User Guide

234 Chapter 6 Configuring authentication
320818-A
Overview
The Nortel SNAS 4050 controls authentication of clients when they log on to the
network.
The Nortel SNA solution supports the following authentication methods in Nortel
Secure Network Access Switch Software Release 1.0:
• external database
— Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS)
— Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
• local database on the Nortel SNAS 4050
You can configure more than one authentication method within a Nortel
SNAS 4050 domain. You determine the order in which the methods are applied by
default. Client credentials are checked against the various authentication
databases until the first match is found.
You can configure the methods so that their names display on the portal login page
(see “Configuring authentication methods using the CLI” on page 239 or
“Configuring authentication methods using the SREM” on page 270). You can
then direct clients to select a specific authentication server (for example, for
direction to a specific Windows domain). If the client selects a Login Service
name, the authentication request is directed immediately to the specified service.
Otherwise, authentication defaults to being carried out according to the
authentication order you have configured (see “Specifying authentication fallback
order using the CLI” on page 267 or “Specifying authentication fallback order
using the SREM” on page 314).
For general information about authentication within the Nortel SNA solution, see
Nortel Secure Network Access Solution Guide (320817-A).
Note: If you ran the quick setup wizard during initial setup, the Local
database authentication method has been created as Authentication 1.