topic Re: Can 802.1x traffic be passed on a tagged VLAN? in ExtremeSwitching (EXOS/Switch Engine)

Can 802.1x traffic be passed on a tagged VLAN?

Eric_Gohringer — Wed, 05 May 2021 23:53:31 GMT

I’m using Ubiquiti switches to attach multiple clients to a single port on an Extreme X460G2 port. With 802.1x disabled everywhere on the Ubiquiti switch and eapol flood mode enabled I do have this working with untagged traffic. It has been a bit of an uphill battle, and there is very little on the web about it (at least that I am able to find). As long as the VLAN that I want 802.1x clients to authenticate on is untagged to the upstream switch it works. I have been able to make/break it in multiple test scenarios. What I am really puzzled about is where do the eapol packets get dropped when I tag the VLAN. Is it on the Ubiquiti/sending side, or the Extreme/receiving side?

Re: Can 802.1x traffic be passed on a tagged VLAN?

Stefan_K_ — Thu, 06 May 2021 04:39:10 GMT

Hello,

can’t really answer your question, but wanted to say, that there is no need to configure VLANs at all on the Ubiquiti. You can still move different clients on the ubiquiti to different vlans. The X460-G2 is able to handle it all on its own. So there also shouldn’t be the need to tag any vlan on the uplink.

Re: Can 802.1x traffic be passed on a tagged VLAN?

Eric_Gohringer — Thu, 06 May 2021 20:04:34 GMT

So if I leave the Ubiquiti flat I can use policy to move individual clients to the appropriate VLAN and devices will communicate properly? I’ve done this on a 1:1 with a device/port, but haven’t attempted with multiple devices. I assumed that having that many untagged VLANs would create confusion.

Re: Can 802.1x traffic be passed on a tagged VLAN?

Stefan_K_ — Thu, 06 May 2021 20:57:49 GMT

Hi Eric,

I have done this multiple times with “dumb” mini-switches. So far no issues.

I also do this always with VoIP phones and cascaded clients behind the VoIP phone, where Client and VoIP-phone are moved to different vlans. I belive the maxium is 512 different users/clients per Port.

Best regards
Stefan

Re: Can 802.1x traffic be passed on a tagged VLAN?

Eric_Gohringer — Thu, 06 May 2021 21:02:28 GMT

I’ve done this with phones as well, but always considered the phone a little dumber than a dumb switch since there is only one port past it anyway. I never thought to attempt multiple untagged VLANs. I’ll set this up and see how it goes. Thanks for the info!