machine authentication VS user authentication?

[aeroplane_]

Hi friends

I would like to know:

1- In which scenario we use machine authentication and how it works?

2- What is the advantage of machine authentication to use?

3- Can we use machine authentication with user authentication?

Thanks

[Dominik_ · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If you use only user authentication, machines are disconnected from the network as long as no one is logged in. You can't do remote administration, no anti virus updates are drawn, no group policy updates. Of course you can get around that issue if you enable these updates through your quarantine VLAN but a smarter way is to use machine authentication. Then you machine is logged in and can be but in a "authenticated machine without someone logged in"-VLAN.

You can use both methods (machine and user auth) together. Once a user is logged in, the user auth replaces the machine auth (that might trigger a VLAN change).

You can either use machine auth be means of certificate auth or use the computer accounts present in AD. Attention: You can't use LDAP authentication server in such a scenario - you have to use Windows NT auth server instead.

Regards,

Dominik

[aeroplane_]

Thanks a lot for great explaination. Could you please write down the high level steps for configuring machine authentication on boht IC and OAC. I really appreciate your help

Thanks