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Recipe 4.8 Obtaining Free TACACS+ Server Software

4.8.1 Problem

You are looking for TACACS+ server software for use in your network.

4.8.2 Solution

Cisco distributes a free TACACS+ software system from their anonymous FTP site on the Internet:

freebsd% ftp ftp-eng.cisco.com
Connected to ftp-eng.cisco.com.
220 ftp-eng.cisco.com FTP server (Version wu-2.6.2(1) Thu Dec 13 23:14:01 PST 2001)
ready.
Name (ftp-eng.cisco.com:ijbrown): ftp
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
Password: <email@address>
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> cd pub/tacacs
250-Please read the file README
250-  it was last modified on Sun Jun 18 10:29:35 2000 - 927 days ago
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
total 544
drwxr-x--x   2 1500     eng          4096 Dec  4  1998 RCS
-rw-r--r--   1 1500     eng          1602 Jun 18  2000 README
-r--r--r--   1 1500     eng         73880 Dec  4  1998 tac-rfc.1.78.txt
-rw-rw-r--   1 1500     eng        193771 Jun 18  2000 tac_plus.F4.0.4.alpha.tar.Z
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> bin
200 Type set to I.
ftp> get tac_plus.F4.0.4.alpha.tar.Z
local: tac_plus.F4.0.4.alpha.tar.Z remote: tac_plus.F4.0.4.alpha.tar.Z
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for tac_plus.F4.0.4.alpha.tar.Z (193771
bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
193771 bytes received in 1.81 seconds (104.58 KB/s)
ftp> quit
221-You have transferred 193771 bytes in 1 files.
221-Total traffic for this session was 196024 bytes in 2 transfers.
221-Thank you for using the FTP service on ftp-eng.cisco.com.
221 Goodbye.
freebsd%

4.8.3 Discussion

Cisco offers a free version of TACACS+ that you can download. However, please note that it is not a fully supported version. In fact, Cisco seldom updates the free TACACS+ daemon and it lacks several of the advanced features of commercially available TACACS+ software. Furthermore, Cisco warns that this free software comes with no warranty or support.

With this in mind however, the free TACACS+ software is useful for testing, lab environments, or even small installations. You will find that the free Unix version is fully functional and provides an excellent range of features. In fact, all of the AAA accounting log files in this chapter were captured using Cisco's free TACACS+ software.

Please follow the instructions that Cisco provides with the software to extract, compile, and install the TACACS+ server software. Recipe 4.9 includes some sample configuration files.

4.8.4 See Also

Recipe 4.9


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