.TH RADIUSD 8 "27 Dec 2007" "" "FreeRADIUS Daemon"
.SH NAME
radiusd - Authentication, Authorization and Accounting server
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B radiusd
.RB [ \-C ]
.RB [ \-d
.IR config_directory ]
.RB [ \-f ]
.RB [ \-i
.IR ip-address ]
.RB [ \-n
.IR name ]
.RB [ \-p
.IR port ]
.RB [ \-s ]
.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.).
Version 2.0 has preliminary support for Cisco's VLAN Query Protocol,
also known as VMPS.
.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 many 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 "\-i \fIip-address\fP"
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 \fIradiusd.conf\fP are ignored.
This option MUST be used in conjunction with "-p".
.IP \-f
Do not fork, stay running as a foreground process.
.IP "\-n
Read \fIraddb/name.conf\fP instead of \fIraddb/radiusd.conf\fP.
.IP "\-p \fIport\fP"
Normally radiusd listens on the ports specified in \fI/etc/services\fP
(radius and radacct). When this option is given, radiusd listens on
the specified port for authentication requests and on the specified
port +1 for accounting requests.
If this command-line option is given, then the "port" directive in
\fIradiusd.conf\fP is ignored.
This option MUST be used in conjunction with "-i".
.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 \-v
Print server version information and exit.
.IP \-X
Debugging mode. Equivalent to -sfxx -l stdout
.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 server can be difficult to configure correctly in systems with
complex requirements. We STRONGLY RECOMMEND proceeding via the
following steps:
.PP
1) Always run the server in debugging mode (
.B radiusd -X
). 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.
.PP
2) When editing the \fIradiusd.conf\fP file, change as little as
possible, especially in the \fIauthorize{}\fP section. The ordering
of the modules is critical for the server to be able to
"automatically" figure out how to handle the request. Changing the
order of the modules ensures that the server will not work.
.PP
3) When testing, start off by configuring a user and password in the
\fIusers\fP file. So long as the server knows about a user, and has a
clear-text password for that user, \fBalmost all of the authentication
methods will "just work"\fP.
.PP
4) Gradually add more complex configurations to the server, while
testing them as you go. If you start off by configuring the server in
a complex configuration, you will never be able to debug it.
.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. Without it, your
message will get ignored.
.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 seperately 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 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 \fILivingston 2.0\fP server has as "Prefix" and
"Suffix" support in the \fIusers\fP file, but is more general. Ofcourse
the Livingston way of doing things is also supported, and you can even use
both at the same time (within certain limits).
.IP huntgroups
Defines the huntgroups that you have, and makes it possible to restrict
access to certain huntgroups to certain (groups of) users.
.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), huntgroups(5), hints(5),
dictionary(5).
.SH AUTHOR
The FreeRADIUS Server Project (http://www.freeradius.org)