Authentication, authorization, and accounting methods
AAA supports configuring different authentication, authorization, and accounting methods for different types of users in an ISP domain. The NAS determines the ISP domain and access type of a user. The NAS also uses the methods configured for the access type in the domain to control the user's access.
AAA also supports configuring a set of default methods for an ISP domain. These default methods are applied to users for whom no AAA methods are configured.
Authentication methods
The device supports the following authentication methods:
No authentication—This method trusts all users and does not perform authentication. For security purposes, do not use this method.
Local authentication—The NAS authenticates users by itself, based on the locally configured user information including the usernames, passwords, and attributes. Local authentication allows high speed and low cost, but the amount of information that can be stored is limited by the size of the storage space.
Remote authentication—The NAS works with a remote server to authenticate users. The NAS communicates with the remote server through the RADIUS, LDAP, or HWTACACS protocol. The server manages user information in a centralized manner. Remote authentication provides high capacity, reliable, and centralized authentication services for multiple NASs. You can configure backup methods to be used when the remote server is not available.
Authorization methods
The device supports the following authorization methods:
No authorization—The NAS performs no authorization exchange. The following default authorization information applies after users pass authentication:
Login users obtain the level-0 user role. For more information about the level-0 user role, see RBAC configuration in Fundamentals Configuration Guide.
The working directory for FTP, SFTP, and SCP login users is the root directory of the NAS. However, the users do not have permission to access the root directory.
Non-login users can access the network.
Local authorization—The NAS performs authorization according to the user attributes locally configured for users.
Remote authorization—The NAS works with a remote server to authorize users. RADIUS authorization is bound with RADIUS authentication. RADIUS authorization can work only after RADIUS authentication is successful, and the authorization information is included in the Access-Accept packet. HWTACACS or LDAP authorization is separate from authentication, and the authorization information is included in the authorization response after successful authentication. You can configure backup methods to be used when the remote server is not available.
Accounting methods
The device supports the following accounting methods:
No accounting—The NAS does not perform accounting for the users.
Local accounting—Local accounting is implemented on the NAS. It counts and controls the number of concurrent users that use the same local user account, but does not provide statistics for charging.
Remote accounting—The NAS works with a RADIUS server or HWTACACS server for accounting. You can configure backup methods to be used when the remote server is not available.