Another update I've measured the time required by a single function under light load (5-7req/sec) - on average it takes ~ 0.01 to 0.015 to process authorize, pre-acct and less then half of that for pre/post proxy. Under heavier load the boxes still spiral out of control (but only after some time) and eventually freeradius disappears of the list of processes in a puff of white smoke, without leaving any trails in the logs (except for complains about max of thread running). I have no idea what causes that, but the fact that it doesn't happen straightaway suggests some memory problems (but not lack of it, the boxes have 4GB of RAM). I think I hit a wall :-( and I don't think rlm_perl is going to make it to the next phase of the project. regards pshemko