Cisco Access Control Security : AAA Administration Services

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Summary: Dummy's Guide to Cisco's ACS Product
Review: As we enter the Twenty-First century, new issues and challenges await those in the Information Technology environment. Within the short few years that have already passed the need for more advanced and reliable security mechanisms are presented daily. As such, security has become a clear critical need for the continued operation of any business/organization and especially the information technology portion of the business. Brandon Carroll's book "Cisco Access Control Security: AAA Administration Services" provides a detailed guide for the implementation and deployment of a security solution developed and released by Cisco Systems. Within his book Cisco's Access Control Security or ACS as it is known, is detailed and presented from all aspects including, installation, configuration in various methods and daily use.

Within the book Brandon not only focuses on the application and all the items that make the Cisco's application special; but combines information on the features and components that make ACS important. His details supportive information needed to help System and Network Administrators make educated decisions on methods and purposes for the implementation of different methods of authentication from Cisco's proprietary TACACS+ to the IETF Radius protocol. Within the pages an I found information on how to establish Accounting passed on access groups and how to ensure different individuals are limited to select capabilities strictly based on the group they are in and permissions that group is provided.

Even if ACS itself is not your primary purpose for this book in the initial chapters offer sufficient information on other Cisco devices like routers and switches, that allow any individual to understand authentication and authorization features of the other devices. Brandon clearly researched these areas and provides this research to others by spending the entire chapter two (2) detailing the different commands that are affected by Authentication, Authorization and Accounting as they related to both TACACS+ and Radius. This level of detail is further demonstrated within the initial Section or Part of the book when Brandon explains other Radius applications that are not developed by Cisco, but supported by the Cisco products.

As I read the book it became clear that Brandon was not simply repeating what Cisco already provided on their web site, but he was going beyond the documentation to provide a level of detail that would make this almost a clear to understand dummy's guide to the product. In my belief this book makes an excellent supplement to the material and is clearly a must have for any Network Administrator/Engineer that needs to support Cisco's ACS product. Brandon's ability to detail in step by step procedures from installation to supporting the product enhances and defines the documentation already provided by Cisco is a clear advantage to this book. The only thing I wish I could have gotten with the book was a 90 day demo version of the product, but then again that is already available on the Cisco web site itself for download.

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Summary: A great read and reference for anyone implementing CS ACS.
Review: Cisco Access Control Security will walk the reader through designing, installing and administering Cisco Secure ACS. I believe by reading this book the reader will help ensure a better design and implementation of their ACS solution. If you are just beginning to learn the Cisco ACS or if you have been working with it for years you will be able to take away valuable information from reading this book.

Networks today require more and more attention to security. With the implementations of dial-up, Virtual Private Networks (VPN), Wireless and other methods for access network resources it becomes more difficult to protect the network. A large part of securing the network resides in Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) and their associated protocols (RADIUS and TACACS) to name a few.

The author, Brandon Carroll, has done a fantastic job of organizing and presenting information that I feel will be valuable for both beginners and advanced network staff. If you require an understanding to how Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) and Terminal Access Controller Access Control Systems (TACACS) can be used in your AAA design, this book provides a detailed look at these protocols and their capabilities. It then goes into great detail providing a step-by-step guide to installing and configuring the Cisco Secure Access Control Server for Windows. Screenshots are provided to help you visualize the java-based web interface.

Brandon then provides some guidelines for deploying ACS for Dialup, Virtual Private Networks (VPN), Wireless and other deployments in both small and enterprise environments. One area that was specifically important to me was distributed deployment for large enterprises. Reading this chapter made me realize several issues within the environment that I currently work; which we will now be able to address to prevent a catastrophic outage.

One of the great aspects of this book is that it makes a useful reference tool. In each chapter there are a number of web links which are related to the topic covered. These include links to standards boards covering the various protocols, specific hardware and IOS version configuration guides and links to Cisco's CCO for additional ACS documentation. The author uses screen shots of the ACS menus and configuration examples. This is extremely useful and allows for familiarity when actually sitting down to perform the first software install or configuration. The extensive screenshots and detailed RADIUS and TACACS Attribute-Value tables makes this a very quick read, even at over 400 pages.

For someone currently running Cisco's ACS software and are looking to upgrade to a newer version, this book will provide you with information covering the specific versions of ACS from version 2.0 to 3.2.

Recently Cisco has come to market with an appliance that provides a dedicated platform for the Cisco ACS software. The author focuses heavily on the ACS software and does not provide a lot detail on the Cisco ACS Solution Engine. There are enough differences between the two that I believe Brandon could have had a dedicated chapter on this. If you are searching for detailed information on the Solution Engine you will need to search Cisco's CCO.

Although the Solution Engine is not well covered; and as someone who primarily uses the Cisco ACS Solution Engine; I still highly recommend this book to anyone who is planning to or already has implemented the Cisco Secure ACS. This book has been valuable addition and a great resource.


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Summary: Never browsed the basic functions of CSACS? - good buy.
Review: This book is what I regrettably expected. It is a good base for anyone who has not browsed Cisco's Access Control Security but I don't recommend it for an in-depth reference or study guide. Whenever there is something I read that I had hoped would offer more detail, I am referred to an out-of-date Cisco link and I am forced to browse Cisco's web site, which seems scattered on the subject - I'll save that one for another time. For instance, I am looking into AV (Attribute Value Pairs) and I want to set up dynamic access-list connections and other functions other than the dynamic list and 'access-enable host timeout' features in the 'Group Setup' and it gives a hint or two that what I have in mind is possible through AV Pairs, but that is it. It doesn't show how to set them up, so I have been spending the usual hours getting piece by piece information on Cisco's site. So I spend the usual time - hours on Cisco's site instead of using the book as a valuable reference tool. There are lots of examples like this, however. The book has given me some knowledge and value but only to frustrate me because there is not much technical detail that I haven't already seen on Cisco's web site, which is why I bought the book in the first place. Good book for getting to know CSACS but if you want to be a real technician, I have no other referrals for you because this book won't give them, so good luck with browsing Cisco.com.