New ACS purchase

[mo shea]

Hi..

I am in the process of purchasing an ACS solution engine for our company, to be used to authenticate LAN switches only, but I need some guidance to what exactly I need to order...

I have the following

- ACS 4.0 Solution engine

- Is there any smartnet or service contract that is recommended?

- For backup purposes, do I need to order an additional ACS 4.0 License to be insatlled on a high end PC?

- Is there any specific training for this product that I can include?

- Apart from configuring ACS authentication and backup, what other important things I should ensure the supplier configure?

All help is appreciated

Thanks

[andrew.burns]

Hi,

There should be a standard smartnet contract available for the SE - check with your reseller.

Regarding backup - if you need high availability then purchasing two SE's and configuring database replication between them would be your best bet. Otherwise just remember to do regular backups in case you ever need to do a system recovery.

Regarding training - I'm not aware of any ACS-specific training but some of the security courses do cover aspects of the ACS, but you'd have to check with your local training provider. However, there's an excellent primer at:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps2086/prod_presentation_list.html

HTH

Andrew.

[darpotter]

Hi

I never get bored of saying this..... reporting!

Many people go the trouble of installing ACS to secure an important resource - and then never check up on whats its doing.

extraxi aaa-reports! is the leading reporting application for Cisco ACS and is certified as "Cisco Compatible".

http://www.extraxi.com

Darran

[viveksantuka]

ACS SE requires two contracts.

Smartnet and SAS/SAU

SAS is software maintenance contract which provides minor upgrades.

SAU is the software maintenance contract which covers major upgrades also.

If you are going to use external databases to authenticate then I suggest you have the supplier help you configure that.