Re: RFC3580 Clarification / Tunnel-Medium-Type / Clarification

[Alan DeKok <aland@nitros9.org>]

Connault, Jean-Fabien wrote:
> Could someone please clarify the value being sent back through the
> Tunnel-Medium-Type RADIUS attribute?
> 
> RFC3580 states as follow:
> 
> Tunnel-Type=VLAN (13)
> Tunnel-Medium-Type=802
> Tunnel-Private-Group-ID=VLANID
> 
> So it seems that the integer value is 802, but in other places the 6
> value is listed, so it appears that "(6)" has been left out and that it
> should be "Tunnel-Medium-Type=802 (6)".

  I agree.  I this context, 802 is a name, not an integer value.

>>From a RADIUS client (switch here) perspective, should we support both 802 and
> 6 integer values? Probably yes.

  Ugh.  Yes, that's likely.

> It appears that some RADIUS servers are sending back 802 while others
> are sending back 6. Does anyone have a list of which RADIUS server is
> sending which value?

  It's not just the server.  Many servers permit the value for
enumerated types to be given as integers, in addition to names.  This is
for non-standard and/or local extensions.  So "802" is a valid value, as
is 803, 804, 805....

  Administrators can enter integer values manually, and cause the server
to send back non-standard values, even if the dictionary contains a
non-integer name such as "IEEE-802".

  My $0.02 is that the client should accept both 802 (because it's not
used elsewhere, and it's a common problem), and 6.

  I also think that the guidelines document could be updated with a
sentence or two on naming values: Names for enumerated values SHOULD NOT
be integers, as it results in precisely this kind of confusion.

  Alan DeKok.

--
to unsubscribe send a message to radiusext-request@ops.ietf.org with
the word 'unsubscribe' in a single line as the message text body.
archive: <http://psg.com/lists/radiusext/>