ClearPass Integration in a University Environment

We had some issues with ClearPass integration with AirGroup on Aruba Controller Clusters. Basically, it was tough to get coordinated between the controller support and the ClearPass support.

ClearPass is well suited for 802.1X (PEAP or EAP-TLS) in wired and wireless scenarios. It can also do MAC authentication using its endpoint database. The fingerprinting is robust, as it can verify that a device is reported as the actual brand or model, instead of relying solely on MAC OUI. This is achieved by capturing DHCP request information that has been forwarded to the appliance. Using this information, extensive role mapping can be utilized in enforcement policies. For instance, you can apply one policy to a device that is considered a VoIP phone, but if you only want to target Polycom phones, that can be specified in the role mapping, which then can be enforced as a specific VLAN pushed to the switch port or a specific QoS policy. Downloadable user roles are another impressive feature of ClearPass which can be fully integrated with Aruba switches. Instead of deploying ACLs to switches, you can simply have the switch download the ACL from ClearPass. This helps with issues of management and scalability where extensive L3 segmentation is utilized across a network. Similarly, QoS and other options can also be included in download user roles. There are too many options to list all in this review. I liken the experience to a AAA Swiss Army Knife.