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Configuring NPS for authentication on HP switches

June 28, 2016

Prereqs

I’m assuming you have the NPS role installed on a Windows server, and a switch configured to the point where it can communicate with (can ping) the NPS server.

Setup NPS

Create RADIUS Client

Create a new RADIUS client as follows:

  • Friendly Name - Anything you want

    • Switches
  • IP Address - The address of a specific switch, or the subnet that contains all your switch in CIDR format.

    • 10.0.1.0/24
  • Shared Secret - A 32 char (or less) secret. You’ll need it later.

Create the Connection Request Policy

Create a new Connection Request Policy with the following settings:

  • Name - Switch Connection Policy
  • Type of server
  • Unspecified
  • Conditions - Add the following
  • Client Friendly Name = Friendly Name from above

Create Network Policy

Create a new network policy with:

  • Name - Anything you’d like
  • Switch Admin Policy
  • Type of server
  • Unspecified
  • Conditions:
  • Windows Group - Used to filter to only admin users
  • Add it and select an appropriate security group to have access to the switches.
  • Client Friendly Name - Limit this policy to your switches. Use the friendly name from the RADIUS client.
  • Switches
  • Permissions

    • Access granted
  • EAP Types
  • Add PEAP
  • Less Secure authentication methods
  • Unselect all
  • Under RADIUS Attributes>Standard
  • Set Service-Type to Administrative (under “Others” drop-down)

Configure Switch

Here are the relevant commands for the switch.

;Disable the telnet server since we don't want domain creds flying around in plain text
no telnet-server

;Setup the RADIUS server info
radius-server host <NPS Server IP>
radius-server key "<Your Secret Key from the RADIUS Client in NPS>"

;Set switch to go immediately to enable mode once authenticated
aaa authentication login privilege-mode

;Configure specific interfaces to use the RADIUS server
aaa authentication web login peap-mschapv2
aaa authentication web enable peap-mschapv2
aaa authentication ssh login peap-mschapv2
aaa authentication ssh enable peap-mschapv2

;I omitted console since I want a backdoor in case of network issues, and have adequate physical access controls
;aaa authentication console login peap-mschapv2 local
;aaa authentication console enable peap-mschapv2 local

Eric Haskins

Written by Eric Haskins, maker of things.