RedHat is deprecating FreeRADIUS for ISPs

[Alan DeKok]

  I'm sure that there are "good business reasons" for this.

https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8/html/8.9_release_notes/deprecated-functionality

...
Limited support for FreeRADIUS

In RHEL 8, the following external authentication modules are deprecated as part of the FreeRADIUS offering:

* The MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQlite, and unixODBC database connectors
* The Perl language module
* The REST API module
...

In addition, the scope of support for the freeradius package will be limited to the following use cases in future RHEL releases:

* Using FreeRADIUS as an authentication provider with Identity Management (IdM) as the backend source of authentication. The authentication occurs through the krb5 and LDAP authentication packages or as PAM authentication in the main FreeRADIUS package
 * Using FreeRADIUS to provide a source-of-truth for authentication in IdM, through the Python 3 authentication package

 In contrast to these deprecations, Red Hat will strengthen the support of the following external authentication modules with FreeRADIUS:

* Authentication based on krb5 and LDAP
* Python 3 authentication

The focus on these integration options is in close alignment with the strategic direction of Red Hat IdM.
....

  My comments:  RedHat is doubling down in forcing people to use their IdM / LDAP solution.  If you're an ISP using FreeRADIUS + MySQL, you will no longer be getting support from RedHat.  So too bad for you.

  The good news is that we will continue to provide free packages for the community at https://packages.inkbridge.io <https://packages.inkbridge.io/>

  Alan DeKok.