a few questions

[Alan DeKok]

Paul Bartell wrote:
> Im working on a project at my school district to implement RADIUS
> authentication. I have two Mac powerpc servers for use, which could
> run either OSX or some linux variant. We are planning on using a mysql
> backend. Our network has around 6k machines throughout the district, a
> few hundred on the wifi at any given time. so my questions are:

  That is a very small number of systems.  A 386 would probably be
sufficient to handle the RADIUS traffic.

> 1. since mysql in OSX isn't kernel based from what i understand, would
> it make a big difference to use a linux based os (debian/unofficial
> powerpc port of ubuntu is my initial thought)?

  Why does that matter?

> 2. Are both servers needed, and if so would it make sense to use mysql
> replication and just have two of the same?

  Both servers would be needed only for fail-over, in case one died for
some reason.  If you just look at the RADIUS traffic, you could run one
server, with MySQL on the same machine, and the machine would be 99% idle.

> 3. Would it make sense to just point some Ap's at one RADIUS server
> and some at the other, or is there a better/easier way to load
> balance?

  If you use two machines, yes, that can be a good way to load balance.

  Alan DeKok.