HP HPE6-A78 Exam With Confidence Using Practice Dumps

The scenario involves an AOS-8 controller-based solution with a WPA3-Enterprise WLAN using HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy Manager (CPPM) for authentication. The company is using digital certificates for authentication (likely EAP-TLS, as it’s the most common certificate-based method for WPA3-Enterprise). A user’s Windows domain computer has certificates installed, but authentication fails. The Mobility Controller (MC) logs show Access-Rejects from CPPM, indicating that CPPM rejected the authentication attempt.

Access-Reject: An Access-Reject message from CPPM means that the authentication failed due to a policy violation, certificate issue, or other configuration mismatch. To troubleshoot, we need to find detailed information about why CPPM rejected the request.

Option C, "The Alerts tab in the authentication record in CPPM Access Tracker," is correct. Access Tracker in CPPM logs all authentication attempts, including successful and failed ones. For a failed attempt (Access-Reject), the authentication record in Access Tracker will include an Alerts tab that provides detailed reasons for the failure. For example, if the client’s certificate is invalid (e.g., expired, not trusted, or missing a required attribute), or if the user does not match a policy in CPPM, the Alerts tab will specify the exact issue (e.g., "Certificate not trusted," "User not found in directory").

Option A, "The reports generated by HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Insight," is incorrect. ClearPass Insight is used for generating reports and analytics (e.g., trends, usage patterns), not for real-time troubleshooting of specific authentication failures.

Option B, "The RADIUS events within the CPPM Event Viewer," is incorrect. The Event Viewer logs system-level events (e.g., service crashes, NAD mismatches), not detailed authentication failure reasons. While it might log that an Access-Reject was sent, it won’t provide the specific reason for the rejection.

Option D, "The packets captured on the MC control plane destined to UDP 1812," is incorrect. Capturing packets on the MC control plane for UDP 1812 (RADIUS authentication port) can show the RADIUS exchange, but it won’t provide the detailed reason for the Access-Reject. The MC logs already show the Access-Reject, so the issue lies on the CPPM side, and Access Tracker provides more insight.

The HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy Manager 6.11 User Guide states:

"Access Tracker (Monitoring > Live Monitoring > Access Tracker) logs all authentication attempts, including failed ones. For an Access-Reject, the authentication record in Access Tracker includes an Alerts tab that provides detailed reasons for the failure. For example, in a certificate-based authentication (e.g., EAP-TLS), the Alerts tab might show ‘Certificate not trusted’ if the client’s certificate is not trusted by ClearPass, or ‘User not found’ if the user does not match a policy. This is the primary place to look for deeper insight into authentication failures." (Page 299, Access Tracker Troubleshooting Section)

Additionally, the HPE Aruba Networking AOS-8 8.11 User Guide notes:

"If the Mobility Controller logs show an Access-Reject from the RADIUS server (e.g., ClearPass), check the RADIUS server’s authentication logs for details. In ClearPass, the Access Tracker provides detailed failure reasons in the Alerts tab of the authentication record, such as certificate issues or policy mismatches." (Page 500, Troubleshooting 802.1X Authentication Section)

EAP-TLS and PEAP both provide secure authentication methods, but they differ in their requirements for client-side authentication. EAP-TLS requires both the client (supplicant) and the server to authenticate each other with certificates, thereby ensuring a very high level of security. On the other hand, PEAP requires a server-side certificate to create a secure tunnel and allows the client to authenticate using less stringent methods, such as a username and password, which are then protected by the tunnel. This makes PEAP more flexible in environments where client-side certificates are not feasible.

In ArubaOS-CX, managing and searching logs can be crucial for tracking and diagnosing issues related to network operations such as port authentication. To efficiently find logs related to port authentication, configuring a logging filter specifically for this category is highly effective.

Logging Filter Configuration: In ArubaOS-CX, you can configure logging filters to refine the logs that are collected and viewed. By setting up a filter for the "port-access" category, you focus the logging system to only capture and display entries related to port authentication events. This approach reduces the volume of log data to sift through, making it easier to identify relevant issues.

Global Application of Filter: Applying the filter globally ensures that all relevant log messages, regardless of their origin within the switch's modules or interfaces, are captured under the specified category. This global application is crucial for comprehensive monitoring across the entire device.

Alternative Options and Their Evaluation:

Option A: Adding "-C and *-c port-access" to the "show logging" command is not a standard command format in ArubaOS-CX for filtering logs directly through the show command.

Option C: Enabling debugging for "portaccess" indeed increases the detail of logs but primarily serves to provide real-time diagnostic information rather than filtering existing logs.

Option D: Specifying a logging facility focuses on routing logs to different destinations or subsystems and does not inherently filter by log category like port-access.