[freeside] Importing & access to radius usage info within Freeside

[ivan]

On Wed, Jun 16, 2004 at 08:20:19PM +0930, rls-freeside at powerband.net.au wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> 	In evaluating Freeside for our ISP, we've come up against
> a problem of identifying the processes & actions required to
> load or access radius-based "data usage" (ie: "AcctOutputOctets"
> & "AcctInputOctets") information for our user accounts in Freeside.
>> 
> 	We've read the FAQs, RTFM'd & extensively searched the
> Mailing List & though there's a couple of entries about it,
> we can't identify the exact process required for Freeside to
> be able to access our radacct DBs (mySQL radius db's populated
> by Freeradius). We've also seen the entry in Radiator's FAQ
> about Freeside, which isn't encouraging (on the face of it),
> but if Radiator is better/best for use with Freeside
> than Freeradius, then please advise..

I recommend FreeRADIUS.

For folks already using it, Radiator is known to work fine too, I worked
with the Radiator folks to add in support for logging to standard
FreeRADIUS-like tables.

> 	Our installation is using the following s/ware systems
> with Freeside:
> 
> FreeBSD 4.9
> FreeRADIUS 0.9.3 using
> mySQL 4.0.17 for radacct DB logging
> (we've installed both Freeside 1.4.1 & 1.5.0pre4)

If you're trying to do much besides time charging (data
input/output/total charging) or if you want to print overage charges on
invoices, I'd recommend 1.5, probably CVS HEAD until I get around to
making another snapshot.

> Perl 5.8.3 & all req'd Perl modules (notably CGI.pm 2.81,
> which we had to degrade to from 5.8.3's default installed 3.01)

Probably perhipheral, but I'm having no problems with current CGI.pm 
3.04, if you or anyone else with CGI.pm problems could try 3.04 and 
verify if it works for them too we'll just depend on that.

> Apache 1.3.29 with mod_perl 1.29
> 
> 	We've configured services of the svc_acct type
> with an "sqlradius" export selected & setup packages
> with the "sqlradacct_hour" plan set & the Price Plan
> for these packages set to the "Base charge + charge per-hour
> (and for data) from an external sqlradius radacct table".

You've answered your original question.  That is the correct process
required for Freeside to be able to access our radacct table.

> When customers are added with these packages we can see
> 0 input & output usage in their Account View, but there is
> Online time usage information (though currently incorrect
> - we're still working on that one) displayed in the Acct View
> for these customers.
> 
> 	We note the "attribute_since_sqlradacct" function
> in cust_svc.pm (in 1.4.1) & the use of it for AcctOutputOctets
> & AcctInputOctets in view/svc_acct.cgi & edit/part_pkg.cgi
> for the 'sqlradacct_hour' plan, but where is the actual
> data imported into or read or processed by freeside on a regular
> or billing basis? (as opposed to a view basis)

It isn't.  RADIUS usage data is not imported into Freeside on a regular
or billing basis.  RADIUS usage data is queried from the RADIUS database
when necessary, for view or for billing.

FWIW, The stuff you're examining is pretty unlikely to get updated
further in on the 1.4 branch, I'd suggest moving to more current code
for your needs.  As I said, probably CVS HEAD until I get around to
making another snapshot.

> We believe that the 'session server' & thus the
> freeside-sqlradius-radacctd, freeradius-login & freeside_logout
> scripts & radiusd hooks are no longer used.. (?)

Not for integrating with SQL RADIUS databases, anyway, and not very 
often otherwise, correct.

-- 
_ivan