FreeRADIUS monitoring with Netdata

What is FreeRADIUS?

FreeRADIUS is an open source RADIUS server and a popular choice for network authentication and access control. It’s included in many operating systems and is used in network access control, to authenticate users and devices, and to enforce network policy.

Monitoring FreeRADIUS with Netdata

The prerequisites for monitoring FreeRADIUS with Netdata are to have FreeRADIUS and Netdata installed on your system.

Netdata auto discovers hundreds of services, and for those it doesn’t turning on manual discovery is a one line configuration. For more information on configuring Netdata for FreeRADIUS monitoring please read the collector documentation.

You should now see the FreeRADIUS section on the Overview tab in Netdata Cloud already populated with charts about all the metrics you care about.

Netdata has a public demo space (no login required) where you can explore different monitoring use-cases and get a feel for Netdata.

What FreeRADIUS metrics are important to monitor - and why?

Authentication

Authentication is the process of verifying users and devices by validating their credentials. Monitoring authentication metrics can help identify potential issues with user authentication, such as incorrect credentials, or an overly restrictive authentication policy. Authentication requests and responses should be monitored to ensure that users are able to successfully authenticate, and to ensure that requests are being handled in a timely manner.

Authentication Access Responses

Authentication Access Responses measure the number of authentication requests that are accepted, rejected, and challenged by the server. Monitoring these metrics can help identify issues with authentication policies, such as overly restrictive policies, or incorrect credentials. It is important to ensure that authentication requests are being handled in a timely manner, and that the correct authentication policy is in place.

Bad Authentication

Bad Authentication metrics measure the number of authentication requests that are dropped, duplicate, invalid, malformed, or of an unknown type. Monitoring these metrics can help identify potential issues with authentication requests, such as incorrect credentials, or an overly restrictive authentication policy. It is important to ensure that authentication requests are being handled correctly, and that the server is not receiving requests of an unknown type.

Proxy Authentication

Proxy Authentication is the process of forwarding authentication requests to another RADIUS server. It is important to monitor the number of proxy authentication requests and responses to ensure that requests are being handled in a timely manner, and that the correct authentication policy is in place.

Proxy Authentication Access Responses

Proxy Authentication Access Responses measure the number of proxy authentication requests that are accepted, rejected, and challenged by the server. Monitoring these metrics can help identify potential issues with authentication policies, such as overly restrictive policies, or incorrect credentials. It is important to ensure that authentication requests are being handled in a timely manner, and that the correct authentication policy is in place.

Proxy Bad Authentication

Proxy Bad Authentication metrics measure the number of proxy authentication requests that are dropped, duplicate, invalid, malformed, or of an unknown type. Monitoring these metrics can help identify potential issues with authentication requests, such as incorrect credentials, or an overly restrictive authentication policy. It is important to ensure that authentication requests are being handled correctly, and that the server is not receiving requests of an unknown type.

Accounting

Accounting is the process of tracking and recording user activity on the network. Monitoring accounting metrics can help identify potential issues with user activity, such as high usage, or unexpected activity. Accounting requests and responses should be monitored to ensure that user activity is being tracked and recorded in a timely manner.

Bad Accounting

Bad Accounting metrics measure the number of accounting requests that are dropped, duplicate, invalid, malformed, or of an unknown type. Monitoring these metrics can help identify potential issues with accounting requests, such as incorrect credentials, or an overly restrictive accounting policy. It is important to ensure that accounting requests are being handled correctly, and that the server is not receiving requests of an unknown type.

Proxy Accounting

Proxy Accounting is the process of forwarding accounting requests to another RADIUS server. It is important to monitor the number of proxy accounting requests and responses to ensure that requests are being handled in a timely manner, and that the correct accounting policy is in place.

Proxy Bad Accounting

Proxy Bad Accounting metrics measure the number of proxy accounting requests that are dropped, duplicate, invalid, malformed, or of an unknown type. Monitoring these metrics can help identify potential issues with accounting requests, such as incorrect credentials, or an overly restrictive accounting policy. It is important to ensure that accounting requests are being handled correctly, and that the server is not receiving requests of an unknown type.

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