RADIUSD(8) FreeRADIUS Daemon RADIUSD(8)
NAME
radiusd - Authentication, Authorization and Accounting server
SYNOPSIS
radiusd [-C] [-d config_directory] [-D dictionary_directory] [-f] [-h]
[-i ip-address] [-l log_file] [-m] [-n name] [-p port] [-P] [-s] [-t]
[-v] [-x] [-X]
DESCRIPTION
FreeRADIUS is a high-performance and highly configurable RADIUS server.
It supports many database back-ends such as flat-text files, SQL, LDAP,
Perl, Python, etc. It also supports many authentication protocols such
as PAP, CHAP, MS-CHAP(v2), HTTP Digest, and EAP (EAP-MD5, EAP-TLS,
PEAP, EAP-TTLS, EAP-SIM, etc.).
It also has full support for Cisco's VLAN Query Protocol (VMPS) and
DHCP.
Please read the DEBUGGING section below. It contains instructions for
quickly configuring the server for your local system.
OPTIONS
The following command-line options are accepted by the server:
-C Check the configuration and exit immediately. If there is a
problem reading the configuration, then the server will exit
with a non-zero status code. If the configuration appears to be
acceptable, then the server will exit with a zero status code.
Note that there are limitations to this check. Due to the com-
plexities involved in almost starting a RADIUS server, these
checks are necessarily incomplete. The server can return a zero
status code when run with -C, but may still exit with an error
when run normally.
See the output of radiusd -XC for an informative list of which
modules are checked for correct configuration, and which modules
are skipped, and therefore not checked.
-d config directory
Defaults to /etc/raddb. Radiusd looks here for its configuration
files such as the dictionary and the users files.
-D dictionary directory
Set main dictionary directory. Defaults to /usr/share/freera-
dius.
-f Do not fork, stay running as a foreground process.
-h Print usage help information.
-i ip-address
Defines which IP address that the server uses for sending and
receiving packets.
If this command-line option is given, then the "bind_address"
and all "listen{}" entries in radiusd.conf are ignored.
This option MUST be used in conjunction with "-p".
-l log_file
Defaults to ${logdir}/radius.log. Radiusd writes it's logging
information to this file. If log_file is the string "stdout"
logging will be written to stdout.
-m On SIGINT or SIGQUIT exit cleanly instead of immediately. This
is most useful for when running the server with "valgrind".
-n name
Read raddb/name.conf instead of raddb/radiusd.conf.
-p port
Defines which port is used for receiving authentication packets.
Accounting packets are received on "port + 1".
When this command-line option is given, all "listen" sections in
radiusd.conf are ignored.
This option MUST be used in conjunction with "-i".
-P Always write out PID, even with -f.
-s Run in "single server" mode. The server normally runs with mul-
tiple threads and/or processes, which can lower its response
time to requests. Some systems have issues with threading, how-
ever, so running in "single server" mode may help to address
those issues. In single server mode, the server will also not
"daemonize" (auto-background) itself.
-t Do not spawn threads.
-v Print server version information and exit.
-X Debugging mode. Equivalent to "-sfxx -l stdout". When trying
to understand how the server works, ALWAYS run it with "radiusd
-X". For production servers, use "raddebug"
-x Finer-grained debug mode. In this mode the server will print de-
tails of every request on it's stdout output. You can specify
this option multiple times (-x -x or -xx) to get more detailed
output.
DEBUGGING
The default configuration is set to work in the widest possible circum-
stances. It requires minimal changes for your system.
However, your needs may be complex, and may require significant changes
to the server configuration. Making random changes is a guaranteed
method of failure. Instead, we STRONGLY RECOMMEND proceeding via the
following steps:
1) Always run the server in debugging mode ( radiusd -X ) after making
a configuration change. We cannot emphasize this enough. If you are
not running the server in debugging mode, you will not be able to see
what is doing, and you will not be able to correct any problems.
If you ask questions on the mailing list, the first response will be to
tell you "run the server in debugging mode". Please, follow these in-
structions.
2) Change as little as possible in the default configuration files.
The server contains a decade of experience with protocols, databases,
and different systems. Its default configuration is designed to work
almost everywhere, and to do almost everything you need.
3) When you make a small change, testing it before changing anything
else. If the change works, save a copy of the configuration, and make
another change. If the change doesn't work, debug it, and try to un-
derstand why it doesn't work.
If you begin by making large changes to the server configuration, it
will never work, and you will never be able to debug the problem.
4) If you need to add a connection to a database FOO (e.g. LDAP or
SQL), then:
a) Edit raddb/modules/foo
This file contains the default configuration for the module. It
contains comments describing what can be configured, and what those
configuration entries mean.
b) Edit raddb/sites-available/default
This file contains the default policy for the server. e.g. "enable
CHAP, MS-CHAP, and EAP authentication". Look in this file for all
references to your module "foo". Read the comments, and remove the
leading hash '#' from the lines referencing the module. This en-
ables the module.
c) Edit raddb/sites-available/inner-tunnel
This file contains the default policy for the "tunneled" portion of
certain EAP methods. Perform the same kind of edits as above, for
the "default" file.. If you are not using EAP (802.1X), then this
step can be skipped.
d) Start the server in debugging mode ( radiusd -X ), and start
testing.
5) Ask questions on the mailing list (freeradius-users@lists.freera-
dius.org). When asking questions, include the output from debugging
mode ( radiusd -X ). This information will allow people to help you.
If you do not include it, the first response to your message will be
"post the output of debug mode".
Ask questions earlier, rather than later. If you cannot solve a prob-
lem in a day, ask a question on the mailing list. Most questions have
been seen before, and can be answered quickly.
BACKGROUND
RADIUS is a protocol spoken between an access server, typically a de-
vice connected to several modems or ISDN lines, and a radius server.
When a user connects to the access server, (s)he is asked for a login-
name and a password. This information is then sent to the radius
server. The server replies with "access denied", or "access OK". In the
latter case login information is sent along, such as the IP address in
the case of a PPP connection.
The access server also sends login and logout records to the radius
server so accounting can be done. These records are kept for each ter-
minal server separately in a file called detail, and in the wtmp com-
patible logfile /var/log/radwtmp.
CONFIGURATION
Radiusd uses a number of configuration files. Each file has it's own
manpage describing the format of the file. These files are:
radiusd.conf
The main configuration file, which sets the administrator-con-
trolled items.
dictionary
This file is usually static. It defines all the possible RADIUS
attributes used in the other configuration files. You don't
have to modify it. It includes other dictionary files in the
same directory.
hints Defines certain hints to the radius server based on the users's
loginname or other attributes sent by the access server. It also
provides for mapping user names (such as Pusername -> username).
This provides the functionality that the Livingston 2.0 server
has as "Prefix" and "Suffix" support in the users file, but is
more general. Of course the Livingston way of doing things is
also supported, and you can even use both at the same time
(within certain limits).
huntgroups
Defines the huntgroups that you have, and makes it possible to
restrict access to certain huntgroups to certain (groups of)
users.
users Here the users are defined. On a typical setup, this file mainly
contains DEFAULT entries to process the different types of lo-
gins, based on hints from the hints file. Authentication is then
based on the contents of the UNIX /etc/passwd file. However it
is also possible to define all users, and their passwords, in
this file.
SEE ALSO
radiusd.conf(5), users(5), huntgroups(5), hints(5), dictionary(5), rad-
debug(8)
AUTHOR
The FreeRADIUS Server Project (http://www.freeradius.org)
26 Apr 2012 RADIUSD(8)