Freeradius3: No more automatic service restart upon config change?

vLANity

Long story short, the update to 24.03 bricked my router and I didn't have a recent backup so I had to install and configure from scratch.

Getting Freeradius3 (v0.15.10_2) working has had me chasing my tail because I'd make config changes that should work but didn't. I was checking for output in the pfsense logs, noticed that there weren't any - nothing about service startup, failed logins, etc... Yet the Dashboard services widget showed freeradius service as green. Which was when I noticed that killing the service from that UI didn't work either - the screen would refresh, still showing green.

I managed to find an explanation that freeradius only reads the configs on startup. Which lead me to the service commands:

service radiusd stop
service radiusd onestart
service radiusd onedebug

What I'm consistently seeing, even after having wiped the freeradius3 install to install fresh - something is broken for freeradius service operations in the UI. I've added a user, restarted the service from SSH, and the new user works. But a subsequently added user - there's nothing in the logs now for freeradius restarting as it previously did to support the newly created user. Similarly, the Dashboard widget service commands animate but otherwise do nothing, as does the ability to turn the service on at the service page (Service / Freeradius - upper right corner).

Am I missing a config option? Or is this a legit bug?

vLANity

Rebooted, seems to be working as expected now.

Gertjan

@vLANity said in Freeradius3: No more automatic service restart upon config change?:

I managed to find an explanation that freeradius only reads the configs on startup

Processes on most OSs (Microsoft Windows, Linux, AppleOS, FreeBSD, whatever) read the config upon start.
I know for a fact that 'postfix' (mail server process) can re parse some of the many config files, as they are dynamic.

pfSense, before it starts any process, builds a 'fresh' config file(s) first based upon the system wide config - the config you find in the GUI.
When you change something in the Freeadius config, and save that config page, pfSense stops Freeradius, rebuilds the config files (there are many) and then start FreeRadius again.

Do not use these :

service radiusd stop
service radiusd onestart
service radiusd onedebug

pfSense is not Linux neither really FreeBSD.

What you can do :
On the pfSense dashboard, stop the freeradius process manually - click on the round square :

Now, open SSH (or console) and use option 8.
Enter :

radiusd -X

Keep in mind : before changing the config in the GUI, stop (Ctrl-C) radiusd first.
Then edit the config and save.
Kill the running radiusd process (started by pfSense).
Enter radiusd -X manually again, and check the logs.

Now you see everything real time.
If there is some config file error, you can see it.

Btw : I use my Freeradius "0.15.10_2" together with the captive portal of pfSense. Freerdius authenticate the users .
I've set it up "as shown in the video (Youtube Netgate channel) from a decade old.
It works pretty well, the way I use it, which is just authentication, and some accounting, ever since.

pfpv

@Gertjan
I am on 2.7.2 CE and my freeradius3 package version is 0.15.10_1, not _2 as in the first post. When I make changes to RADIUS in GUI and save it restarts on its own. I see "radiusd Signalled to terminate", "radiusd Exiting normally" and then a bit later "radiusd Ready to process requests".

I always thought it should be like this for all services. I wonder why it's not this way on 24.03.

Gertjan

@pfpv said in Freeradius3: No more automatic service restart upon config change?:

I always thought it should be like this for all services

These

I see "radiusd Signalled to terminate", "radiusd Exiting normally" and then a bit later "radiusd Ready to process requests".

are normal messages.
When settings are changed in the pfSense GUI for Freeradius, the process gets restarted.
But : where do you see them ? The command line ?

pfpv

@Gertjan said in Freeradius3: No more automatic service restart upon config change?:

But : where do you see them ? The command line ?

I see these messages in the system log in the pfSense GUI.

@Gertjan said in Freeradius3: No more automatic service restart upon config change?:

are normal messages.
When settings are changed in the pfSense GUI for Freeradius, the process gets restarted.

I also thought they were normal and expected but the title of this thread is "no more automatic service restart upon config change". Somehow this is not happening to the OP.