FreeRADIUS

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: freeradius

Overview

This collector monitors FreeRADIUS servers.

It collect metrics by sending status-server messages to the server.

This collector is supported on all platforms.

This collector supports collecting metrics from multiple instances of this integration, including remote instances.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

It automatically detects FreeRadius instances running on localhost.

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

Per FreeRADIUS instance

These metrics refer to the entire monitored application.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
freeradius.authentication	requests, responses	packets/s
freeradius.authentication_access_responses	accepts, rejects, challenges	packets/s
freeradius.bad_authentication	dropped, duplicate, invalid, malformed, unknown-types	packets/s
freeradius.proxy_authentication	requests, responses	packets/s
freeradius.proxy_authentication_access_responses	accepts, rejects, challenges	packets/s
freeradius.proxy_bad_authentication	dropped, duplicate, invalid, malformed, unknown-types	packets/s
freeradius.accounting	requests, responses	packets/s
freeradius.bad_accounting	dropped, duplicate, invalid, malformed, unknown-types	packets/s
freeradius.proxy_accounting	requests, responses	packets/s
freeradius.proxy_bad_accounting	dropped, duplicate, invalid, malformed, unknown-types	packets/s

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Setup

You can configure the freeradius collector in two ways:

Method	Best for	How to
UI	Fast setup without editing files	Go to Nodes → Configure this node → Collectors → Jobs, search for freeradius, then click + to add a job.
File	If you prefer configuring via file, or need to automate deployments (e.g., with Ansible)	Edit go.d/freeradius.conf and add a job.

important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

Prerequisites

Enable status server

To enable status server, follow the official documentation.

Configuration

Options

The following options can be defined globally: update_every, autodetection_retry.

Config options

Group	Option	Description	Default	Required
Collection	update_every	Data collection interval (seconds).	1	no
	autodetection_retry	Autodetection retry interval (seconds). Set 0 to disable.	0	no
Target	address	FreeRADIUS server address.	127.0.0.1	yes
	timeout	Connection, read, and write timeout (seconds).	1	no
	port	FreeRADIUS server port.	18121	no
Auth	secret	FreeRADIUS shared secret.	adminsecret	no
Virtual Node	vnode	Associates this data collection job with a Virtual Node.		no

via UI

Configure the freeradius collector from the Netdata web interface:

1. Go to Nodes.
2. Select the node where you want the freeradius data-collection job to run and click the ⚙ (Configure this node). That node will run the data collection.
3. The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
4. In the Search box, type freeradius (or scroll the list) to locate the freeradius collector.
5. Click the + next to the freeradius collector to add a new job.
6. Fill in the job fields, then click Test to verify the configuration and Submit to save.
   • Test runs the job with the provided settings and shows whether data can be collected.
   • If it fails, an error message appears with details (for example, connection refused, timeout, or command execution errors), so you can adjust and retest.

via File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/freeradius.conf.

The file format is YAML. Generally, the structure is:

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name2

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/freeradius.conf

Examples

Basic

A basic example configuration.

Config

jobs:
  - name: local
    address: 127.0.0.1
    port: 18121
    secert: adminsecret

Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique.

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

Config

jobs:
  - name: local
    address: 127.0.0.1
    port: 18121
    secert: adminsecret

  - name: remote
    address: 192.0.2.1
    port: 18121
    secert: adminsecret

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode

Important: Debug mode is not supported for data collection jobs created via the UI using the Dyncfg feature.

To troubleshoot issues with the freeradius collector, run the go.d.plugin with the debug option enabled. The output should give you clues as to why the collector isn't working.

• Navigate to the plugins.d directory, usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that's not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the plugins setting under [directories].

  cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/

• Switch to the netdata user.

  sudo -u netdata -s

• Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:

  ./go.d.plugin -d -m freeradius

  To debug a specific job:

  ./go.d.plugin -d -m freeradius -j jobName

Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the freeradius collector, follow these steps to retrieve logs and identify potential issues:

• Run the command specific to your system (systemd, non-systemd, or Docker container).
• Examine the output for any warnings or error messages that might indicate issues. These messages should provide clues about the root cause of the problem.

System with systemd

Use the following command to view logs generated since the last Netdata service restart:

journalctl _SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID="$(systemctl show --value --property=InvocationID netdata)" --namespace=netdata --grep freeradius

System without systemd

Locate the collector log file, typically at /var/log/netdata/collector.log, and use grep to filter for collector's name:

grep freeradius /var/log/netdata/collector.log

Note: This method shows logs from all restarts. Focus on the latest entries for troubleshooting current issues.

Docker Container

If your Netdata runs in a Docker container named "netdata" (replace if different), use this command:

docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep freeradius