Cisco Network Admission Control, Volume II : NAC Network Deployment and Troubleshooting

Cisco Network Admission Control

Volume II: NAC Framework Deployment and Troubleshooting

The self-defending network in action

Jazib Frahim, CCIE® No. 5459

Omar Santos

David White, Jr., CCIE No. 12,021

When most information security professionals think about threats to their networks, they think about the threat of attackers from the outside. However, in recent years the number of computer security incidents occurring from trusted users within a company has equaled those occurring from external threats. The difference is, external threats are fairly well understood and almost all companies utilize tools and technology to protect against those threats. In contrast, the threats from internal trusted employees or partners are often overlooked and much more difficult to protect against.

Network Admission Control (NAC) is designed to prohibit or restrict access to the secured internal network from devices with a diminished security posture until they are patched or updated to meet the minimum corporate security requirements. A fundamental component of the Cisco® Self-Defending Network Initiative, NAC enables you to enforce host patch policies and to regulate network access permissions for noncompliant, vulnerable systems.

Cisco Network Admission Control, Volume II, helps you understand how to deploy the NAC Framework solution and ultimately build a self-defending network. The book focuses on the key components that make up the NAC Framework, showing how you can successfully deploy and troubleshoot each component and the overall solution. Emphasis is placed on real-world deployment scenarios, and the book walks you step by step through individual component configurations. Along the way, the authors call out best practices and tell you which mistakes to avoid. Component-level and solution-level troubleshooting techniques are also presented. Three full-deployment scenarios walk you through application of NAC in a small business, medium-sized organization, and large enterprise.

“To successfully deploy and troubleshoot the Cisco NAC solution requires thoughtful builds and design of NAC in branch, campus, and enterprise topologies. It requires a practical and methodical view towards building layered security and management with troubleshooting, auditing, and monitoring capabilities.”

–Jayshree V. Ullal, Senior Vice President, Datacenter, Switching and Security Technology Group, Cisco Systems®

Jazib Frahim, CCIE® No. 5459, is a senior network security engineer in the Worldwide Security Services Practice of the Cisco Advanced Services for Network Security team. He is responsible for guiding customers in the design and implementation of their networks with a focus on network security.

Omar Santos is a senior network security engineer in the Worldwide Security Services Practice of the Cisco Advanced Services for Network Security team. He has more than 12 years of experience in secure data communications.

David White, Jr., CCIE No. 12,021, has more than 10 years of networking experience with a focus on network security. He is currently an escalation engineer in the Cisco TAC, where he has been for more than six years.

• Effectively deploy the Cisco Trust Agent
• Configure Layer 2 IP and Layer 2 802.1x NAC on network access devices
• Examine packet flow in a Cisco IOS NAD when NAC is enabled, and configure Layer 3 NAC on the NAD
• Monitor remote access VPN tunnels
• Configure and troubleshoot NAC on the Cisco ASA and PIX security appliances
• Install and configure Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS) for NAC
• Install the Cisco Security Agent Manage-ment Center and create agent kits
• Add antivirus policy servers to ACS for external antivirus posture validation
• Understand and apply audit servers to your NAC solution
• Use remediation servers to automatically patch end hosts to bring them in compliance with your network policies
• Monitor the NAC solution using the Cisco Security Monitoring, Analysis, and Response System (MARS)

This security book is part of the Cisco Press® Networking Technology Series. Security titles from Cisco Press help networking professionals secure critical data and resources, prevent and mitigate network attacks, and build end-to-end self-defending networks.

Category: Cisco Press–Security

Covers: Network Admission Control

Jazib Frahim, CCIE No. 5459, has been with Cisco Systems for more than seven years. With a Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, he started out as a TAC engineer with the LAN Switching team. He then moved to the TAC Security team, where he acted as a technical leader for the security products. He led a team of 20 engineers as a team leader in resolving complicated security and VPN technologies. Jazib is currently working as a Senior Network Security Engineer in the Worldwide Security Services Practice of Cisco’s Advanced Services for Network Security. He is responsible for guiding customers in the design and implementation of their networks, with a focus in network security. He holds two CCIEs, one in Routing and Switching and the other in Security. He also authored the Cisco Press book Cisco ASA: All-in-one Firewall, IPS, and VPN Adaptive Security Appliance(ISBN: 1-58705-209-1). Additionally, Jazib has written numerous Cisco online technical documents and has been an active member on Cisco’s online forum, NetPro. He has presented at Networkers on multiple occasions and has taught many onsite and online courses to Cisco customers, partners, and employees.

Jazib is currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from North Carolina State University.

Omar Santos is a Senior Network Security Consulting Engineer in the Worldwide Security Services Practice of Cisco’s Advanced Services for Network Security. He has more than 12 years of experience in secure data communications. Omar has designed, implemented, and supported numerous secure networks for Fortune 500 companies and the U.S. government, including the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and Department of Defense (DoD). He is also the author of the Cisco Press book Cisco ASA: All-in-one Firewall, IPS, and VPN Adaptive Security Appliance(ISBN: 1-58705-209-1) and many Cisco online technical documents and configuration guidelines. Prior to his current role, he was a technical leader of Cisco’s Technical Assistance Center (TAC), where he taught, led, and mentored many engineers within the organization. He is an active member of the InfraGard organization, a cooperative undertaking between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and an association of businesses, academic institutions, state and local law-enforcement agencies, and other participants that are dedicated to increasing the security of the critical infrastructures of the United States of America. Omar has also delivered numerous technical presentations to Cisco customers, partners, and other organizations.

David White, Jr., CCIE No. 12021, has more than ten years of networking experience with a focus on network security. He is currently an Escalation Engineer in the Cisco TAC, where he has been for more than six years. In his role at Cisco, he is involved in new product design and implementation and is an active participant in Cisco documentation, both online and in print. David holds a CCIE in Security and is also NSA IAM certified. Before joining Cisco, David worked for the U.S. government, where he helped secure its worldwide communications network. He was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, and received his Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.