Wi-Fi employee access – Aruba wireless controllers

In this topic, you will learn how to configure Aruba wireless controllers to work together with Portnox™ Cloud and 802.1X RADIUS authentication for Wi-Fi connections.

Important:
This guide provides general instructions for integrating Portnox Cloud with specific third-party devices. While we aim to provide helpful examples for commonly used models, configurations may vary across manufacturers, models, and environments. As a result, we cannot guarantee that these steps will work in every scenario. For questions or issues related to RADIUS setup – which is an industry standard and not specific to Portnox – or device-specific settings and troubleshooting, we recommend consulting the device manufacturer’s documentation and contacting their support team. While Portnox Support is happy to assist where possible, please note that detailed configuration of third-party devices is typically best handled by the manufacturer.
Important:
All values in this configuration are examples. Make sure to adjust the configuration to your individual profile names, RADIUS server addresses, ports, and keys by replacing the values that are presented as underlined italics.

Aruba Central WPA2 Enterprise

In this section, you will learn how to configure access points managed using Aruba Central to work together with Portnox™ Cloud and 802.1X RADIUS authentication for Wi-Fi connections.

Note:
This configuration was tested using the Aruba AP-505 Access Point.
  1. In the left-hand side main menu, click on the Devices option and then, in the right-hand side pane, click on the name of the device that you want to configure.

  2. In the left-hand side menu for the selected device, click on the Device option. Then, in the right-hand side pane, make sure that the WLANs tab is active, and under the Wireless SSIDs list, click on the Add SSID button to add a new SSID.

    Note:
    You can also edit an existing SSID by clicking on its name on the Wireless SSIDs list.
  3. In the Create a New Network wizard, fill in the fields as required for your new SSID until you get to the Security step.
  4. In the Security step:

    1. Set the Security Level slider to the Enterprise position.
    2. In the Key Management field, select the preferred key management protocol.
    3. Click on the  +  icon to the right of the Primary Server label to create a RADIUS server configuration.
  5. In the New Server window:

    1. In the Server Type field, select the RADIUS option.
    2. In the Name field, enter a name for this RADIUS server configuration.
    3. In the IP Address/FQDN field, enter your Cloud RADIUS IP, which you obtained when you created the Cloud RADIUS server.
    4. In the Shared Key and Retype Keyfields, paste your Shared Secret, also obtained when you created the Cloud RADIUS server.
    5. In the Auth Port field, enter your Authentication port number, also obtained when you created the Cloud RADIUS server.
    6. In the Accounting Port field, enter your Accounting port number, also obtained when you created the Cloud RADIUS server.
    7. In the Timeout (in secs) field, enter 30 to avoid timeouts due to any intermittent Internet connection delays.
    8. Click on the OK button to save your configuration.
  6. Optional: Back in the Create a New Network wizard’s Security step, click on the  +  icon to the right of the Secondary Server label to create a second RADIUS server configuration.

    Note:
    Do this only if your Portnox Cloud tenant is configured with two Cloud RADIUS servers or if you’re using a local RADIUS server in addition to the Cloud RADIUS server.
  7. Complete the remaining steps of the Create a New Network wizard.

Aruba Central Identity PSK (IPSK)

In this section, you will learn how to configure access points managed using Aruba Central to work together with Portnox™ Cloud and RADIUS-based identity pre-shared key (IPSK) authentication for Wi-Fi connections.

For more information about IPSK in Portnox Cloud, see the following topic: Create a MAC-based account.
  1. In the left-hand side main menu, click on the Devices option and then, in the right-hand side pane, click on the name of the device that you want to configure.

  2. In the left-hand side menu for the selected device, click on the Device option. Then, in the right-hand side pane, make sure that the WLANs tab is active, and under the Wireless SSIDs list, click on the Add SSID button to add a new SSID.
    Important:
    You cannot use the same SSID for both WPA2/WPA3 Enterprise authentication and IPSK authentication, so you need to create separate SSIDs.

    Note:
    You can also edit an existing SSID by clicking on its name on the Wireless SSIDs list.
  3. In the Create a New Network wizard, fill in the fields as required for your new SSID until you get to the Security step.
  4. In the Security step:

    1. Set the Security Level slider to the Personal position.
    2. In the Key Management field, select the MPSK AES protocol.
    3. Click on the  +  icon to the right of the Primary Server label to create a RADIUS server configuration.
      Note:
      If you already added RADIUS servers for a different SSID based on 802.1X authentication (previous section of this topic), do not click the  +  icon, skip the next step (creating RADIUS servers), select an existing server in the Primary Server field, and then select the other existing server in the Secondary Server field that appears.
  5. In the New Server window:

    1. In the Server Type field, select the RADIUS option.
    2. In the Name field, enter a name for this RADIUS server configuration.
    3. In the IP Address/FQDN field, enter your Cloud RADIUS IP, which you obtained when you created the Cloud RADIUS server.
    4. In the Shared Key and Retype Keyfields, paste your Shared Secret, also obtained when you created the Cloud RADIUS server.
    5. In the Auth Port field, enter your Authentication port number, also obtained when you created the Cloud RADIUS server.
    6. In the Accounting Port field, enter your Accounting port number, also obtained when you created the Cloud RADIUS server.
    7. In the Timeout (in secs) field, enter 30 to avoid timeouts due to any intermittent Internet connection delays.
    8. Click on the OK button to save your configuration.
  6. Optional: Back in the Create a New Network wizard’s Security step, click on the  +  icon to the right of the Secondary Server label to create a second RADIUS server configuration.

    Note:
    Do this only if your Portnox Cloud tenant is configured with two Cloud RADIUS servers or if you’re using a local RADIUS server in addition to the Cloud RADIUS server.
  7. Complete the remaining steps of the Create a New Network wizard.

Aruba 7000 Series

In this section, you will learn how to configure Aruba 7000 series of controllers with the ArubaOS operating system to work together with Portnox™ Cloud and 802.1X RADIUS authentication for Wi-Fi connections.

Warning:
This topic contains documentation prepared by our support agents more than 12 months ago. It may not cover the newest models or the newest interfaces of NAS devices. We’re working on bringing you updated documentation for NAS devices in the near future. However, the methods of setting up third-party devices may still change when the manufacturers update their firmware or release new models.
  1. In the Aruba web interface, navigate to Configuration > Wizards > Campus WLAN, and add a new SSID or select an existing one.

  2. In the Internal/Guest section, select Internal.

  3. In the Authentication and Encryption section, select Strong encryption with 802.1x authentication.

  4. In the Authentication Server section, add a new server.

    1. In Server type, select RADIUS.
    2. Enter your Cloud RADIUS details.
  5. Navigate to Configuration > Security > Authentication > Servers, select the RADIUS server that you created in the previous step, and update the Timeout to 30 seconds.

  6. Click on Save Configuration.