CLI based OVA/OVF Deployment for ESXi

Reading Time: 6 minutes I use ESXi in my lab and need to deploy new VM’s on a regular basis. Whenever possible, I use an OVA/OVF deployment as this is very handy and easy. Unfortunately, I have no vSphere license so I use the ESXi embedded host client for administration. This shiny web UI has one drawback. It cannot deploy OVA/OVF … Read more

External SQL Authentication Source with ClearPass

Reading Time: 3 minutes Recently, I had a customer who had all of his user accounts in an external SQL database and we were looking for a way to authenticate against this external SQL authentication source with ClearPass. It is easy, to get this working and the following post demonstrates the configuration. ClearPass supports MSSQL, Oracle and PostgreSQL out … Read more

How To use the ClearPass RestAPI

Reading Time: 7 minutes This article is all about the ClearPass RestAPI. My goal is to give you a short overview of the capabilities of the ClearPass RestAPI and show one possible use case. Maybe you can comment on the article and describe your use case. I’m working on a project with the need to onboard a device with ClearPass. … Read more

MAC Authentication with Username using ClearPass

Reading Time: 5 minutes Ever wondered why you can’t use MAC authentication and get the correct username for monitoring purposes, for example? Actually, with ClearPass you can use MAC authentication with a username. You can return the correct username, not the MAC address so that monitoring applications can use this username instead of the MAC address. Configure the Controller … Read more

Operator Login with Radius Authentication and Authorization

Reading Time: 4 minutes This time is all about radius based operator login, as some devices might not support TACACS+. The post describes the operator login with radius authentication and command authorization. This post covers only the ArubaOS devices which do not support TACACS+ command authorization. Operator Login with Radius on ArubaOS Switches For those ArubaOS switches, which do … Read more

Operator Command Authorization and Accounting with ClearPass TACACS+

Reading Time: 4 minutes This is the second post on the TACACS+ topic. This time the post is all about TACACS+ operator command authorization and accounting. This is very helpful for logging who does what at which time and makes troubleshooting easier. Operator command authorization and accounting means, that all commands issued at the device, are sent to the … Read more

Operator Login with ClearPass TACACS+

Reading Time: 10 minutes This post is all about operator login with ClearPass. I show the implementation of authenticating a network operator to Aruba Switches, Comware based switches, Aruba Controller and AirWave. For some devices, I will show the process with TACACS+. For those, which do not support TACACS+, I use radius authentication, which I describe in a later … Read more

Campus Trends for 2017 for Campus Networks

Reading Time: 5 minutes In this post, I will highlight some key trends for campus networks. Which technologies are important for 2017 and which campus trends can make your life easier in the future. For the year 2017 I see the following campus trends for campus networks: The wireless only office is there Layer 3 mobility for wired clients Locations … Read more

Aruba Instant – External Captive Portal Enhancement

Reading Time: 4 minutes In my last post, I described a simple way, to use the an external captive portal with the Aruba Instant solution. This time, I will change the lab environment to support bridged clients. I will also cover the scenario with the internal dhcp server and the situation with an individual certificate. External Captive Portal in Bridged … Read more

Aruba Instant with External Captive Portal

Reading Time: 7 minutes This time, I write about the scenario, using Aruba Instant with external captive portal. With external portal, I did not mean ClearPass. It can be a simple web server, with a simple web page, hosing the captive portal. I show, how to send back the information to Instant AP and get the user online. How … Read more