Users Guide

Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 247
53-1002920-02
Authentication policy for fabric elements
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By default the devicepolicy is in the OFF state, which means the switch clears 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 the switch responds to authentication from any device and
does not initiate authentication to devices.
When the policy is set to ON, the switch expects a FLOGI with the FC-SP bit set. If not, the switch
rejects the FLOGI with reason LS_LOGICAL_ERROR (0x03), explanation “Authentication
Required”(0x48), and disables the port. Regardless of the policy, the F_Port is disabled if the
DH-CHAP protocol fails to authenticate.
If the HBA sets the FC-SP bit during FLOGI and the switch sends a FLOGI accept with the FC-SP bit
set, then the switch expects the HBA to start the AUTH_NEGOTIATE. From this point on until the
AUTH_NEGOTIATE is completed, all ELS and CT frames, except the AUTH_NEGOTIATE ELS frame,
are blocked by the switch. During this time, the Fibre Channel driver rejects all other ELS frames.
The F_Port does not form until the AUTH_NEGOTIATE is completed. It is the HBA's responsibility to
send an Authentication Negotiation ELS frame after receiving the FLOGI accept frame with the
FC-SP bit set.
Virtual Fabrics considerations
Because the device authentication policy has switch and logical switch-based parameters, each
logical switch is set when Virtual Fabrics is enabled. Authentication is enforced based on each
logical switch’s policy settings.
Configuring device authentication
1. Connect to the switch and log in using an account with admin permissions, or an account with
OM permissions for the Authentication RBAC class of commands.
2. Enter the authUtil command to set the device policy mode.
Example of setting the Device policy to passive mode:
switch:admin> authutil --policy -dev passive
Warning: Activating the authentication policy requires
DH-CHAP secrets on both switch and device. Otherwise,
the F-port will be disabled during next F-port
bring-up.
ARE YOU SURE (yes, y, no, n): [no] y
Device authentication is set to PASSIVE
AUTH policy restrictions
All fabric element authentication configurations are performed on a local switch basis.
Device authentication policy supports devices that are connected to the switch in point-to-point
manner and is visible to the entire fabric. The following are not supported:
• Public loop devices
• Single private devices
• Private loop devices
• Mixed public and private devices in loop
• NPIV devices
• FICON channels