[Freeswitch-users] mod_radius_cdr questions and thoughts

Tue Jan 27 06:14:09 PST 2009

Sounds like having cake and eating it too.

The risk is obvious when using radius or some other additional protocol for
AAA that you will have trouble if the server is down.
Radius was designed to be fast and redundant, so typically you would have 5
radius servers not one.

I did not make mod_radius_cdr but I do pose this question:

Where should the burden lie to make sure the calls are not delayed when
choosing this option?

If you make FS cache all the radius requests it could not complete in a
timely manner, the whole point of keeping track of the exact time they
occurred is lost and you could have calls that ended before the start packet
ever was transmitted because they are cached in some process that will begin
to swell with memory remembering all the requests it could not send.  Then
somehow it needs to gracefully catch up again when the radius server comes
back.... This is the same reason I think that direct database CDR is a bad
idea.

The real answer is that you are not allowed to have your radius server down
at all, so you need more than one.  I used to be in the dialup business and
we had to have backup radius servers for the backup radius servers on a
completely different network just in case not only the server was down but
the network link to the server and it's backup server.  It's like DNS, I
can't ever be down or nothing works.

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 7:05 AM, Apostolos Pantsiopoulos <regs at kinetix.gr>wrote:

>  Hi,
>
>     After some testing I came to the following conclusions :
>
> 1) The problem (timeouts and retries) I describe below only happens when
> there is no radius server responding on the other side.
>
> 2) It only happens when using the latest cvs version of radiusclient. If
> you use version 1.1.6 it works fine.
>
> I also read in the wiki (and found out myself by testing) that :
>
> "Currently, the module blocks the thread while it is sending the requests.
> This may cause threads to hang around longer than expected after a call, if
> your RADIUS servers are not reachable/responding."
>
> which I think is not desirable. Was this kind of behavior, been followed
> intentionally?
> I think that the NAS in most (if not all) implementations uses a
> non-blocking operation
> in order to proceed with the call. In that way there is not any significant
> delay (up to 15 seconds if radius is down)
> in the beginning of the call.
> Also, I noticed that if the radius acct packet fails, FS does not proceed
> with the call
> which is again -in my opinion - wrong. I think that the NAS should be able
> to continue with
> the call even if the Acct start or stop failed.
>
> For those directly involved in the maintenance of the mod_radius_cdr code :
>
> Is it relatively easy to change the blocking behavior of the module?
>
>
> Apostolos Pantsiopoulos wrote:
>
> Chris Parker wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 10:45 AM, Apostolos Pantsiopoulos <regs at kinetix.gr
> > wrote:
>
>> I am trying to implement a radius based solution
>> using FS. I have seen that the mod_radius_cdr module
>> is actively maintained. so I have a few questions/remarks :
>>
>> 1) When I place a call and my radius server is down, the
>> call blocks forever instead of just radius_timeout * radius_retries
>> seconds (I have declared only one server). I would expect that
>> FS would stop trying to send an Acc Start packet after some
>> time and get on with the call.
>
>
> I have not seen this behavior.  If you can duplicate this, and propose a
> patch, it would be gladly welcomed.
>
> I rebuilt and retried and the behavior persists.
>
> The call progress freezes and I get the following in the log :
>
> 2009-01-22 20:48:32 [DEBUG] switch_core_state_machine.c:435
> switch_core_session_run() (sofia/internal/9333 at xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) State
> ROUTING
> 2009-01-22 20:48:32 [DEBUG] mod_sofia.c:130 sofia_on_routing()
> sofia/internal/9333 at xx.xxx.xxx.xxx SOFIA ROUTING
> 2009-01-22 20:48:32 [DEBUG] mod_radius_cdr.c:152 my_on_routing()
> [mod_radius_cdr] Entering my_on_routing
>
>  After I hangup the client and issue a shutdown in FS I get the following :
>
> 2009-01-22 20:50:50 [CRIT] sofia.c:794 sofia_profile_thread_run() Waiting
> for 1 session(s)
>
> repeatedly and FS never exits.
>
>
>>
>> 2) I have also noticed that FS sends only 1 packet (I waited for a minute)
>> instead of 3 (default in the config) since the first (and second)
>> attempt failed.
>> If my server was up (the port was responding) but it returned a req.
>> failed
>> answer would the above time-out be valid?
>
>
> I have not seen this behavior.
>
> The same here after the rebuild.
>
>
>>
>> 3) When I tried to load the dictionary.freeswitch to my freeradius
>> server, it complained :
>
>
> Don't do that.  The dictionary is for use with the radiusclient library.
> FreeRADIUS already includes a dictionary for FreeSWITCH VSAs ( you may need
> to uncomment it to have it loaded into FreeRADIUS ).
>
> I cannot find any reference to Freeswitch in the freeradius integrated
> dictionaries (in the share folder). Can you pinpoint the
> directory that a dictionary.freeswitch (or other FS related dictionary)
> resides?
>
>
>
>> 4) The radius attributes included in the current requests are
>> a) hard-coded, b) limited in number. I think many of us would like to
>> use more attributes. Or even better define what to include (and what to
>> put in them) using a
>> config file (the same maybe?)
>
>
> This has been proposed.  There isn't yet a mechanism, though the intent is
> to use a general purpose FS VSA for this.  The code needs to be added to the
> mod_radius_cdr module to allow that to be a run_time configuration option.
>
> A general purpose VSA that holds only one value or many? Or a mix (array
> like)?
>
>
>
>> 5) Does the module send accounting packets only for the a-leg
>> of a call or for both legs? (Maybe that could be configurable too).
>>
>> If anyone is interested in the above questions/remarks please post
>> a reply. I would really like to know how many of the mailing list users
>> are also interested in FS radius support and your opinions on the matter.
>>
>
> Again, patches are welcome.  :)
>
>
> -Chris
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Freeswitch-users mailing listFreeswitch-users at lists.freeswitch.orghttp://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/freeswitch-users
> UNSUBSCRIBE:http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/options/freeswitch-usershttp://www.freeswitch.org
>
>
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------
> Apostolos Pantsiopoulos
> Kinetix Tele.com R & D
> email: regs at kinetix.gr
> -------------------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Freeswitch-users mailing listFreeswitch-users at lists.freeswitch.orghttp://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/freeswitch-users
> UNSUBSCRIBE:http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/options/freeswitch-usershttp://www.freeswitch.org
>
>
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------
> Apostolos Pantsiopoulos
> Kinetix Tele.com R & D
> email: regs at kinetix.gr
> -------------------------------------------
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Freeswitch-users mailing list
> Freeswitch-users at lists.freeswitch.org
> http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/freeswitch-users
> UNSUBSCRIBE:http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/options/freeswitch-users
> http://www.freeswitch.org
>
>

-- 
Anthony Minessale II

FreeSWITCH http://www.freeswitch.org/
ClueCon http://www.cluecon.com/

AIM: anthm
MSN:anthony_minessale at hotmail.com <MSN%3Aanthony_minessale at hotmail.com>
GTALK/JABBER/PAYPAL:anthony.minessale at gmail.com<PAYPAL%3Aanthony.minessale at gmail.com>
IRC: irc.freenode.net #freeswitch

FreeSWITCH Developer Conference
sip:888 at conference.freeswitch.org <sip%3A888 at conference.freeswitch.org>
iax:guest at conference.freeswitch.org/888
googletalk:conf+888 at conference.freeswitch.org<googletalk%3Aconf%2B888 at conference.freeswitch.org>
pstn:213-799-1400
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.freeswitch.org/pipermail/freeswitch-users/attachments/20090127/794a16cf/attachment-0002.html 