(RADIATOR) Re: Using Alive Accounting packets to update Session DB

[Hugh Irvine]

Hello Richard -

AccountingAlivesOnly is supported in an AuthBy clause (its in the code and 
the manual will be fixed in the next release).

And Alives are also handled automatically by the session database which 
performs an AddQuery for them.

The other things that you mention can either be implemented as you point out 
by special Handler(s), or by custom hooks.

BTW - you can also use an AuthBy SQL in the Handler as above, and just put 
one or more AcctSQLStatements in it to do whatever you need.

Note that we have developed something similar for another customer on a 
contract basis and we could do the same for you if you are interested.

regards

Hugh

On Wednesday 29 August 2001 21:12, Richard Lennerts wrote:
> Hi Mike/Hugh,
>
> I was going to send the message below to the mailing list, but I thought it
> might be more appropriate to send it you guys first. Please feel free to
> send it to the list if it would be better dealt with there.
>
> ----------
>
> Hi,
>
> Just wondering whether anyone has managed to use "Alive" Accounting packets
> to update the records in an external Session DB.
>
> We would like to store in & out octets in the session DB along with a
> timestamp of when the session was last updated. Then perhaps on a client
> (NAS) basis get Radiator to drop records in the Session database if it
> hasn't received an Alive packet within x minutes. Perhaps putting in a
> validity timestamp which would function similar to the Lease periods used
> with the AddressAllocater would be better, and then have a periodic task
> cleaning out invalid records in the SessionDatabase and optionally
> generating Radius stop packets.
>
> Is someone able to give me a few pointers on how this could be done perhaps
> with a <Handler Acct-Status-Type = Alive> block?
>
> Perhaps I could put in a feature request to:
>
> 	- Add a keyword AccountingAliveOnly to the AuthBy module
> 		This would enable special handling of Alive packets in an
> AuthBy clause that could also be used to update Accounting Logs.
>
> and/or
> 	- Add a keyword to the Handler module like UpdateSessDBWithAlive
> 		This would then flag Radiator to use Alive packets to update
> the Session DB.
>
> 	- Add a method UpdateQuery to the SessionDatabase module
> 	- Add a keyword SessionValidNoAlive xxx to the Client module
> 		This, if specified, would be added to the Timestamp of the
> Alive packet and entered as the ValidTo column of the Session DB.
> 	- Add a keyword GenerateStopForInvalidSessions in the
> SessionDatabase module
> 		Which would trigger some cleanup process to create an
> artificial stop packet when clearing invalid records from the Session DB.
>
> All these extra features combined should let Radiator cater for the above
> mentioned scenario. With more ISP's moving to a virtual port model where
> information to real-time statistics/monitoring is limited, this would be an
> effective way of ensuring that Session statistics remain relatively
> accurate and provides some protection on the loss of Alive/Stop packets.
>
> Maybe there is already a way to do this but I couldn't see how by scanning
> the reference manual.
>
> Hope you guys can help.
>
> Regards,
>
>  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> | Richard Lennerts                           | p: +61 8 6211 5500       |
> | Technical Director                         | f: +61 8 9325 6855       |
> | Vianet Communications Pty. Ltd.            | e: richard at vianet.net.au |
> | Lvl 6, 200 Adelaide Tce East Perth WA 6004 | w: www.vianet.net.au     |
>
>  -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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