dropped mysql connections

[Bill Schoolfield]

Hello All,

We've implemented a billing solution for a client and as part of that 
effort we are using FreeRadius 1.05 and MySQL 4.0.x on Redhat ES 3.0. It 
is very standard setup; nothing fancy.

Today they experienced a radius failure (8 hours from a radius restart) 
where FreeRadius could not access the MySQL database. Here's what
the logfile says:

Wed May  3 17:50:05 2006 : Info: rlm_sql (sql): There are no DB handles 
to use! skipped 0, tried to connect 0
Wed May  3 17:50:05 2006 : Error: rlm_radutmp: Logout entry for NAS ERX 
port 102 has wrong ID
Wed May  3 17:50:05 2006 : Info: rlm_sql_mysql: Starting connect to 
MySQL server for #4
Wed May  3 17:50:05 2006 : Info: rlm_sql_mysql: Starting connect to 
MySQL server for #4
Wed May  3 17:50:05 2006 : Error: rlm_sql_mysql: Couldn't connect socket 
to MySQL server radius at localhost:radius
Wed May  3 17:50:05 2006 : Error: rlm_sql_mysql: Mysql error ''
Wed May  3 17:50:05 2006 : Error: rlm_sql (sql): Failed to connect DB 
handle #4
Wed May  3 17:50:05 2006 : Error: rlm_sql (sql): reconnect failed, 
database down?
Wed May  3 17:50:05 2006 : Error: rlm_sql (sql): Couldn't insert SQL 
accounting STOP record - rlm_sql_mysql: no connection to db
Wed May  3 17:50:05 2006 : Error: rlm_sql: Stop packet with zero session 
length.  (user 'f81616', nas '194.54.200.1')

Note that the MySQL logs show that the server was up the entire time 
without any reported problems.

The effect of this seems to be that FreeRadius stopped responding to 
requests. Is this normal behavior when this happens? I assume so.

Secondly is there anything we can do to prevent or mitigate this 
problem? Would increasing the number of connections help? Are there 
known problems in this area?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Bill