RADIUS authentication on a Dell PowerConnect M6220 switch

A while back I posted the ‘how-to’ on setting up HP switches for RADIUS authentication (here for GbE2c L2/L3 switches and here for ProCurve switches).

I also had to setup some Dell PowerConnect M6220 switches; these proved to be slightly more complicated than the HP’s, but followed the Cisco style config.

First we need add a custom login and enable method

aaa authentication login "LineName" radius local
aaa authentication enable "LineName" none

These are used for connections over SSH - “LineName” can be anything, I tend to use the company name to keep things standard.

On the second line, you could also use radius local - this would require a password to enter enable mode. Personally I control the login mode from the RADIUS server and find having to enter a password to get to enable again a hassle.

Next we need to setup the RADIUS server

radius-server host auth serverIpHere
name "server1"
usage login
key "SecretKeyHere"
exit

Now we just need to configure the ssh line to use our aaa methods

login authentication LineName
enable authentication LineName

Once complete you should be able to login via ssh using your RADIUS details.

If you require access to the switch over http(s) you can also configure the HTTP server to authenticate against RADIUS

ip http authentication radius local
ip https authentication radius local

We include local on every method to ensure we don’t get locked out the switch.