radiusd.8

.TH RADIUSD 8 "26 Apr 2012" "" "FreeRADIUS Daemon"
.SH NAME
radiusd - Authentication, Authorization and Accounting server
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B radiusd
.RB [ \-C ]
.RB [ \-d
.IR config_directory ]
.RB [ \-f ]
.RB [ \-h ]
.RB [ \-l
.IR log_file ]
.RB [ \-m ]
.RB [ \-n
.IR name ]
.RB [ \-s ]
.RB [ \-t ]
.RB [ \-T ]
.RB [ \-v ]
.RB [ \-x ]
.RB [ \-X ]
.SH 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 fullsupport 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.
.SH OPTIONS
The following command-line options are accepted by the server:
.IP \-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
complexities involved in \fIalmost\fP 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
.B "radiusd \-XC"
for an informative list of which modules are checked for correct
configuration, and which modules are skipped, and therefore not checked.
.IP "\-d \fIconfig directory\fP"
Defaults to \fI/etc/raddb\fP. \fBRadiusd\fP looks here for its configuration
files such as the \fIdictionary\fP and the \fIusers\fP files.
.IP \-f
Do not fork, stay running as a foreground process.
.IP \-h
Print usage help information.
.IP "\-l \fIlog_file\fP"
Defaults to \fI${logdir}/radius.log\fP. \fBRadiusd\fP writes it's logging
information to this file. If log_file is the string "stdout" logging will
be written to stdout.
.IP \-m
On SIGINT or SIGQUIT exit cleanly instead of immediately.
This is most useful for when running the server with "valgrind".
.IP "\-n \fIname\fP"
Read \fIraddb/name.conf\fP instead of \fIraddb/radiusd.conf\fP.
.IP \-s
Run in "single server" mode.  The server normally runs with multiple
threads and/or processes, which can lower its response time to
requests.  Some systems have issues with threading, however, 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.
.IP \-t
Do not spawn threads.
.IP \-T
Always add timestamps to log messages.
.IP \-v
Print server version information and exit.
.IP \-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"
.IP \-x
Finer-grained debug mode. In this mode the server will print details
of every request on it's \fBstdout\fP output. You can specify this
option multiple times (\-x \-x or \-xx) to get more detailed output.
.SH DEBUGGING
The default configuration is set to work in the widest possible
circumstances.  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:
.PP
1) Always run the server in debugging mode (
.B radiusd \-X
) after making a configuration change.  We cannot emphasize this
enough.  If you are not running the server in debugging mode, you
\fIwill not\fP be able to see what is doing, and you \fIwill not\fP 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
instructions.
.PP
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.
.PP
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
understand why it doesn't work.
.PP
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.
.PP
4) If you need to add a connection to a database FOO (e.g. LDAP or
SQL), then:
.PP
.in +0.3i
a) Edit raddb/modules/foo
.br
This file contains the default configuration for the module.  It
contains comments describing what can be configured, and what those
configuration entries mean.
.br
.br
b) Edit raddb/sites-available/default
.br
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 enables
the module.
.br
.br
c) Edit raddb/sites-available/inner-tunnel
.br
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.
.br
.br
d) Start the server in debugging mode (
.B radiusd \-X
), and start testing.
.in -0.3i
.PP
5) Ask questions on the mailing list
(freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org).  When asking questions,
include the output from debugging mode (
.B 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".
.PP
Ask questions earlier, rather than later.  If you cannot solve a
problem in a day, ask a question on the mailing list.  Most questions
have been seen before, and can be answered quickly.
.SH BACKGROUND
\fBRADIUS\fP is a protocol spoken between an access server, typically
a device connected to several modems or ISDN lines, and a \fBradius\fP
server. When a user connects to the access server, (s)he is asked for
a loginname and a password. This information is then sent to the \fBradius\fP
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.
.PP
The access server also sends login and logout records to the \fBradius\fP
server so accounting can be done. These records are kept for each terminal
server separately in a file called \fBdetail\fP, and in the \fIwtmp\fP
compatible logfile \fB/var/log/radwtmp\fP.
.SH CONFIGURATION
\fBRadiusd\fP uses a number of configuration files. Each file has it's
own manpage describing the format of the file. These files are:
.IP radiusd.conf
The main configuration file, which sets the administrator-controlled
items.
.IP 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.
.IP users
Here the users are defined. On a typical setup, this file mainly contains
DEFAULT entries to process the different types of logins, based on hints
from the hints file. Authentication is then based on the contents of
the UNIX \fI/etc/passwd\fP file. However it is also possible to define all
users, and their passwords, in this file.
.SH SEE ALSO
radiusd.conf(5), users(5)
dictionary(5), raddebug(8)
.SH AUTHOR
The FreeRADIUS Server Project (http://www.freeradius.org)