Universal Port
Universal Port is a flexible framework that enables automatic
switch configuration in response to special events such as:
- User login and logoff
- Device connection to or disconnection from a port
- Time of day
- Event Management System (EMS) event messages
Note
The Universal Port feature is supported only on the
platforms listed for this feature in the license tables
in the Feature License Requirements document.The primary component of the Universal Port feature is the
profile, which is a special form of command script that runs when triggered by the events
mentioned above.
Profiles execute commands and use variables as do the scripts described in
Using CLI
Scripting. The primary difference is that a profile can be executed manually or
automatically in response to switch events.
Note
The term
profile is
distinct from the term
policy because a policy is only one
particular application of a profile.
Universal Port works with the following ExtremeXOS components and
third-party products:
The following are some examples of how you can use Universal
Port on a network:
- Automatically provision a VoIP phone and the attached switch port with
appropriate Power over Ethernet (PoE) budget and Quality of Service (QoS) settings when
the phone connects.
- Create security policies that can follow a user as the user roams
around a campus. For example, an engineer can walk from Building 1 to Building 5, plug his
PC into the network and be authenticated with the appropriate access rights and ACLs.
- Support separate authentication for VoIP phones and workstations on
the same port.
- Create profile templates with variables so that you can re-use
templates with different address ranges and parameters.
- Apply different security policies for different locations (for
example, a restricted area).
- Disable wireless access after business hours.
