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N-Tron® Series NT5000 - Setting up RADIUS Authentication

06 Jun 2025

 

This article demonstrates how to setup RADIUS authentication on the NT5000 series switch for remote user access.

 

APPLICABLE PRODUCTS

  • N-Tron Series NT5000 Gigabit Managed Switches

 

PRE-REQUISITES

You will need a RADIUS server to add the NT5000 as a client and you will need administrator access to the NT5000 switch. For illustration purposes, we are using FreeRADIUS on Ubuntu. 

 

IN THIS ARTICLE

FreeRADIUS Configuration

  1. Install FreeRADIUS from FreeRADIUS
  2. Configure the authorization credentials. On the current version of FreeRADIUS, edit the file located at /etc/freeradius/3.0/mods-config/files/authorize. Scroll down until you see the canonical testing user labeled "bob". Uncomment bob's entry by deleting the # symbol at the start of the line. You will want to edit the entry so it looks like the following:
    bob    Cleartext-Password := "hello"
           Service-Type= Login-User,
           Cisco-AVPair = "shell:priv-lvl=15",
           Reply-Message := "Hello, %{User-Name}"
  3. To establish our client, the switch, add it to the clients.conf file located in the freeradius directory. You will want to change your IP address so that it points to your switch and your secret:
    client    NT5000 {
        ipaddr = 192.168.1.201
        secret = testing123
    }
  4. Start the server in debugging mode to see the output. The command is radiusd -x.

NT5000 Configuration

  1. Log into the web interface of the NT5000 switch. If you are unable to login, refer to the bottom of this article for additional details.

  2. Navigate to Security > Users > Connections and change Authentication 1 from Local to RADIUS and Authentication 2 to Local. Below we've changed only HTTP for web interface access.



  3. Navigate to Security > RADIUS > Servers. Add your RADIUS Authentication server's IP address and
    its related ports, 1812 and 1813 are the default ports for RADIUS. It will also ask for the Secret Key. This will be the secret that you established in the RADIUS server for authentication. Once you've created the server host, it will hide the Secret Key.



  4. Finally, save all changes. Navigate to System > Config > Click the save icon on the far-right hand side of the screen under your username.

  5. You will now be able to log into this NT5000 switch using the credentials provided in your FreeRADIUS user bob,