Duplicate Radius data when OSPF Kicks in

[Alan Buxey]

Hi,

> We have a problem with duplicate sessions on our MikroTik wireless network with FreeRADIUS when OSPF kicks in:
> 
> Subscription Analysis for user at isp
> 2010-01-17 up to 2010-01-25
> #   logged in   session   time               upload     download   server                terminate cause   callerid
> 1   2010-01-23  22:07:31  15 hours           6.9 MB     83.6 MB    192.168.199.254:513   -                 00:0B:6B:DB:A9:96
> 2   2010-01-22  22:07:30  18 hours           16.2 MB    451.1 MB   192.168.208.1:434     -                 00:0B:6B:DB:A9:96
> 3   2010-01-22  22:07:29  1 days             27.0 MB    0.6 GB     192.168.199.254:434<http://192.168.199.254:434>   Session-Timeout   00:0B:6B:DB:A9:96
> 4   2010-01-21  22:07:27  1 days             4.7 MB     65.0 MB    192.168.199.254:386<http://192.168.199.254:386>   Session-Timeout   00:0B:6B:DB:A9:96
> 5   2010-01-20  22:07:25  1 days             2.9 MB     45.7 MB    192.168.199.254:331<http://192.168.199.254:331>   Session-Timeout   00:0B:6B:DB:A9:96
> 6   2010-01-19  22:07:23  2 hours            171.3 KB   1.4 MB     192.168.208.1:290<http://192.168.208.1:290>     -                 00:0B:6B:DB:A9:96
> 7   2010-01-19  22:07:23  1 days             2.9 MB     24.5 MB    192.168.199.254:290<http://192.168.199.254:290>   Session-Timeout   00:0B:6B:DB:A9:96
> 8   2010-01-18  22:07:20  1 days, 1 seconds  3.8 MB     66.2 MB    192.168.199.254:207<http://192.168.199.254:207>   Session-Timeout   00:0B:6B:DB:A9:96
> 9   2010-01-17  22:07:15  1 days             1.5 MB     10.0 MB    192.168.199.254:166<http://192.168.199.254:166>   Session-Timeout   00:0B:6B:DB:A9:96
> 10  2010-01-17  22:07:15  0 seconds          0.0 KB     0.0 KB     192.168.208.1:166<http://192.168.208.1:166>     -                 00:0B:6B:DB:A9:96
> 
> High site 1 is 192.168.199.254 and high site 2 is 192.168.208.1. As you can see it looks like FreeRADIUS counts the extra data on the dropped connection as well.
> 
> The only suggestion I have received so far is to use a product called SMRadius (http://www.smradius.org/tiki-index.php?page=Features) that apparently merges duplicate sessions.

..unless this is a shameless plug for that product... really?  someone advised you to
use a product whose only release is unstable beta 0.1 version?  Why not eh? why not
go for such an untried and low-share product.

looking at the feature list i cannot see why it would operate any differently
or how it would easily solve your problems.

> I have heard about some other people with large MikroTik networks and OSPF and FreeRADIUS that they are having the same problem. I have also described this problem on the MikroTik forum: http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=38620

so, basically, when OSPF kicks in, your routing topology is changing and therefore
your client NAS devices apear to be coming from a different location and hence have
a different ID - is it is the clients themselves end up operating via a different
subnet instead?  this isnt a RADIUS problem per-se - more a logical networking
issue.

you need to look at what things change and why when you have an OSPF issue (I'm not sure 
what you mean by OSPF 'kicking-in' - in a properly routed network, the routing protocol
is ALWAYS active - its just when an event takes place that the routing protocol decides
what path should be used.

> please assist urgently, this problem is leading to some difficult client service inquiries.

apart from this initial advice, my next bit of advice would be to get a proper
support contract for FreeRADIUS is its urgent and you are getting client service
inquiries which cause you to query your architecture

alan