The invention discloses a random access method and apparatus so as to perform random access for a User Equipment (UE) with a plurality of aggregated cells in a carrier aggregation-enabled LTE-A system. The method includes: determining a secondary cell configured for a UE and obtaining random access related parameter preset for the secondary cell; and sending the random access related parameter to the UE to instruct the UE to initiate random access procedure over the secondary cell corresponding to the random access related parameter. The inventive method achieves the purpose of enabling the UE to be synchronized with the network side by performing random access over a specified cell, having the UE maintain uplink synchronization with the network side in the configured secondary cell and ensuring the overall performance of the system.