Cisco UCS Manager GUI Configuration Guide, Release 2.0

Authentication Services

Cisco UCS supports two methods to authenticate user logins:

Through user accounts local to Cisco UCS Manager
Remotely through one of the following protocols:
- LDAP
- RADIUS
- TACACS+

Guidelines and Recommendations for Remote Authentication Providers

If a system is configured for one of the supported remote authentication services, you must create a provider for that service to ensure that Cisco UCS Manager can communicate with it. In addition, you need to be aware of the following guidelines that impact user authorization:

User Accounts in Remote Authentication Services

User accounts can exist locally in Cisco UCS Manager or in the remote authentication server.

The temporary sessions for users who log in through remote authentication services can be viewed through Cisco UCS Manager GUI or Cisco UCS Manager CLI.

User Roles in Remote Authentication Services

If you create user accounts in the remote authentication server, you must ensure that the accounts include the roles those users require for working in Cisco UCS Manager and that the names of those roles match the names used in Cisco UCS Manager. Depending on the role policy, a user may not be allowed to log in or will be granted only read-only privileges.

User Attributes in Remote Authentication Providers

For RADIUS and TACACS+ configurations, you must configure a user attribute for Cisco UCS in each remote authentication provider through which users log in to Cisco UCS Manager. This user attribute holds the roles and locales assigned to each user.

Note

This step is not required for LDAP configurations that use LDAP Group Mapping to assign roles and locales.

When a user logs in, Cisco UCS Manager does the following:

Queries the remote authentication service.
Validates the user.
If the user is validated, checks for the roles and locales assigned to that user.

The following table contains a comparison of the user attribute requirements for the remote authentication providers supported by Cisco UCS.

Table 1 Comparison of User Attributes by Remote Authentication Provider
Authentication Provider	Custom Attribute	Schema Extension	Attribute ID Requirements
LDAP	Not required if group mapping is used Optional if group mapping is not used	Optional. You can choose to do either of the following: Do not extend the LDAP schema and configure an existing, unused attribute that meets the requirements. Extend the LDAP schema and create a custom attribute with a unique name, such as CiscoAVPair.	The Cisco LDAP implementation requires a unicode type attribute. If you choose to create the CiscoAVPair custom attribute, use the following attribute ID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.287247.1 A sample OID is provided in the following section.
RADIUS	Optional	Optional. You can choose to do either of the following: Do not extend the RADIUS schema and use an existing, unused attribute that meets the requirements. Extend the RADIUS schema and create a custom attribute with a unique name, such as cisco-avpair.	The vendor ID for the Cisco RADIUS implementation is 009 and the vendor ID for the attribute is 001. The following syntax example shows how to specify multiples user roles and locales if you choose to create the cisco-avpair attribute: `shell:roles="admin,aaa" shell:locales="L1,abc"`. Use a comma "," as the delimiter to separate multiple values.
TACACS+	Required	Required. You must extend the schema and create a custom attribute with the name cisco-av-pair.	The cisco-av-pair name is the string that provides the attribute ID for the TACACS+ provider. The following syntax example shows how to specify multiples user roles and locales when you create the cisco-av-pair attribute: `cisco-av-pair=shell:roles="admin aaa" shell:locales"L1 abc"`. Using an asterisk () in the cisco-av-pair attribute syntax flags the locale as optional, preventing authentication failures for other Cisco devices that use the same authorization profile. Use a space as the delimiter to separate multiple values.

Sample OID for LDAP User Attribute

The following is a sample OID for a custom CiscoAVPair attribute:

CN=CiscoAVPair,CN=Schema,
CN=Configuration,CN=X
objectClass: top
objectClass: attributeSchema
cn: CiscoAVPair
distinguishedName: CN=CiscoAVPair,CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,CN=X
instanceType: 0x4
uSNCreated: 26318654
attributeID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.287247.1
attributeSyntax: 2.5.5.12
isSingleValued: TRUE
showInAdvancedViewOnly: TRUE
adminDisplayName: CiscoAVPair
adminDescription: UCS User Authorization Field
oMSyntax: 64
lDAPDisplayName: CiscoAVPair
name: CiscoAVPair
objectCategory: CN=Attribute-Schema,CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,CN=X

LDAP Group Rule

The LDAP group rule is used to determine whether Cisco UCS should use LDAP groups when assigning user roles and locales to a remote user.

Configuring Properties for LDAP Providers

The properties that you configure in this task are the default settings for all provider connections of this type defined in Cisco UCS Manager. If an individual provider includes a setting for any of these properties, Cisco UCS uses that setting and ignores the default setting.

Before You Begin

If you are using Active Directory as your LDAP server, create a user account in the Active Directory server to bind with Cisco UCS. This account should be given a non-expiring password.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.

Step 2

On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > LDAP.

Step 3

Complete the following fields in the Properties area:

Name	Description
Timeout field	The length of time in seconds the system should spend trying to contact the LDAP database before it times out. Enter an integer from 1 to 60 seconds. The default value is 30 seconds. This property is required.
Attribute field	An LDAP attribute that stores the values for the user roles and locales. This property is always a name-value pair. The system queries the user record for the value that matches this attribute name. If you do not want to extend your LDAP schema, you can configure an existing, unused LDAP attribute with the Cisco UCS roles and locales. Alternatively, you can create an attribute named CiscoAVPair in the remote authentication service with the following attribute ID: `1.3.6.1.4.1.9.287247.1`
Base DN field	The specific distinguished name in the LDAP hierarchy where the server should begin a search when a remote user logs in and the system attempts to get the user's DN based on their username. The maximum supported string length is 127 characters. This property is required. If you do not specify a base DN on this tab then you must specify one on the General tab for every LDAP provider defined in this Cisco UCS domain.
Filter field	The LDAP search is restricted to those usernames that match the defined filter. This property is required. If you do not specify a filter on this tab then you must specify one on the General tab for every LDAP provider defined in this Cisco UCS domain.

Step 4

Click Save Changes.

What to Do Next

Create an LDAP provider.

Creating an LDAP Provider

Cisco UCS Manager supports a maximum of 16 LDAP providers.

Before You Begin

If you are using Active Directory as your LDAP server, create a user account in the Active Directory server to bind with Cisco UCS. This account should be given a non-expiring password.

In the LDAP server, perform one of the following configurations:
- Configure LDAP groups. LDAP groups contain user role and locale information.
- Configure users with the attribute that holds the user role and locale information for Cisco UCS Manager. You can choose whether to extend the LDAP schema for this attribute. If you do not want to extend the schema, use an existing LDAP attribute to hold the Cisco UCS user roles and locales. If you prefer to extend the schema, create a custom attribute, such as the CiscoAVPair attribute. The Cisco LDAP implementation requires a unicode type attribute. If you choose to create the CiscoAVPair custom attribute, use the following attribute ID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.287247.1
- For a cluster configuration, add the management port IP addresses for both fabric interconnects. This configuration ensures that remote users can continue to log in if the first fabric interconnect fails and the system fails over to the second fabric interconnect. All login requests are sourced from these IP addresses, not the virtual IP address used by Cisco UCS Manager.
If you want to use secure communications, create a trusted point containing the certificate of the root certificate authority (CA) of the LDAP server in Cisco UCS Manager.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.

Step 2

On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > LDAP.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the General tab.

Step 4

In the Actions area, click Create LDAP Provider.

Step 5

On the Create LDAP Provider page of the wizard, do the following:

Complete the following fields with information about the LDAP service you want to use:

Name

Description

Hostname field

The hostname or IP address on which the LDAP provider resides. If SSL is enabled, this field must exactly match a Common Name (CN) in the security certificate of the LDAP database.

Note

If you use a hostname rather than an IP address, you must configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Manager.

Order field

The order in which Cisco UCS uses this provider to authenticate users.

Enter an integer between 1 and 16, or enter lowest-available or 0 (zero) if you want Cisco UCS to assign the next available order based on the other providers defined in this Cisco UCS domain.

Bind DN field

The distinguished name (DN) for an LDAP database account that has read and search permissions for all objects under the base DN.

The maximum supported string length is 127 ASCII characters.

Base DN field

The specific distinguished name in the LDAP hierarchy where the server should begin a search when a remote user logs in and the system attempts to get the user's DN based on their username. The maximum supported string length is 127 characters.

This value is required unless a default base DN has been set on the LDAP General tab.

Port field

The port through which Cisco UCS communicates with the LDAP database. The standard port number is 389.

Enable SSL check box

If checked, encryption is required for communications with the LDAP database. If unchecked, authentication information will be sent as clear text.

LDAP uses STARTTLS. This allows encrypted communication using port 389.

Filter field

The LDAP search is restricted to those usernames that match the defined filter.

This value is required unless a default filter has been set on the LDAP General tab.

Attribute field

An LDAP attribute that stores the values for the user roles and locales. This property is always a name-value pair. The system queries the user record for the value that matches this attribute name.

If you do not want to extend your LDAP schema, you can configure an existing, unused LDAP attribute with the Cisco UCS roles and locales. Alternatively, you can create an attribute named CiscoAVPair in the remote authentication service with the following attribute ID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.287247.1

This value is required unless a default attribute has been set on the LDAP General tab.

Password field

The password for the LDAP database account specified in the Bind DN field. You can enter any standard ASCII characters except for space, § (section sign), ? (question mark), or = (equal sign).

Confirm Password field

The LDAP database password repeated for confirmation purposes.

Timeout field

The length of time in seconds the system should spend trying to contact the LDAP database before it times out.

Enter an integer from 1 to 60 seconds, or enter 0 (zero) to use the global timeout value specified on the LDAP General tab. The default is 30 seconds.

Click Next.

Step 6

On the LDAP Group Rule page of the wizard, do the following:

Complete the following fields:

Name

Description

Group Authorization field

Whether Cisco UCS also searches LDAP groups when authenticating and assigning user roles and locales to remote users. This can be one of the following:

Disable—Cisco UCS does not access any LDAP groups.
Enable—Cisco UCS searches all LDAP groups mapped in this Cisco UCS domain. If the remote user is found, Cisco UCS assigns the user roles and locales defined for that LDAP group in the associated LDAP group map.

Note

Role and locale assignment is cumulative. If a user is included in multiple groups, or has a role or locale specified in the LDAP attribute, Cisco UCS assigns that user all the roles and locales mapped to any of those groups or attributes.

Group Recursion field

Whether Cisco UCS searches both the mapped groups and their parent groups. This can be one of the following:

Non Recursive—Cisco UCS searches only the groups mapped in this Cisco UCS domain. If none of the groups containing the user explicitly set the user's authorization properties, Cisco UCS uses the default settings.
Recursive—Cisco UCS searches each mapped group and all its parent groups for the user's authorization properties. These properties are cumulative, so for each group Cisco UCS finds with explicit authorization property settings, it applies those settings to the current user. Otherwise it uses the default settings.

Target Attribute field

The attribute Cisco UCS uses to determine group membership in the LDAP database.

The supported string length is 63 characters. The default string is memberOf.

Click Finish.

What to Do Next

For implementations involving a single LDAP database, select LDAP as the authentication service.

For implementations involving multiple LDAP databases, configure an LDAP provider group.

Changing the LDAP Group Rule for an LDAP Provider

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.

Step 2

On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > LDAP.

Step 3

Expand LDAP Providers and choose the LDAP provider for which you want to change the group rule.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the General tab.

Step 5

In the LDAP Group Rules area, complete the following fields:

Name

Description

Group Authorization field

Whether Cisco UCS also searches LDAP groups when authenticating and assigning user roles and locales to remote users. This can be one of the following:

Disable—Cisco UCS does not access any LDAP groups.
Enable—Cisco UCS searches all LDAP groups mapped in this Cisco UCS domain. If the remote user is found, Cisco UCS assigns the user roles and locales defined for that LDAP group in the associated LDAP group map.

Note

Role and locale assignment is cumulative. If a user is included in multiple groups, or has a role or locale specified in the LDAP attribute, Cisco UCS assigns that user all the roles and locales mapped to any of those groups or attributes.

Group Recursion field

Whether Cisco UCS searches both the mapped groups and their parent groups. This can be one of the following:

Non Recursive—Cisco UCS searches only the groups mapped in this Cisco UCS domain. If none of the groups containing the user explicitly set the user's authorization properties, Cisco UCS uses the default settings.
Recursive—Cisco UCS searches each mapped group and all its parent groups for the user's authorization properties. These properties are cumulative, so for each group Cisco UCS finds with explicit authorization property settings, it applies those settings to the current user. Otherwise it uses the default settings.

Target Attribute field

The attribute Cisco UCS uses to determine group membership in the LDAP database.

The supported string length is 63 characters. The default string is memberOf.

Step 6

Click Save Changes.

Deleting an LDAP Provider

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > LDAP.
Step 3	Expand LDAP Providers.
Step 4	Right-click the LDAP provider you want to delete and choose Delete.
Step 5	If the Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

LDAP Group Mapping

For organizations that already use LDAP groups to restrict access to LDAP databases, group membership information can be used by UCSM to assign a role or locale to an LDAP user during login. This eliminates the need to define role or locale information in the LDAP user object when Cisco UCS Manager is deployed.

When a user logs in to Cisco UCS Manager, information about the user's role and locale are pulled from the LDAP group map. If the role and locale criteria match the information in the policy, access is granted.

Role and locale definitions are configured locally in Cisco UCS Manager and do not update automatically based on changes to an LDAP directory. When deleting or renaming LDAP groups in an LDAP directory, it is important that you update Cisco UCS Manager with the change.

An LDAP group map can be configured to include any of the following combinations of roles and locales:

Roles only
Locales only
Both roles and locales

For example, consider an LDAP group representing a group of server administrators at a specific location. The LDAP group map might be configured to include user roles like server-profile and server-equipment. To restrict access to server administrators at a specific location, the locale could be set to a particular site name.

Note

Cisco UCS Manager includes many out-of-the-box user roles but does not include any locales. Mapping an LDAP provider group to a locale requires that you create a custom locale.

Creating an LDAP Group Map

Before You Begin

Create an LDAP group in the LDAP server.
Configure the distinguished name for the LDAP group in the LDAP server.
Create locales in Cisco UCS Manager (optional).
Create custom roles in Cisco UCS Manager (optional).

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > LDAP.
Step 3	Right-click LDAP Group Maps and choose Create LDAP Group Map.
Step 4	In the Create LDAP Group Map dialog box, do the following: In the LDAP Group DN field, enter the distinguished name of the group in the LDAP database. Important: This name must match the name in the LDAP database exactly. In the Roles table, check the check boxes for all roles that you want to assign to users who are included in the group map. In the Locales table, check the check boxes for all locales that you want to assign to users who are included in the group map. Click OK.

What to Do Next

Set the LDAP group rule.

Deleting an LDAP Group Map

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > LDAP.
Step 3	Expand LDAP Group Maps.
Step 4	Right-click the LDAP group map you want to delete and choose Delete.
Step 5	If the Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

Configuring Properties for RADIUS Providers

The properties that you configure in this task are the default settings for all provider connections of this type defined in Cisco UCS Manager. If an individual provider includes a setting for any of these properties, Cisco UCS uses that setting and ignores the default setting.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.

Step 2

In the Admin tab, expand User Management > RADIUS.

Step 3

Complete the following fields in the Properties area:

Name

Description

Timeout field

The length of time in seconds the system should spend trying to contact the RADIUS database before it times out.

Enter an integer from 1 to 60 seconds, or enter 0 (zero) to use the global timeout value specified on the RADIUS General tab. The default is 5 seconds.

Retries field

The number of times to retry the connection before the request is considered to have failed.

Step 4

Click Save Changes.

What to Do Next

Create a RADIUS provider.

Creating a RADIUS Provider

Cisco UCS Manager supports a maximum of 16 RADIUS providers.

Before You Begin

Perform the following configuration in the RADIUS server:

Configure users with the attribute that holds the user role and locale information for Cisco UCS Manager. You can choose whether to extend the RADIUS schema for this attribute. If you do not want to extend the schema, use an existing RADIUS attribute to hold the Cisco UCS user roles and locales. If you prefer to extend the schema, create a custom attribute, such as the cisco-avpair attribute. The vendor ID for the Cisco RADIUS implementation is 009 and the vendor ID for the attribute is 001. The following syntax example shows how to specify multiples user roles and locales if you choose to create the cisco-avpair attribute: shell:roles="admin,aaa" shell:locales="L1,abc". Use a comma "," as the delimiter to separate multiple values.
For a cluster configuration, add the management port IP addresses for both fabric interconnects. This configuration ensures that remote users can continue to log in if the first fabric interconnect fails and the system fails over to the second fabric interconnect. All login requests are sourced from these IP addresses, not the virtual IP address used by Cisco UCS Manager.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.

Step 2

On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > RADIUS.

Step 3

In the Create RADIUS Provider dialog box:

Complete the fields with the information about the RADIUS service you want to use.

Name

Description

Hostname field

The hostname or IP address on which the RADIUS provider resides.

Note

If you use a hostname rather than an IP address, you must configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Manager.

Order field

The order in which Cisco UCS uses this provider to authenticate users.

Enter an integer between 1 and 16, or enter lowest-available or 0 (zero) if you want Cisco UCS to assign the next available order based on the other providers defined in this Cisco UCS domain.

Key field

The SSL encryption key for the database.

Confirm Key field

The SSL encryption key repeated for confirmation purposes.

Authorization Port field

The port through which Cisco UCS communicates with the RADIUS database.

Timeout field

The length of time in seconds the system should spend trying to contact the RADIUS database before it times out.

Enter an integer from 1 to 60 seconds, or enter 0 (zero) to use the global timeout value specified on the RADIUS General tab. The default is 5 seconds.

Retries field

The number of times to retry the connection before the request is considered to have failed.

If desired, enter an integer between 0 and 5. If you do not specify a value, Cisco UCS uses the value specified on the RADIUS General tab.

Click OK.

Step 4

Click Save Changes.

What to Do Next

For implementations involving a single RADIUS database, select RADIUS as the primary authentication service.

For implementations involving multiple RADIUS databases, configure a RADIUS provider group.

Deleting a RADIUS Provider

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	In the Admin tab, expand User Management > RADIUS.
Step 3	Right-click the RADIUS provider you want to delete and choose Delete.
Step 4	If the Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

Configuring Properties for TACACS+ Providers

The properties that you configure in this task are the default settings for all provider connections of this type defined in Cisco UCS Manager. If an individual provider includes a setting for any of these properties, Cisco UCS uses that setting and ignores the default setting.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	In the Admin tab, expand User Management > TACACS+.
Step 3	In the Properties area, complete the Timeout field: The length of time in seconds the system should spend trying to contact the TACACS+ database before it times out. Enter an integer from 1 to 60 seconds, or enter 0 (zero) to use the global timeout value specified on the TACACS+ General tab. The default is 5 seconds.
Step 4	Click Save Changes.

What to Do Next

Create an TACACS+ provider.

Creating a TACACS+ Provider

Cisco UCS Manager supports a maximum of 16 TACACS+ providers.

Before You Begin

Perform the following configuration in the TACACS+ server:

Create the cisco-av-pair attribute. You cannot use an existing TACACS+ attribute. The cisco-av-pair name is the string that provides the attribute ID for the TACACS+ provider. The following syntax example shows how to specify multiples user roles and locales when you create the cisco-av-pair attribute: cisco-av-pair=shell:roles="admin aaa" shell:locales*"L1 abc". Using an asterisk (*) in the cisco-av-pair attribute syntax flags the locale as optional, preventing authentication failures for other Cisco devices that use the same authorization profile. Use a space as the delimiter to separate multiple values.
For a cluster configuration, add the management port IP addresses for both fabric interconnects. This configuration ensures that remote users can continue to log in if the first fabric interconnect fails and the system fails over to the second fabric interconnect. All login requests are sourced from these IP addresses, not the virtual IP address used by Cisco UCS Manager.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.

Step 2

On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > TACACS+.

Step 3

In the Actions area of the General tab, click Create TACACS+ Provider.

Step 4

In the Create TACACS+ Provider dialog box:

Complete the fields with the information about the TACACS+ service you want to use.

Name

Description

Hostname field

The hostname or IP address on which the TACAS+ provider resides.

Note

If you use a hostname rather than an IP address, you must configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Manager.

Order field

The order in which Cisco UCS uses this provider to authenticate users.

Enter an integer between 1 and 16, or enter lowest-available or 0 (zero) if you want Cisco UCS to assign the next available order based on the other providers defined in this Cisco UCS domain.

Key field

The SSL encryption key for the database.

Confirm Key field

The SSL encryption key repeated for confirmation purposes.

Port field

The port through which Cisco UCS should communicate with the TACACS+ database.

Enter an integer between 1 and 65535. The default port is 49.

Timeout field

The length of time in seconds the system should spend trying to contact the TACACS+ database before it times out.

Enter an integer from 1 to 60 seconds, or enter 0 (zero) to use the global timeout value specified on the TACACS+ General tab. The default is 5 seconds.

Click OK.

Step 5

Click Save Changes.

What to Do Next

For implementations involving a single TACACS+ database, select TACACS+ as the primary authentication service.

For implementations involving multiple TACACS+ databases, configure a TACACS+ provider group.

Deleting a TACACS+ Provider

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	In the Admin tab, expand User Management > TACACS+.
Step 3	Right-click the TACACS+ provider you want to delete and choose Delete.
Step 4	If the Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

Multiple Authentication Systems

You can configure Cisco UCS to use multiple authentication systems by configuring the following features:

Provider groups
Authentication domains

Provider Groups

A provider group is a set of providers that will be used by Cisco UCS during the authentication process. Cisco UCS Manager allows you to create a maximum of 16 provider groups, with a maximum of eight providers allowed per group.

During authentication, all the providers within a provider group are tried in order. If all of the configured servers are unavailable or unreachable, Cisco UCS Manager automatically falls back to the local authentication method using the local username and password.

Creating an LDAP Provider Group

Creating an LDAP provider group allows you to authenticate using multiple LDAP databases.

Note

Authenticating with a single LDAP database does not require you to set up an LDAP provider group.

Before You Begin

Create one or more LDAP providers.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > LDAP.
Step 3	Right-click LDAP Provider Groups and choose Create LDAP Provider Group.
Step 4	In the Create LDAP Provider Group dialog box, do the following: In the Name field, enter a unique name for the group. This name can be between 1 and 127 characters. In the LDAP Providers table, choose one or more providers to include in the group. Click the >> button to add the providers to the Included Providers table. You can use the << button to remove providers from the group. After you have added all desired providers to the provider group, click OK.

What to Do Next

Configure an authentication domain or select a default authentication service.

Deleting an LDAP Provider Group

Before You Begin

Remove the provider group from an authentication configuration.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > LDAP.
Step 3	Expand LDAP Provider Groups.
Step 4	Right-click the LDAP provider group you want to delete and choose Delete.
Step 5	If the Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

Creating a RADIUS Provider Group

Creating a RADIUS provider group allows you to authenticate using multiple RADIUS databases.

Note

Authenticating with a single RADIUS database does not require you to set up a RADIUS provider group.

Before You Begin

Create one or more RADIUS providers.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > RADIUS.
Step 3	Right-click RADIUS Provider Groups and choose Create RADIUS Provider Group.
Step 4	In the Create RADIUS Provider Group dialog box, do the following: In the Name field, enter a unique name for the group. This name can be between 1 and 127 ASCII characters. In the RADIUS Providers table, choose one or more providers to include in the group. Click the >> button to add the providers to the Included Providers table. You can use the << button to remove providers from the group. After you have added all desired providers to the provider group, click OK.

What to Do Next

Configure an authentication domain or select a default authentication service.

Deleting a RADIUS Provider Group

You cannot delete a provider group if it is being used by an authentication configuration.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > RADIUS.
Step 3	Expand RADIUS Provider Groups.
Step 4	Right-click the RADIUS provider group you want to delete and choose Delete.
Step 5	If the Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

Creating a TACACS+ Provider Group

Creating a TACACS+ provider group allows you to authenticate using multiple TACACS+ databases.

Note

Authenticating with a single TACACS+ database does not require you to set up a TACACS+ provider group.

Before You Begin

Create one or more TACACS+ providers.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > TACACS+.
Step 3	Right-click TACACS+ Provider Groups and choose Create TACACS+ Provider Group.
Step 4	In the Create TACACS+ Provider Group dialog box, do the following: In the Name field, enter a unique name for the group. This name can be between 1 and 127 ASCII characters. In the TACACS+ Providers table, choose one or more providers to include in the group. Click the >> button to add the providers to the Included Providers table. You can use the << button to remove providers from the group. After you have added all desired providers to the provider group, click OK.

Deleting a TACACS+ Provider Group

You cannot delete a provider group if it is being used by an authentication configuration.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > TACACS+.
Step 3	Expand TACACS+ Provider Groups.
Step 4	Right-click the TACACS+ provider group you want to delete and choose Delete.
Step 5	If the Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

Authentication Domains

Authentication domains are used by Cisco UCS Manager to leverage multiple authentication systems. Each authentication domain is specified and configured during login. If no authentication domain is specified, the default authentication service configuration is used.

You can create up to eight authentication domains. Each authentication domain is associated with a provider group and realm in Cisco UCS Manager. If no provider group is specified, all servers within the realm are used.

Creating an Authentication Domain

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.

Step 2

On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > Authentication.

Step 3

Right-click Authentication Domains and choose Create a Domain.

Step 4

In the Create a Domain dialog box, complete the following fields:

Name

Description

Name field

The name of the domain.

This name can be between 1 and 16 alphanumeric characters. You cannot use spaces or any special characters other than - (hyphen), _ (underscore), : (colon), and . (period), and you cannot change this name after the object has been saved.

Note

For systems using RADIUS as their preferred authentication protocol, the authentication domain name is considered part of the user name and counts toward the 32 character limit for locally created user names. Because Cisco UCS inserts 5 characters for formatting, authentication will fail if the combined total of the domain name plus the user name is more than 27 characters.

Web Session Refresh Period field

When a web client connects to Cisco UCS Manager, the client needs to send refresh requests to Cisco UCS Manager to keep the web session active. This option specifies the maximum amount of time allowed between refresh requests for a user in this domain.

If this time limit is exceeded, Cisco UCS Manager considers the web session to be inactive, but it does not terminate the session.

Specify an integer between 60 and 172800. The default is 600 seconds.

Web Session Timeout field

The maximum amount of time that can elapse after the last refresh request before Cisco UCS Manager considers a web session to have ended. If this time limit is exceeded, Cisco UCS Manager automatically terminates the web session.

Specify an integer between 60 and 172800. The default is 7200 seconds.

Realm field

The authentication protocol that will be applied to users in this domain. This can be one of the following:

Local—The user account must be defined locally in this Cisco UCS domain.
Radius—The user must be defined on the RADIUS server specified for this Cisco UCS domain.
Tacacs—The user must be defined on the TACACS+ server specified for this Cisco UCS domain.
Ldap—The user must be defined on the LDAP server specified for this Cisco UCS domain.

Provider Group drop-down list

If the Realm is set to anything other than Local, this field allows you to select the associated provider group, if any.

Step 5

Click OK.

Selecting the Console Authentication Service

Before You Begin

If the system uses a remote authentication service, create a provider for that authentication service. If the system uses only local authentication through Cisco UCS, you do not need to create a provider first.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.

Step 2

On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > Authentication.

Step 3

Click Native Authentication.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the General tab.

Step 5

In the Console Authentication area, complete the following fields:

Name

Description

Realm field

The method by which a user logging into the console is authenticated. This can be one of the following:

Local—The user account must be defined locally in this Cisco UCS domain.
Radius—The user must be defined on the RADIUS server specified for this Cisco UCS domain.
Tacacs—The user must be defined on the TACACS+ server specified for this Cisco UCS domain.
Ldap—The user must be defined on the LDAP server specified for this Cisco UCS domain.
None—If the user account is local to this Cisco UCS domain, no password is required when the user logs into the console.

Provider Group drop-down list

The provider group to be used to authenticate a user logging into the console.

Step 6

Click Save Changes.

Selecting the Default Authentication Service

Before You Begin

If the system uses a remote authentication service, create a provider for that authentication service. If the system uses only local authentication through Cisco UCS, you do not need to create a provider first.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.

Step 2

On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > Authentication.

Step 3

Click Native Authentication.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the General tab.

Step 5

In the Default Authentication area, complete the following fields:

Name

Description

Realm drop-down list

The default method by which a user is authenticated during remote login. This can be one of the following:

Local—The user account must be defined locally in this Cisco UCS domain.
Radius—The user must be defined on the RADIUS server specified for this Cisco UCS domain.
Tacacs—The user must be defined on the TACACS+ server specified for this Cisco UCS domain.
Ldap—The user must be defined on the LDAP server specified for this Cisco UCS domain.
None—If the user account is local to this Cisco UCS domain, no password is required when the user logs in remotely.

Provider Group drop-down list

The default provider group to be used to authenticate the user during remote login.

Step 6

Click Save Changes.

Role Policy for Remote Users

By default, if user roles are not configured in Cisco UCS Manager read-only access is granted to all users logging in to Cisco UCS Manager from a remote server using the LDAP, RADIUS, or TACACS protocols. For security reasons, it might be desirable to restrict access to those users matching an established user role in Cisco UCS Manager.

You can configure the role policy for remote users in the following ways:

assign-default-role

Does not restrict user access to Cisco UCS Manager based on user roles. Read-only access is granted to all users unless other user roles have been defined in Cisco UCS Manager.

This is the default behavior.

no-login: Restricts user access to Cisco UCS Manager based on user roles. If user roles have not been assigned for the remote authentication system, access is denied.

Configuring the Role Policy for Remote Users

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
Step 2	On the Admin tab, expand All > User Management > Authentication.
Step 3	Click Native Authentication.
Step 4	In the Work pane, click the General tab.
Step 5	In the Role Policy for Remote Users field, click one of the following radio buttons to determine what happens when a user attempts to log in and the remote authentication provider does not supply a user role with the authentication information: No Login—The user is not allowed to log in to the system, even if the username and password are correct. Assign Default Role—The user is allowed to log in with a read-only user role.
Step 6	Click Save Changes.

Results

Chapter: Configuring Authentication

Configuring Authentication

Authentication Services

Guidelines and Recommendations for Remote Authentication Providers

User Accounts in Remote Authentication Services

User Roles in Remote Authentication Services

User Attributes in Remote Authentication Providers

Sample OID for LDAP User Attribute

LDAP Group Rule

Configuring Properties for LDAP Providers

Creating an LDAP Provider

Changing the LDAP Group Rule for an LDAP Provider

Deleting an LDAP Provider

LDAP Group Mapping

Creating an LDAP Group Map

Deleting an LDAP Group Map

Configuring Properties for RADIUS Providers

Creating a RADIUS Provider

Deleting a RADIUS Provider

Configuring Properties for TACACS+ Providers

Creating a TACACS+ Provider

Deleting a TACACS+ Provider

Multiple Authentication Systems

Provider Groups

Creating an LDAP Provider Group

Deleting an LDAP Provider Group

Creating a RADIUS Provider Group

Deleting a RADIUS Provider Group

Creating a TACACS+ Provider Group

Deleting a TACACS+ Provider Group

Authentication Domains

Creating an Authentication Domain

Selecting the Console Authentication Service

Selecting the Default Authentication Service

Role Policy for Remote Users

Configuring the Role Policy for Remote Users

Was this Document Helpful?

Let Us Help

Share