Multi-Host mode

[MrBeginner]

Hi ,

I am confusing in multi-host mode.Please help me to understand or where can i read detail for multi-host mode.My confusion as below.

1. Firstly, Multi-host mode is using for MAB only ? can Multi-host mode not use for 802.1x authentication ?

In my pic,

 2. Let say i configure multi-mode in switch,if PC1 authentication is fail all other device cannot try to authenticate because first packed is failed to authenticate ?

3. can i do even thought PC1 is fail to authenticate ,other device will try to authenticate in multi-host mode ?

how to chose first authenticate device in multi-host mode ?

4. Can we control or assign PC1 is supplicant to permanently  authenticate for every time ,is it work ?

Multi-host only authenticates the first MAC address and then allows all others to communicate without authentication.So can we assign that which is first MAC address ?

I can only find below info but i am still confusing in multi-host.

multi-host: Multiple mac addresses can be in DATA domain. Only first mac is authenticated.

multi-domain: Only 1 mac address can be in DATA domain and only 1 mac address can be in VOICE domain

multi-auth: Multiple mac addresses can be in DATA domain (all authenticated individually) and only 1 MAC address can be in Voice domain.

[Marius Gunnerud · Accepted solution]

1. Firstly, Multi-host mode is using for MAB only ? can Multi-host mode not use for 802.1x authentication ?

In my pic,

Multi-host mode can also be used for dot1x.  But when using multi-host mode, only one device needs to successfully authenticate.  After that device has authenticated all other devices are allowed access to the network without the need of authentication.

 2. Let say i configure multi-mode in switch,if PC1 authentication is fail all other device cannot try to authenticate because first packed is failed to authenticate ?

Hosts will continue to try to authenticate to the network regardless if the first host fails authentication.  However, if the authenticated host fails a re-authentication all other hosts will be denied access to the network until another host successfully authenticates again.

3. can i do even thought PC1 is fail to authenticate ,other device will try to authenticate in multi-host mode ?

how to chose first authenticate device in multi-host mode ?

This is not possible in multi-host mode.  You would need to use multi-auth mode for this.

4. Can we control or assign PC1 is supplicant to permanently  authenticate for every time ,is it work ?

See answer to question #2.  This type of setup is most often used with wireless access points.  The AP authenticates access to the network and then the configured authentication on the SSIDs authenticate the host machines.