Setting authentication-method lists for RADIUS

You can use RADIUS to authenticate Telnet/SSH access and access to Privileged EXEC level and CONFIG levels of the CLI. When configuring RADIUS authentication, you create authentication-method lists specifically for these access methods, specifying RADIUS as the primary authentication method.

Within the authentication-method list, RADIUS is specified as the primary authentication method and up to six backup authentication methods are specified as alternates. If RADIUS authentication fails due to an error, the device tries the backup authentication methods in the order they appear in the list.

When you configure authentication-method lists for RADIUS, you must create a separate authentication-method list for Telnet or SSH CLI access and for CLI access to the Privileged EXEC level and CONFIG levels of the CLI.

To create an authentication-method list that specifies RADIUS as the primary authentication method for securing Telnet access to the CLI.

device(config)#enable telnet authentication
device(config)#aaa authentication login default radius local

The commands above cause RADIUS to be the primary authentication method for securing Telnet access to the CLI. If RADIUS authentication fails due to an error with the server, local authentication is used instead.

To create an authentication-method list that specifies RADIUS as the primary authentication method for securing access to Privileged EXEC level and CONFIG levels of the CLI.

device(config)#aaa authentication enable default radius local none

The command above causes RADIUS to be the primary authentication method for securing access to Privileged EXEC level and CONFIG levels of the CLI. If RADIUS authentication fails due to an error with the server, local authentication is used instead. If local authentication fails, no authentication is used; the device automatically permits access.

Syntax: [no] aaa authentication { enable | login default } method 1 [ method 2-7 ]

The aaa authentication | enable | login parameter specifies the type of access this authentication-method list controls. You can configure one authentication-method list for each type of access.

The method1 parameter specifies the primary authentication method. The remaining optional method parameters specify additional methods to try if an error occurs with the primary method. A method can be one of the values listed in the Method Parameter column in the following table.