Administrator Guide for Cisco Trust Agent, Release 2.1, Without Bundled Supplicant - Preface [Cisco Trust Agent]

Table Of Contents

Preface

Preface

Cisco Trust Agent (CTA) collects and reports posture credentials from clients in a Network Admission Control (NAC) environment.

Posture credentials are information about a NAC-compliant software application or a client on which it runs. These are examples of posture credentials that can be collected from the client: software application versions, machine name, operating system, and the client's MAC Address.

CTA reports the posture information it gathers to the Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS) which then determines application posture and an overall client posture. Examples of client posture could be "Healthy," "Quarantine," or "Unknown."

Based on the client's posture a NAC-compliant Network Access Device (NAD), such as a Cisco Switch or Cisco Router, provide the client access to a network.

Cisco Trust Agent 2.1 Release

The goals of Cisco Trust Agent, Release 2.1.103.0 (CTA 2.1) are to improve on the CTA 2.1.18.0 selective availability release by resolving outstanding product defects and to provide new functionality from that offered in the CTA 2.0.0.30 release. Cisco Trust Agent release 2.1 is an integral component of the Network Admission Control Framework 2.1 solution.

This offering of CTA 2.1.103.0 does not include a bundled supplicant as the previous offering of CTA 2.1.103.0 did. We recommend that customers who want to perform 802.1x authentication install the Cisco Secure Services Client, version 4.1.2 or later in addition to CTA 2.1.103.0.

Qualified Deployments of CTA 2.1

Cisco Trust Agent 2.1.103.0 will be distributed to existing customers of CTA and those customers evaluating the NAC Framework 2.1 programs.

CTA 2.1 is not intended for distribution to new customers of CTA nor new customers of the NAC 2.1 Framework solution. New customers to CTA and NAC should work with their Cisco Account Team representative to evaluate their NAC Framework-qualified infrastructure and use-case scenarios.

We are making an extra effort to qualify our customers' infrastructure and to ensure that the components in their network are compatible with the NAC Framework, that their goals will be met by the NAC Framework, and that the deployment of the NAC Framework will be successful.

Product Versioning

The full version number of this release is CTA 2.1.103.0. The full release number is used in installation files names and in the text of the Administrator Guide for Cisco Trust Agent, Release 2.1, Without Bundled Supplicant and the Release Notes for Cisco Trust Agent, Release 2.1, Without Bundled Supplicant when it is important to distinguish the version of CTA being discussed. Any references in the documentation to CTA 2.1 are referring to CTA 2.1.103.0 unless otherwise noted.

CTA 2.1.103.0 Installation File for Windows Operating System

In this offering of CTA 2.1.103.0, there is one installation file for Windows operating systems: CtaAdminEx-win-2.1.103.0.exe. This contains the ctasetup-win-2.1.103.0.msi file which allows administrators to accept the end user license agreement and install CTA 2.1.103.0. CtaAdminEx-win-2.1.103.0.exe does not contain CTA 802.1x Wired Client or Cisco Secure Services Client.

In the previous offering of CTA 2.1.103.0, there was an additional installation file: CtaAdminEx-supplicant-win-2.1.103.0.exe. This file allowed an administrator to install the CTA 802.1x Wired Client as well as CTA. CtaAdminEx-supplicant-win-2.1.103.0.exe is not provided in this offering of CTA 2.1.103.0.

When migrating from the CTA 802.1x Wired Client to Cisco Secure Services Client, you must uninstall CTA 2.1.103.0 and the CTA 802.1x Wired Client first and then re-install CTA 2.1.103.0 alone using the CtaAdminEx-win-2.1.103.0.exe file.

Cisco Secure Services Client

We recommend the use of the Cisco Secure Services Client, version 4.1.2 with CTA 2.1.103.0 for those customers who perform 802.1x authentication. For customers who deployed the CTA 802.1x Wired Client, with the previous offering of CTA 2.1.103.0, we recommend that you migrate to the Cisco Secure Services Client, version 4.1.2 or later.

Audience

The Administrator Guide for Cisco Trust Agent, Release 2.1, Without Bundled Supplicant provides installation, configuration, and monitoring information to administrators responsible for deploying Cisco Trust Agent to network clients.

Conventions

This document uses the following conventions:

Item

Convention

Commands, keywords, special terminology, and options that should be selected during procedures

boldface font

Variables for which you supply values and new or important terminology

italic font

Displayed session and system information, paths and filenames

screen font

Information you enter

boldface screen font

Variables you enter

italic screen font

Menu items and button names

boldface font

Indicates menu items to select, in the order you select them

Option > Network Preferences

Tip Identifies information to help you get the most benefit from your product.

Note Means reader take note. Notes identify important information that you should reflect upon before continuing, contain helpful suggestions, or provide references to materials not contained in the document.

Caution Means reader be careful. In this situation, you might do something that could result in equipment damage, loss of data, or a potential breach in your network security.

Warning Identifies information that you must heed to prevent injuring yourself or damaging the state of the software or equipment. Warnings identify definite security breaches that will result if the information presented is not followed carefully.

Related Documentation

Note Although every effort has been made to validate the accuracy of the information in the printed and electronic documentation, you should also review Cisco Trust Agent documentation on Cisco.com for any updates.

You can find the documentation for Cisco Trust Agent, Release 2.1.103.0 by navigating Cisco.com starting at this link: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps5923/tsd_products_support_series_home.html. These are the documents that describe this offering of Cisco Trust Agent 2.1.103.0:

•Migrating from CTA 802.1x Wired Client to Cisco Secure Services Client

•Administrator Guide for Cisco Trust Agent, Release 2.1, Without Bundled Supplicant

•Release Notes for Cisco Trust Agent, Release 2.1, Without Bundled Supplicant

You can find the documentation for Cisco Secure Services Client, Release 4.1.2 by navigating Cisco.com starting at this link: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps7034/tsd_products_support_series_home.html. These are the documents that describe Cisco Secure Services Client:

•Cisco Secure Services Client Administrator Guide, for release 4.1.2.

•Cisco Secure Services Client User Guide, for release 4.1.2.

•Release Notes for Cisco Secure Services Client, for release 4.1.2.

For documentation of other Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) Framework components follow this link http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns617/networking_solutions_sub_solution_home.html.

Obtaining Documentation, Obtaining Support, and Security Guidelines

For information on obtaining documentation, obtaining support, providing documentation feedback, security guidelines, and also recommended aliases and general Cisco documents, see the monthly What's New in Cisco Product Documentation, which also lists all new and revised Cisco technical documentation, at:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/general/whatsnew/whatsnew.html