Accel-ppp Support in RADIUSdesk

Introduction

• As of November 2023, RADIUSdesk can centrally manage Accel-ppp on Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi based devices.
• This is done by a lightweight agent that interacts with RADIUSdesk.
• Each device now has the ability to be configured though a web applet on RADIUSdesk.
• The agent also reports back to RADIUSdesk on the status of the service and any active sessions.
• The following graphic shows how everything fits together.

Accel-ppp Servers Applet

• The Accel-ppp Server applet can be found under the Other grouping.
• It has three sub tabs
  • The Servers tab displays all of the Accel-ppp servers which are managed centrally.
  • The Profiles tab is used to define various profiles which are associated with one of more servers.
  • The New Arrivals lists Accel-ppp servers which reported to RADIUSdesk but which require on-boarding.

Profiles

• We will cover Profiles first although it is the second sub-tab since it is required to have a profile ready in order to define a server.
• Profiles are used to manage the major part of the settings which will be applied to a server.
• Settings are dynamically formulated in the reply when the RADISUdesk Accel-ppp agent contacts RADIUSdesk.
• The settings for each Accel-ppp server can be divided into three categories.
  • Common settings which hardly differ between servers. (This is the bulk of them)
  • Unique settings which you might want to tweak should the need arise.
  • Specific settings which are required to differentiate one Accel-ppp server from another.

Common Settings (Base Configs)

• Common settings are stored inside a CakePHP config file. (/var/www/rdcore/cake4/rd_cake/config/AccelPresets.php)

• One can define various sets of these common settings, giving each a unique name.

<?php
//Default settings for accel-ppp
 
$config['AccelPresets']['Default'] = [
 
    'modules'   => [
        'log_file',
        'pppoe',
        'auth_pap',
        'radius',
        'ippool',
        'shaper',   
    ],  
    'core'      => [
        'log-error' => '/var/log/accel-ppp/core.log',
        'thread-count'  => 4,
    ],

• We refer to them as Base Configs.
• There is one already called Default.
• The keys of these configs maps to sections of the /etc/accel-ppp.conf file.
• Should you wish to add or modify these configs; it can be done by editing /var/www/rdcore/cake4/rd_cake/config/AccelPresets.php.
• The various configs will then appear as a select-able Base Config list when managing profiles.
• When one select a Base Config from the list; the values in the GUI are populated from the selected Base Config.
• You can then edit those populated values so they are unique to the profile you are managing.
• See screenshot below.

Unique Settings (Profiles)

• Profiles allow you to override certain values which were specified in the Base Config so that they become unique to that profile.
• These include items which might need tweaking for certain environments.
• Each of the sections inside the GUI maps to a section in the /etc/accel-ppp.conf file.

Specific Settings (Server)

• This is the final category and one that is specific to an Accel-ppp server in the applet.
• An Accel-ppp server needs a mandatory Profile (Unique settings) and then two items which are specific.
  • Interface This is the interface name on the server where we want to run the PPPoE servie on.
  • NAS Identifier This is the specific identifier used to identify the Accel-ppp server on RADIUS.

Servers

• Although the Servers tab is first we started with the Profiles tab since we need to have a Profile available which we can associate with a server.
• Each server has the following mandatory fields.
  • Name A unique name to identify the server with.
  • MAC Address This has to match the MAC Address of the interface on the device running Accel-ppp and is used as a identity field.
  • Server Profile This was covered earlier in this document.
  • Interface The name of the interface on which you plan to run the PPPoE service on (using Accel-ppp)
  • NAS Identifier Used to identify the server when interacting with the RADIUS server.

Servers GUI

• The screenshot above is from the Accel-ppp server applet.
• Let's look at some key points
  • The Refresh button has an option to automatically refresh at fixed intervals. This is handy if you want to see when an Accel-ppp server comes online without having to hit the refresh button the whole time.
  • Next to it is a toggle button which allows you to see either all defined server or only those servers which are currently online.
  • The Add, Delete and Edit buttons should be self explanatory.
  • The Restart Service button is used to set the restart service flag on a selected server.
  • If it is set (indicated visually with a gears icon prepended to the name) and the next heartbeat arrives from the RADIUSdesk Accel-ppp agent. the agent will detect the flag and restart the Accel-ppp service.
  • The visual indication will also be cleared.
  • The final button is used to launch a new tab which will list all the active sessions.

• The final button on the active sessions tab in turn will allow you to terminate selected sessions.
• It works is a similar way to the Restart Service button for the server itself where a flag is set and there is a visual indication that a session is marked for disconnect until the next heartbeat where it will be cleared and the RADIUSdesk Accel-ppp agent will terminate the user's session.

New Arrivals

• Any of the Accel-ppp servers that still needs on-boarding will be listed under New Arrivals.
• Simply select the one you want to on-board and provide the required information to allow it to become part of the managed servers.
• Reboot the device after on-boarding and the configuration will be applied through the RADIUSdesk Accel-ppp agent.

Next Steps

• Be sure to check out the steps to follow on the Ubuntu or Raspberry Pi to install the RADIUSdesk Accel-ppp agent so it can be managed by RADIUSdesk.