 6
radius-server host ip-address (Optional) Specify the IP address of the RADIUS server.
Step 7
radius-server key string (Optional) Specify the authentication and encryption key used between
the switch and the RADIUS daemon running on the RADIUS server.
Step 8
interface interface-id Specify the port connected to the client that is to be enabled for IEEE
802.1x authentication, and enter interface configuration mode.
