FAQ

中文版本：常见问题解答

Frequently asked questions, grouped by theme. If your question is not covered, search the GitHub issues or open a new one.

Installation & access

I forgot the admin password — how do I reset it?

Use the bundled tool against the same configuration file the server runs with:

go run ./cmd/reset-password -c /etc/toughradius.yml -u admin -p <new-password>

The default account after -initdb is admin / toughradius.

Which database should I choose, SQLite or PostgreSQL?

SQLite (the default) requires nothing extra — pure-Go driver, single file under {workdir}/data/ — and suits labs and small deployments. Choose PostgreSQL for production scale, high accounting volume, or when you need external backup tooling (pg_dump, replication).

Can I run it on a port other than 1812/1813/1816?

Yes — every port is configurable (radiusd.auth_port, radiusd.acct_port, web.port, …) via YAML or environment variables. See the Operations Guide.

The HTTPS admin port (1817) doesn’t work

The web TLS listener needs {workdir}/private/toughradius.tls.crt and .key. If they are missing or invalid the failure is logged and only the HTTPS listener stops — plain HTTP on 1816 keeps serving. Generate certificates with cmd/certgen or provide your own.

Is `-initdb` safe to run again?

No. It drops and recreates every table. Run it only at first installation. Regular upgrades need no manual schema step — migration runs automatically at startup.

Authentication

All requests are ignored / time out

The two most common causes:

The request’s source IP is not registered as a NAS device — add it under NAS Devices (or fix NAT so the expected address is seen).
Shared secret mismatch — RADIUS silently discards packets that fail authentication of the packet itself.

Turn on radiusd.debug: true or set LogLevel to debug to see what arrives.

Users authenticate but get no bandwidth limit

Rate attributes are sent only when the NAS record’s vendor is one that has a rate VSA (Huawei, MikroTik, H3C, ZTE, iKuai). A NAS registered as Standard or Cisco receives no proprietary rate attribute — see the Vendor Integration Guide. Also check that the user’s profile actually sets up_rate/down_rate (Kbps).

Dial-up authenticates but gets no IP / the address pool has no effect

Framed-Pool is sent only when a pool is set on the user or its rate profile, and the emitted pool name must match the pool name on the NAS (e.g. RouterOS /ip pool). A name mismatch — or no pool at all — leaves the client without a (correct) address. For a fixed IP, set a static IPv4 on the user (emits Framed-IP-Address, overriding the pool). See the end-to-end Scenario Cookbook · MikroTik.

I have multiple NAS devices — must each be configured separately?

Yes. Every NAS must be registered individually under NAS Devices, each with its own source IP (or identifier) and its own shared secret. ToughRADIUS matches the packet’s source address (or NAS identifier) to the NAS record and its secret; requests from an unregistered source are logged and rejected as an unauthorized NAS. Different NAS devices may use different secrets — they need not be uniform.

Why was a specific user rejected?

Rejects are categorized (wrong password, user not found, expired, disabled, session limit, MAC/VLAN binding mismatch, unauthorized NAS…) — the dashboard shows per-cause counters and the log records the detail. The most surprising one is the binding mismatch: with bind_mac/bind_vlan enabled, the first seen MAC/VLAN is stored and later requests must match; clear the stored value on the user after replacing hardware.

Repeated wrong passwords respond slowly — why?

That is the reject-delay brute-force guard: after RejectDelayMaxRejects (default 7) consecutive rejects within RejectDelayWindowSeconds (default 10 s), responses are delayed. Tune both in System Config.

Does ToughRADIUS support 802.1X / Wi-Fi Enterprise?

Yes. Supported EAP methods: EAP-MD5, EAP-MSCHAPv2, EAP-TLS, PEAPv0/EAP-MSCHAPv2 and EAP-TTLS (inner PAP / MS-CHAP-V2). Select the method in System Config → EapMethod.

EAP-TLS / PEAP / EAP-TTLS doesn’t start

TLS-based EAP requires EapTlsCertFile + EapTlsKeyFile in System Config — when they are empty the methods are disabled by design. Generate a server certificate with cmd/certgen, set the paths, and retry. EapTlsCaFile is needed only to validate client certificates (EAP-TLS).

What breaks if the server and device clocks drift apart?

Clock skew causes subtle problems: TLS-based EAP (EAP-TLS / PEAP / TTLS) validates certificate validity windows (NotBefore / NotAfter), so a large time gap can fail the handshake; accounting start/stop times and durations become wrong; and the brute-force reject-delay window (default 10 s) is measured on the server clock. Run NTP on both the server and the NAS to keep time in sync.

Which EAP method should I pick?

EAP-TLS — strongest (mutual certificates), needs client-cert rollout.
PEAPv0/EAP-MSCHAPv2 — Windows/AD compatibility; mind the MS-CHAPv2 NTLMv1-like attack surface (see Security Policy).
EAP-TTLS — legacy/LDAP backends via inner PAP, keeping passwords inside the TLS tunnel.

Sessions, CoA & accounting

Disconnect / CoA from Online Sessions has no effect

Check, in order: the device has dynamic authorization enabled (e.g. radius incoming on RouterOS, aaa server radius dynamic-author on IOS); the CoA port on the NAS record matches the device (default 3799); and the device accepts requests from the server address. ToughRADIUS waits 5 s and retries twice before reporting failure.

How do I change a user’s speed live (FUP / over-quota throttling)?

ToughRADIUS’s Change of Authorization (CoA) carries only Session-Timeout and Filter-Id — it does not rewrite rate attributes like Mikrotik-Rate-Limit live. The standard way to change speed in real time is to change the rate on the profile / user first, then force a disconnect; the client redials and is re-authorized at the new speed. Alternatively use Filter-Id to apply a pre-defined rate rule on the device. See Scenario Cookbook · MikroTik · Live control.

CoA / disconnect says the session was not found

An operator-initiated CoA / Disconnect first locates the session on the Online Sessions page, then addresses the device using its NAS record and session identity (e.g. Acct-Session-Id). If the online row is stale (the NAS never sent an accounting stop) or the session already ended, there is nothing to match — refresh the online list, confirm accounting works on the device, and retry.

Online sessions show users that already disconnected

Online entries are created/refreshed by NAS accounting packets. If the NAS stops sending (reboot, link loss) the row can linger. Ensure accounting and interim updates are enabled on the device (Acct-Interim-Interval is sent in every Access-Accept, default 300 s). Stale entries can also be cleared manually from the UI with Disconnect/delete.

Accounting table grows forever — what is cleaned automatically?

Two @daily jobs purge data automatically: one deletes operation logs (SysOprLog) older than one year; the other, SchedClearExpireData, deletes terminated radius_accounting history older than AccountingHistoryDays (default 90 days; active sessions are never purged) and removes dangling radius_online rows that have missed several interim updates. Set AccountingHistoryDays to 0 to disable accounting cleanup (keep history indefinitely). For very high volumes you may still want database-level archiving in your ops routine. Configuration backups do not include accounting history — see Backup and restore.

ToughRADIUS Handbook

FAQ