Chapter 10: Managing the RADIUS Servers
How the server works
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How the server
works
The SafeWord RADIUS Accounting Server listens for RADIUS accounting
packets formatted according to the guidelines found in Internet RFC 2139.
Whenever this server receives a properly formatted RADIUS accounting-
request packet, it writes the contents of that packet to a disk file and then
responds with a RADIUS accounting-response packet.
•
The RADIUS accounting information is stored in a plain text file on the
same machine where the RADIUS Accounting servlet is located.
•
The SafeWord RADIUS Accounting Server software is a standalone service
that does not interface with SafeWord, so it does not use the Authentication
SDK.
Configuring the
server
The RADIUS Accounting Server contains two configuration files: clients and
dictionary (it does not need a users file). You must edit the clients file and
provide the IP addresses and “RADIUS secrets” used by your RADIUS clients.
The RADIUS Accounting Server daemon listens to RADIUS accounting
requests on port 1813 UDP, the /etc/services file must contain a line, such as:
radacct 1813/udp
The RADIUS accounting must be enabled in the client(s) (comm
server(s)).
Starting the
server
To start or stop the RADIUS Accounting Server service, use the Services
function available in the Administration Tools, select the Accounting RADIUS
Server and click on Start or Stop.
You can also start the RADIUS Accounting Server in debug mode from the
command line, where you can specify different levels of diagnostics.
The following is an example of a typical command to start the RADIUS
Accounting Server:
./radacctd -a . -d . -x 1 &
where
-a
specifies the directory to store accounting file detail
-d
specifies the location of clients and dictionary files
-x
specifies the level of debug (up to 8191)