Thanks to Dave and Kostas for the feedback. Sounds great. So now I'm wondering how you age the accounting data if it all goes to a mysql db. You would certainly not want to keep accounting data indefinitely. So what process do you guys use to throw out the old stuff to make way for the new? (Forgive me if this is obvious in the context of databases - I'm really not a very literate database guy).
Thanks again, Mike -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Kostas Kalevras Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 8:51 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Using MYSQL for accounting only On Thu, 21 Nov 2002, Mike Denka wrote: > I'm using LDAP for authentication and authorization across several > radius servers. I'm thinking that using a single mysql server for > accounting from all my radius servers might be a significant advantage > over using multiple detail files on multiple servers and parsing these > detail files with a script. Before I dive into this, I'd like to get > opinions from others who are using mysql for accounting: > > 1) anyone using mysql for accounting only - using another authentication > and authorization? If so is the setup as simple as using the sql schema > included with freeradius and just including "sql" in the accounting > section of the radiusd.conf file? I am using ldap auth and sql (MySQL + InnoDB tables) accounting for the Greek Schools Network. Works quite well. It's really as simple as you describe it. I am also using radrelay to sync accounting (two radius servers, each one with full accounting information). There's no need to keep only one mysql server. You can just use radrelay and keep the same info on multiple mysql servers (fail over). > > 2) are there significant gains to be made in terms of access to data and > report generation using mysql over perl scripts or other programs > written to parse the detail file and generate flat files with relevant > information? My guess is that with a mysql database of accounting data, > I should be able to access just about any kind of information I wanted > from a properly formed sql query (like ip address usage data, > time-on-line information for customers and just about any other kind of > trending data I could imagine). Am I correct in that assumption or are > there significant hurdles to using a mysql accounting-only system that I > should be aware of? Gains: 1. SQL queries for reports/stats 2. Live data. You can immediately look at the history of a user through a web interface or look at the currently logged in users. 3. SQL session handling (double login detection) works much better (faster) than radutmp. > > 3) If the idea of using mysql as an accounting system makes sense, are > there existing tools that anyone knows of that are already written to > generate various reports on radius accounting data? Well, you are using sql so creating reports is just a matter of running the correct query on your sql data. In any case, dialup_admin has a stats page which you could use. > > Thanks, > > Mike > > > - > List info/subscribe/unsubscribe? See http://www.freeradius.org/list/users.html > -- Kostas Kalevras Network Operations Center [EMAIL PROTECTED] National Technical University of Athens, Greece Work Phone: +30 210 7721861 'Go back to the shadow' Gandalf - List info/subscribe/unsubscribe? See http://www.freeradius.org/list/users.html - List info/subscribe/unsubscribe? See http://www.freeradius.org/list/users.html
