Radius Server Setup

September 10, 2023 - Reading time: ~1 minute

In a Cisco environment, a RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) server is commonly used to authenticate users for various network services, one of which is network access. This lab introduces using a RADIUS server to allows for centralized user authentication. Instead of maintaining separate user accounts and authentication databases on each network device. All authentication requests are sent to the RADIUS server. This centralization simplifies administration and ensures consistent authentication across the network.

Let begin by setting up a host as our Radius Server. Using the lab from the AAA Authentication tutorial, let configure Host1 to be our Radius server for Router0. 

Select Host1 and go to the Settings page and activate Radius Server under Client Services.

Proceed to the command prompt of Host1. Once you have activate the Radius Server service, three commands become available:

1. show radius - displays the current radius configuration setup
2. set radius key WORD - configures the radius key for this server
3. set radius user WORD password WORD - creates a radius server user with matching password 

For this lab, enter the following , on the command prompt, to configure the radius server:

set radius key radiuskey1
set radius user radiususer password codeword1

Confirm the configuration by using the command: show radius

Now see if you can configure Router0 to use the radius services on Host1 as a telnet authentication method. Test from Host2 & Host3 before the next tutorial. 

Please download the lab from this link.