This section provides an example for configuring RADIUS Single Sign On (SSO) for Internet access users when a FW works as an egress gateway.
Networking Requirements
An enterprise has deployed a
FW as the egress gateway to connect the intranet to the Internet, as shown in
Figure 1.
- Internet access users use the NAS to access the Internet.
- The NAS sends user credentials to the RADIUS server for user authentication. The RADIUS server stores user and user group information.
- Internet access users include R&D employees and marketing employees.
Figure 1 RADIUS SSO for Internet access users

The user management and authentication mechanisms of the FW must identify IP addresses on the intranet as users to implement user-specific
behavior control and permission assignment. Requirements are as follows:
- Information about users and departments is saved on the FW and can be referenced by policies.
- After passing the authentication by entering correct RADIUS accounts and passwords, R&D employees and marketing employees can access network resources. R&D employees and marketing employees are identified by the user names they use for RADIUS
authentication.
- If the RADIUS accounts of new employees have been created on a RADIUS server but not stored on a FW, the FW considers them as temporary users and assigns
them permissions of the specified group.
Configuration Roadmap
This example describes only how to configure user management and authentication.
- Export user information on a RADIUS server into a CSV file in the specified format and import the CSV file into a FW to create users and user groups in a batch.
- Set RADIUS SSO parameters on the FW.
- Set a new user authentication option for the default authentication domain. After a new user is authenticated, the user adopts the permission of the newuser group to access network resources.
- To prevent users from frequently log in to and log off from the FW, you are advised to set users' online duration to a larger value than the update interval of RADIUS accounting packets on the FW. In the example, the online duration is set to 480 minutes.
- On the FW, configure an authentication policy for users' service traffic and set the action to authentication exemption.
- Because the FW is deployed between users and the RADIUS server, authentication packets pass through the FW. Therefore, to implement SSO, configure an authentication
policy to disable the FW from authenticating the authentication requests destined for the RADIUS server and configure security policies to ensure normal communication between the FW and RADIUS server.
Data Planning
| Item |
Data |
Description |
Parent group of new users
|
Name: newuser
Parent Group: /default
|
As a temporary user, and use permission of this group newuser.
|
RADIUS SSO
|
RADIUS SSO: Enable
- Working mode: In-line
- Receiving Interface: GigabitEthernet 0/0/3
- Traffic to be analyzed by RADIUS SSO: 10.2.0.50:1813 (IP address of the RADIUS server: accounting port)
|
Set SSO parameters on the FW for the FW to analyze the RADIUS accounting packets passing by to obtain user-IP address mappings.
|
Procedure
- Choose , set IP addresses for interfaces and assign the interfaces to security zones.
The following example describes how to configure interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/3. You can configure other interfaces based on the networking diagram.
Zone
|
trust
|
IP Address
|
10.3.0.1/24
|
- Choose , click Add to configure security policies.
- Configure a security policy between the Trust zone (users and NAS device) and DMZ (RADIUS server) for users to get authenticated by the RADIUS server.
Name
|
policy_sec_radius
|
Source Zone
|
trust
|
Destination Zone
|
dmz
|
Destination Address
|
10.2.0.0/24
|
Action
|
Permit
|
- Configure a security policy to allow users to access the Internet.
Name
|
policy_sec_02
|
Source Zone
|
trust
|
Destination Zone
|
untrust
|
Source Address
|
10.3.0.0/24
|
Action
|
Permit
|
- Choose , import users and user groups from a CSV file.
- In Import User, click Download CSV Template and download the CSV template to your PC.

- Write user information on the RADIUS server into a CSV file according to the template.
Read the instructions on the CSV template and fill in user information. The following figure shows a complete CSV file.
- Click Import to import the CSV file.

- Choose , configure RADIUS SSO and click Apply.
The user groups and users in the default authentication domain are imported through the CSV file on the previous step. The newuser user group accommodates new users.
- Choose , set the online user timeout duration to 480 minutes.
- Choose , click Add to configure authentication policies. Configure the action in the authentication
policy for users to access the RADIUS server as no-authentication so that the users' authentication packets can go through the FW to the RADIUS server. Configure the action in the authentication policy for
users' service traffic to authentication exemption so that the FW can obtain user information through SSO.
Name
|
auth_policy_radius
|
Source Zone
|
trust
|
Destination Zone
|
dmz
|
Destination Address/Region
|
10.2.0.50/32
|
Action
|
No authentication
|
Name
|
auth_policy_service
|
Source Zone
|
trust
|
Source Address/Region
|
10.3.0.0/24
|
Action
|
Authentication exemption
|
If the action of the authentication policy is set to authentication exemption, the FW obtains user information through SSO and permits the traffic when user information fails to be obtained
during SSO authentication. If the network has high security requirements, set the action of the authentication policy to portal authentication. Then the FW will implement portal authentication on the users
failing the SSO authentication.
- After the configuration is complete, you can configure security policies, PBR policies, bandwidth policies, quota control policies, proxy policies, and audit policies that reference the user
and user group objects.
Verification
- R&D employees can access network resources after successful logins to the NAS using RADIUS accounts and passwords.
- Marketing employees can access network resources after successful logins to the NAS using RADIUS accounts and passwords.
- On the FW, choose to see information about online users.
Configuration Scripts
#
sysname FW
#
user-manage online-user aging-time 480
user-manage single-sign-on radius
enable
mode in-path
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/3
traffic server-ip 10.2.0.50 port 1813
#
security-policy
rule name sec_policy_radius
source-zone trust
destination-zone dmz
destination-address 10.2.0.0 24
action permit
rule name policy_sec_02
source-zone trust
source-address 10.3.0.0 24
destination-zone untrust
action permit
#
auth-policy
rule name auth_policy_radius
source-zone trust
destination-zone dmz
destination-address 10.2.0.50 32
action none
rule name auth_policy_service
source-zone trust
source-address 10.3.0.0 24
action exempt-auth
#
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/1
ip address 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
#
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/2
ip address 10.2.0.1 255.255.255.0
#
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/3
ip address 10.3.0.1 255.255.255.0
#
firewall zone trust
add interface GigabitEthernet0/0/3
#
firewall zone untrust
add interface GigabitEthernet0/0/1
#
firewall zone dmz
add interface GigabitEthernet0/0/2
#
aaa
domain default
service-type internetaccess
internet-access mode single-sign-on
new-user add-temporary group /default/newuser
# The following configuration is used to perform a one-time operation and not stored in the configuration profile.
user-manage user-import demo.csv auto-create-group override
user-manage group /default/newuser