Hi,
Some current settings: max_request_time = 6 cleanup_delay = 10 max_requests = 1024 max_servers = 5 #threads are used
not enough threads around to do heavy work. i'd suggest that you you increase the max_servers (and start_servers and max_spare_servers) to eg 128 you may then need to adjuet PERL parts to deal with that higher number...but with this thread count you should be able to handle hundreds of requests quite easily...currently you just have 5 threads to deal with things - that is so easily blocked up its not funny. see the next part of the answer
I've tried all sorts of combinations for the above, with max_requests as low as 50, to no avail.
Can freeradius be configured to reply with a (temporary) REJECT to an auth request when max_requests is reached, instead of just ignoring the request? I think that would allow the server to make steady progress.
that would lead to bad mojo - you need to profile your system to find out where the delays are.... i suspect its your PERL script chewing on the accouting and taking too long in that to deal with other things. you need to seperate auth from accounting and try to run the accounting in a lower-priority thread...eg look at the buffered-sql virtual server - you can do the same thing with PERL too. thats not the answer you wanted. but its the actual answer. alan