Both 802.1X authentication and MAC authentication enabled on the same port

This use case shows the configuration required on a RUCKUS ICX device to authenticate a non-802.1X-capable client by way of MAC authentication when the client does not respond to 802.1X authentication. In the following example, the switch will attempt 802.1X authentication first. After 802.1X timeout, the switch will authenticate the printer through MAC authentication.

802.1X authentication and MAC authentication enabled on the same port

RADIUS configuration

Create a device profile for the printer's MAC address on the RADIUS server and configure the attributes in the following table.

RADIUS attributes for printer profile

Attribute Value
Tunnel-Medium-Type IEEE-802
Tunnel-Pvt-Group-ID 200
Tunnel-Type VLAN

RUCKUS ICX switch configuration

  1. Specify RADIUS as an authentication server. The following command configures the switch to use the configured RADIUS server to authenticate 802.1X authentication or MAC authentication clients. 
    device(config)# aaa authentication dot1x default radius
  2. Configure a RADIUS server. In the following example, the RADIUS server IP address is 10.20.64.208 and the shared key is "secret". The shared key must match the key given during client configuration on the RADIUS server. UDP port 1812 is used for RADIUS authentication messages and UDP port 1813 is used for RADIUS accounting messages. 
    device(config)# radius-server host 10.20.64.208 auth-port 1812 acct-port 1813 default key secret dot1x mac-auth web-auth
  3. Create a VLAN to be used as the auth-default VLAN. This VLAN must be configured to enable authentication. When any port is enabled for 802.1X authentication or MAC authentication, the port is moved into this VLAN by default as a MAC VLAN member. Sometimes the RADIUS server may authenticate the client but not return VLAN information on where the client should be placed. The auth-default VLAN is used in this scenario. 
    device(config)# vlan 2 name auth-default-vlan
device(config-vlan-2)# exit
  4. Create the VLANs that will be assigned to clients by RADIUS. RADIUS will return VLAN 200 for the printer. This VLAN must be active in the RUCKUS ICX device. A VLAN is active when it has at least one untagged or tagged member port. In the following example, VLAN 200 is made active by adding the unused port 2/1/12 as an untagged member. 
    device(config)# vlan 200 name clientA
device(config-vlan-200)# untagged ethernet 2/1/12
device(config-vlan-200)# exit
  5. Specify which VLAN ID to use as the auth-default VLAN under authentication mode. Refer to step 3 for the use of the auth-default VLAN. 
    device(config)# authentication
device(config-authen)# auth-default-vlan 2
  6. Enable 802.1X on the switch under authentication mode and enable 802.1X on port 1/1/11. Configure the port control mode as auto in general configuration mode. This mode enables 802.1X authentication on the interface. 
    device(config-authen)# dot1x enable
device(config-authen)# dot1x enable ethernet 1/1/11
device(config-authen)# exit
device(config)# dot1x port-control auto ethernet 1/1/11
  7. Enable MAC authentication on the switch under authentication mode and enable MAC authentication for port 1/1/11. 
    device(config)# authentication
device(config-authen)# mac-auth enable
device(config-authen)# mac-auth enable ethernet 1/1/11
device(config-authen)# exit
  8. To verify the authentication-related configuration on the switch, use the show run authentication command. Authentication-related configurations are stored under the keyword "authentication". 
    device# show run authentication
authentication
 critical-vlan 601
 auth-default-vlan 2
 restricted-vlan 401
 auth-fail-action restricted-vlan
 re-authentication
 dot1x enable
 dot1x enable ethe 1/1/11 
 dot1x guest-vlan 501
 mac-authentication enable
 mac-authentication enable ethe 1/1/11 
!