Question on RADIUS VSAs

Rashmi Pitre (rpitre@smtp.microcom.com)
Fri, 6 Jun 1997 15:53:55 -0400




Here is a question on VSAs.

I am trying to get the Livingston (and Ascend )RADIUS server(s) to
return vendor-specific attributes to my radius client. Everything
works ok but for the fact that I cannot specify my "vendor-id " - a 4
byte value as part of the vendor-specific attribute string.Obviously,
the server needs to offer some format to allow the administrator to
specify this as part of the user entry - which means special
processing for vendor-specific attributes. Livingston tech. support
informed me that VSAs are not supported by the server at this time.

I understand that Cisco supports a vendor-specific attribute that it
calls "cisco-avpair" and it has patches for some servers to support
that. Does this mean that for every vendor who adds vendor-specific
attributes, the server code needs to be updated? Shouldn't there be a
standard format for this attribute which servers should understand and
adhere to?



Rashmi Pitre
Microcom Inc.