I currently have PacketFence deployed (2.2.0, using 802.1x) on one VLAN as a 
beta implementation, with currently just over 100 devices on it.  When finally 
deployed, the numbers will reach several thousand nodes over dozens of VLANs.  
One of the primary reasons for implementing this solution is to be able to 
quickly, remotely, and perhaps automatically, provide isolation in the case of 
a malware epidemic.  However in the current state of implementation the 
isolation VLAN, while providing isolation from the active production networks, 
does not isolate the devices from one another.  The isolation network would 
quickly become a haven for reinfection (not to mention that worm traffic would 
likely saturate uplinks).  Also, the registration network could experience the 
same issues, or the large common VLAN could be abused for file sharing or other 
activities.

I was wondering what users are doing to remedy this issue.  My first thought 
was to use private VLANs, as they scale well across a large number of switches, 
but then I read this:

*         You can configure IEEE 802.1x port-based authentication on a 
private-VLAN port, but do not configure IEEE 802.1x with port security, voice 
VLAN, or per-user ACL on private-VLAN ports.

Apparently you can use private VLANs with 802.1x with VLAN assignment, but not 
with voice and only if all possible VLANs are private VLANs.  This does not 
work for my environment.

So my current thinking is to use VLAN maps (VACLs) to filter traffic on the 
isolation and registration VLANs.  I would allow traffic back and forth to the 
PacketFence server (for DHCP, DNS, HTTP, etc.), and to any other services that 
monitor or provide remediation resources for these networks.  This would be a 
bit more painful to maintain than private VLANs, but I do not expect this 
configuration to change much.

Is there a better way to accomplish the isolation of unregistered or problem 
hosts?  Is there some reason my intended implementation will not work?  Has 
anyone solved this problem in a different way?

Thanks,
Brent

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