1288 PowerConnect B-Series FCX Configuration Guide53-1002266-01Configuring multi-device port authentication36Disabling aging for authenticated MAC addressesMAC addresses that have been authenticated or denied by a RADIUS server are aged out if notraffic is received from the MAC address for a certain period of time:• Authenticated MAC addresses or non-authenticated MAC addresses that have been placed inthe restricted VLAN are aged out if no traffic is received from the MAC address over the devicenormal MAC aging interval.• Non-authenticated MAC addresses that are blocked by the device are aged out if no traffic isreceived from the address over a fixed hardware aging period (70 seconds), plus aconfigurable software aging period. (Refer to the next section for more information onconfiguring the software aging period).You can optionally disable aging for MAC addresses subject to authentication, either for all MACaddresses or for those learned on a specified interface.Globally disabling aging of MAC addressesOn most devices, you can disable aging for all MAC addresses on all interfaces where multi-deviceport authentication has been enabled by entering the following command.PowerConnect(config)#mac-authentication disable-agingSyntax: mac-authentication disable-agingEnter the command at the global or interface configuration level.The denied-only parameter prevents denied sessions from being aged out, but ages out permittedsessions.The permitted-only parameter prevents permitted (authenticated and restricted) sessions frombeing aged out and ages denied sessions.Disabling the aging of MAC addresses on interfacesTo disable aging for all MAC addresses subject to authentication on a specific interface wheremulti-device port authentication has been enabled, enter the command at the interface level.ExamplePowerConnect(config)#interface e 3/1PowerConnect(config-if-e1000-3/1)#mac-authentication disable-agingSyntax: [no] mac-authentication disable-agingChanging the hardware aging period for blockedMAC addressesWhen the Dell PowerConnect device is configured to drop traffic from non-authenticated MACaddresses, traffic from the blocked MAC addresses is dropped in hardware, without being sent tothe CPU. A Layer 2 hardware entry is created that drops traffic from the MAC address in hardware.If no traffic is received from the MAC address for a certain amount of time, this Layer 2 hardwareentry is aged out. If traffic is subsequently received from the MAC address, then an attempt can bemade to authenticate the MAC address again.
