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Manual Chapter : TACACS+ Authentication and Accounting

Applies To:

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BIG-IP APM

  • 16.0.1, 16.0.0
Manual Chapter

TACACS+ Authentication and Accounting

About TACACS+ authentication and accounting

Access Policy Manager (APM®) supports authenticating and authorizing the client against Terminal Access Controller Access Control System (TACACS+) servers.
TACACS+
 is a mechanism used to encrypt the entire body of the authentication packet. If you use TACACS+ authentication, user credentials are authenticated on a remote TACACS+ server. If you use the TACACS+ Accounting feature, the accounting service sends
start
 and
stop
 accounting records to the remote server.
APM supports TACACS+ authentication with the TACACS+ Auth access policy item and supports TACACS+ accounting with the TACACS+ Acct access policy item.
APM must include a TACACS+ server configuration for every TACACS+ server that exists.

About AAA high availability

Using AAA high availability with Access Policy Manager (APM), you can configure multiple authentication servers to process requests, so that if one authentication server goes down or loses connectivity, the others can resume authentication requests, and new sessions can be established, as usual.
Although new authentications fail if the BIG-IP system loses connectivity to the server, existing sessions are unaffected provided that they do not attempt to re-authenticate.
APM supports the following AAA servers for high availability: RADIUS, Active Directory, LDAP, CRLDP, and TACACS+. APM supports high availability by providing the option to create a pool of server connections when you configure the supported type of AAA server.
If you use AAA with pools, such as RADIUS pools or Active Directory pools, APM assigns each pool member with a different number for the pool member's priority group value. APM must define each pool member with a different priority group because AAA load balancing is not used. The priority group number increases automatically with each created pool member. Alternative AAA pool configurations can be defined manually using the full flexibility of Local Traffic Manager (LTM) if high availability is desired.

Task summary for TACACS+ authentication and accounting

This task list includes all steps required to set up this configuration. If you are adding TACACS+ authentication or accounting to an existing access policy, you do not need to create another access profile and the access policy might already include a logon page.

Configuring a TACACS+ AAA server for authentication and authorization

  1. On the Main tab, click
    Access
    Authentication
    TACACS+
    .
    The TACACS+ Servers list screen opens.
  2. Click
    Create
    .
    The New Server properties screen opens.
  3. In the
    Name
     field, type a unique name for the authentication server.
  4. For the
    Server Connection
     setting, select one of these options:
    • Select
      Use Pool
       to set up high availability for the AAA server.
    • Select
      Direct
       to set up the AAA server for standalone functionality.
  5. If you selected
    Use Pool
    , type a name in the
    Server Pool Name
     field.
    You create a pool of servers on this screen.
  6. Provide the addresses required for your server connection:
    • If you selected
      Direct
      , type an IP address in the
      Server Address
       field.
    • If you selected
      Use Pool
      , for each pool member you want to add, type an IP address in the
      Server Addresses
       field and click
      Add
      .
      When you configure a pool, you have the option to type the server address in route domain format:
      IPAddress
      %
      RouteDomain
      .
  7. If you selected
    Use Pool
    , you have the option to select a
    Server Pool Monitor
     to track the health of the server pool.
  8. In the
    Service Port
     field, type a TACACS+ service port or select one from the list. The default is
    49
    .
  9. In the
    Secret
     field, type a secret key to use to encrypt and decrypt packets sent or received from the server, and then re-type the secret key in the
    Confirm Secret
     field.
  10. For the
    Service
     setting, select the name of the service for the user who is being authenticated to use.
    Identifying the service enables the TACACS+ server to behave differently for different types of authentication requests.
  11. Click
    Finished
    .
    The new server displays on the list.

Using TACACS+ authentication in an access policy

You configure an access policy with a TACACS+ Auth action to provide TACACS+ authentication as an authentication option for users trying to gain access.
  1. In the Per-Session Policy column, click the
    Edit
     link for the access profile you want to configure.
    The visual policy editor opens the access policy in a separate screen.
  2. Click the
    (+)
     icon anywhere in the access policy to add a new item.
    Only an applicable subset of access policy items is available for selection in the visual policy editor for any access profile type.
    A popup screen opens, listing predefined actions on tabs such as General Purpose, Authentication, and so on.
  3. On the Logon tab, select
    Logon Page
     and click the
    Add Item
     button.
    The Logon Page Agent properties screen opens.
  4. Make any changes that you require to the logon page properties and click
    Save
    .
    The properties screen closes and the policy displays.
  5. Click the
    (+)
     icon anywhere in the access policy to add a new item.
    Only an applicable subset of access policy items is available for selection in the visual policy editor for any access profile type.
    A popup screen opens, listing predefined actions on tabs such as General Purpose, Authentication, and so on.
  6. Select
    TACACS+ Auth
    , and click
    Add item.
    A properties popup screen opens.
  7. From the
    AAA Server
     list, select the TACACS+ server to use for authentication.
  8. Add any other branches and actions that you need to complete the policy.
  9. Click
    Save
    .
    The properties screen closes and the policy displays.
  10. Click
    Apply Access Policy
     to save your configuration.
This creates an access policy that presents a user with a logon page, and then uses the input credentials to authenticate the user with an external TACACS+ server specified in the TACACS+ AAA server that you select.
To apply this access policy to network traffic, add the access profile to a virtual server.
To ensure that logging is configured to meet your requirements, verify the log settings for the access profile.

Verify log settings for the access profile

Confirm that the correct log settings are selected for the access profile to ensure that events are logged as you intend.
Log settings are configured in the
Access
Overview
Event Log
Settings
area of the product. They enable and disable logging for access system and URL request filtering events. Log settings also specify log publishers that send log messages to specified destinations.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Access
    Profiles / Policies
    .
    The Access Profiles (Per-Session Policies) screen opens.
  2. Click the name of the access profile that you want to edit.
    The properties screen opens.
  3. On the menu bar, click
    Logs
    .
    The access profile log settings display.
  4. Move log settings between the
    Available
     and
    Selected
     lists.
    You can assign up to three log settings that enable access system logging to an access profile. You can assign additional log settings to an access profile provided that they enable logging for URl request logging only.
    Logging is disabled when the
    Selected
     list is empty.
  5. Click
    Update
    .
An access profile is in effect when it is assigned to a virtual server.

Test AAA high availability for supported authentication servers

To effectively test that high availability works for your authentication servers, you should have two servers that are accessible, where you can remove one of them from the network.
High availability is supported for these authentication server types only: RADIUS, Active Directory, LDAP, CRLDP, and TACACS+.
If you configured a supported authentication server type to use a pool of connection servers, you can test the configuration using these steps.
  1. Begin a
    tcpdump
     on the Access Policy Manager, using a protocol analyzer, and scanning for packets destined for the specific port for your authentication server.
  2. Log in to the virtual server with both servers active.
  3. Using the
    tcpdump
     records, verify that the requests are being sent to the higher priority server.
  4. Log out of the virtual server.
  5. Disable the higher-priority server.
  6. Log in to the virtual server again.
  7. Verify that the request is being sent to the other server.
  8. Log out again, re-enabling the server, and try one more time to verify that the new requests are being sent to the high priority server.

Example access policy for TACACS+ authentication and accounting

This is an example of an access policy with all the associated elements needed to authenticate and authorize users with TACACS+ authentication. Note that the server used for authentication can be different from the server used for TACACS+ accounting service.
How TACACS Plus works
How TACACS+ works

TACACS+ session variables for access policy rules

When the TACACS+ Auth (or TACACS+ Acct) access policy item runs, it populates session variables which are then available for use in access policy rules. The tables list the session variables for the TACACS+ access policy items and for a logon access policy item.

Session variables for TACACS+

Session Variable
Description
session.tacasplus.last.acct.start_date; session.tacasplus.last.acct.start_time
Provides TACACS+ accounting start time and date set by the accounting agent.
session.tacacsplus.last.acctresult
Allows the accounting agent to set the available values to either of the following values:
  • 0: Failed
  • 1: Succeeds
session.tacacsplus.last.errmsgs
Contains the error message string when the TACACS+ authentication or accounting fails.
session.tacacsplus.last.result
Sets to 1 when authentication succeeds, or 0 when it fails.

Common session variables

Session Variable
Description
session.logon.last.username
Provides user credentials. The
username
 string is stored after encrypting, using the system's client key.
session.logon.last.password
Provides user credentials. The
password
 string is stored after encrypting, using the system's client key.

TACACS+ authentication troubleshooting tips

You might run into problems with TACACS+ authentication in some instances. Follow these tips to try to resolve any issues you might encounter.

TACACS+ auth and query troubleshooting

Possible error messages
Possible explanations and corrective actions
No AAA server associated with the agent
Make sure that a valid TACACS+ server configuration is assigned to the agent (TACACS+ Auth or TACACS+ Acct) used in the access policy.
Failure to connect to TACACS+ server
Make sure that the TACACS+ server is up and running and reachable from the BIG-IP system.
Login incorrect
Supplied user credentials are not valid.
Invalid reply content, incorrect key
Make sure that the shared encryption key configured on the TACACS+ server configuration matches with the key on the remote TACACS+ server.
Invalid AUTHEN/START packet from server
Indicates either the wrong keys or that the authentication action (LOGIN) is not supported on the server.
Unacceptable authen method
Indicates that the TACACS+ server does not support the authentication. Check the settings on the server.
Unexpected failure return/legal status value from authentication function/Permission error
Caused by internal errors on the remote TACACS+ server. Check the logs on the remote TACACS+ server and also the configuration.
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