radiusd process vanishes on higher load

[Christian Hofstädtler]

Hello!

I'm using a FreeRadius setup (V 1.1.3-3 from Debian etch) with the MySQL 
Backend for authorize and accounting. RADIUS packets are coming from 
another company, which /probably/ has a Proxy for their delivery 
front-end servers.
This setup usually works fine, but on some days I see spikes in the log, 
and the radiusd process vanishes; needing a restart.

I've set:
   max_request_time = 5
   cleanup_delay = 5
   max_requests = 4096
   sql.conf: num_sql_socks = 256
   nas: nastype = other

Usually, there will be a few 'stop packet with zero session length' log 
lines, about 1 per second or fewer.

At problem/spike time, I see a lot more of these 'stop packet with zero 
session length' stuff (about 30 per second); and this too:

Info: The maximum number of threads (256) are active, cannot spawn new 
thread to handle request

Additionally, one of these things happen:

  1) radiusd process vanishes without a log entry.

  2)
Error: Dropping request (4097 is too many): from client nasname:57426 - 
ID: 174
Info: WARNING: Please check the radiusd.conf file. ?The value for 
'max_requests' is probably set too low.

  3) Error: Internal error processing module entry
     And radiusd usually vanishes after this.
With Option 3 I usually also see MySQL DB connection problems, but not 
all the time, and they are not always fatal (?).


So - am I missing something?
Is this just a very long spike (can take 10 minutes to a few hours);
Are there any counters in FR that I could track? (like packets per 
second, etc.)

Thanks,
Christian

-- 
Christian Hofstädtler
InQnet GmbH
Praterstraße 31
A-1020 Wien

Tel.: +43 1 212 7650 523
Fax.: +43 1 212 7650 610