Documentation

Everything you need to evaluate, run and operate radiusward.

Written for the people who run networks. Each page says what it is based on and links to the source in the server repository; press ⌘K to search all of it.

Start here

I want to know what it is

A plain explanation of what radiusward does for a network, who it is for, and when something simpler serves better.

I want to run it

A complete cluster on your laptop with Docker, your first session record, your first login — then the platform you deploy on.

I want to know what I can rely on

Exactly what is promised when a record is confirmed, what each failure does, and the published tests behind every claim.

All sections

Start

What it is, whether it fits, and a cluster on your laptop in ten minutes.

What radiusward is →An open-source RADIUS server in Java whose accounting is replicated: an Accounting-Response goes out only after the record is stored on a majority of a three-member cluster.Is it a fit? →When radiusward is worth evaluating, and when to evaluate carefully or choose something simpler: the trade-offs of a replicated RADIUS server, stated plainly.Quickstart: first accounting →Run three cluster members and two gateways with Docker Compose, send a session's Start, Interim and Stop, watch a retransmission being counted once, see the records in PostgreSQL, kill the leader under load, and clean up.First authentication →Send Access-Requests to the local cluster with PAP, CHAP and MS-CHAPv2, see an Access-Accept and a delayed Access-Reject, add a user and reload the gateway, and learn where EAP starts.

Concepts

How the parts fit together, and why.

Architecture →Gateways, the cluster and the exporter: the accounting path through the replicated log, the authentication path that stays on the gateways, and the export boundary.

Reliability

What a confirmation guarantees, what happens when something fails, and the evidence.

The accounting contract →What a radiusward Accounting-Response guarantees, under which assumptions, what happens without a majority of the cluster, how retransmissions are deduplicated, and where exported data stands at that moment.Failure behaviour →Leader failure, gateway failure, loss of the majority, a sink outage, a lost disk and a lost quorum: what pauses, what retries, what recovers, and what each assumes.Evidence: tests and benchmarks →What the project publishes to back its claims — integration, end-to-end, fault-injection and Kubernetes test reports, and benchmarks — how to read them, and what they do not show.

Authentication

From the credentials and clients you have to the method that fits.

Choosing a method →From the credentials and clients you have to the method and identity store that fit: certificates, passwords in different formats, Active Directory, SIM cards, a second factor — and which combinations radiusward has tested with real clients.

Deployment

Docker for an evaluation; Kubernetes for production.

Docker →The container image and the Docker Compose stack: three members, two gateways and PostgreSQL; memory profiles; what to know about addresses, /dev/shm, data and fsync; the backup and monitoring profiles.Kubernetes →The Helm chart: three members as a StatefulSet with their own volumes, gateways with their own addresses, the continuous backup, dashboards and alert rules; what the nodes need; replacing a volume, restoring a lost quorum, upgrading.

Operate

Signals to watch, recovery to practise, upgrades, and a checklist before production.

Operating radiusward →Deployment is the beginning: choosing a platform, watching the right signals, practising recovery, upgrading member by member, and a checklist before production.

Security

Reporting, defaults, hardening, and the limits stated openly.

Security and limitations →How to report a vulnerability, which versions get fixes, the defaults that protect a deployment and how to harden it, and the limits the project states openly.

Community

Building, contributing, and where the project is going.

Contributing →How radiusward is built and tested, the rules every change follows, and how to contribute a change.Roadmap →What radiusward has done so far, what comes next, what is being evaluated, and what is not planned.

Reference

Every configuration key, metric and alert — in the server repository, next to the code.

Configuration ↗In the server repository, next to the code.Metrics and alerts ↗In the server repository, next to the code.Security policy ↗In the server repository, next to the code.