Computer Accessories User Manual

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RADIUS Terms ExplainedIntroduction to 8950 AAA

1-4

365-360-001 R6.0

Issue 1, December 2008

8950 AAA requires that at least one policy be defined, but it can be configured to handle

many policies. You decide how many policies are necessary based on your business needs.

The needs can range from the type and level of services you provide, equipment

requirements, and customer requirements, to the geographic location of your customers

and the time of day.

This document will describe use of the 8950 AAA PolicyAssistant to define access

policies. It is also possible to create custom access policies using the 8950 AAA

PolicyFlow programming language. Please refer to the 8950 AAA Programmer’s

Reference Manual.

Authentication and Authorization Activities

As mentioned previously, a user source is a data repository that contains user information

called user profiles. 8950 AAA can access information stored in a variety of user sources.

A user source might be one of the following:

• Standard text files, such as a RADIUS User file commonly used in publicly available

RADIUS servers

• SQL databases, such as Oracle, Sybase, MySQL, or the built-in database

• An LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server or a server that supports

LDAP queries, for example, Microsoft Active Directory or Novell NetWare directory

A user profile typically contains the user’s name and password. Some user profiles may

also contain information that describes the connection type, allowed services,

authentication means, and session limits specific to a user.

The term authentication source refers to the place where the user’s authentication

information, typically a password, is stored, for example, the user’s profile, or an external

service that authenticates the user. An example of an external service is a secure token

server.

Table 1-1 provides a list of supported sources for user profiles and a description of each. It

is possible to read a user profile from one source and use a different source for

authentication. For example, the user profile might be stored in LDAP while an RSA ACE

(SecurID) might be used for authentication.

Table 1-1 Supported Sources for User Profiles

User Source Description

RADIUS User File A text file that conforms to a traditional format as

used in many freeware RADIUS servers