Radiator Installation | Radiator Software

Installation instructions

Radiator installation is easy, but you will need to be prepared to spend some time configuring Radiator to suit your needs. You will need to have a basic understanding of RADIUS and your system’s authentication and accounting requirements in order to configure Radiator.

First, order and pay for Radiator, and wait for a user name and password to be sent to you by email.
Fetch Radiator (username and password required). Choose the appropriate package for your platform and requirements. Save the file in a work directory. If you have problems downloading the software, please contact info@radiatorsoftware.com

Updating from demo or locked version to full version

If your locked version was installed from Linux el7 RPM, Linux deb or Windows MSI package, update as follows:

Linux el8 RPM: radiator-locked-4.xx-nnn.el8.noarch.rpm: update by installing radiator-4.xx-nnn.el8.noarch.rpm
Linux deb: radiator-locked_4.xx-nnn_all.deb: update by installing radiator_4.xx-nnn_all.deb
Windows MSI: Radiator-Locked-4.xx.nnn.msi: update by installing Radiator-4.xx.nnn.msi

If your locked version is a Linux generic RPM Radiator-Locked-x.yy-z.noarch.rpm and your system supports el8 RPMs, update by installing full el8 RPM. See Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and CentOS 8. Otherwise make a copy of your configuration file, remove Radiator-Locked-x.yy-z.noarch.rpm and install Radiator-x.yy-z.noarch.rpm.

If you have installed Radiator from .zip or .tgz source code package, update by doing source code installation using a full version source code package.

Linux RPM for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, and compatible systems such as AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Oracle Linux and CentOS

Easy install with RPM packages. All prerequisites will be automatically downloaded and installed.

NOTE for generic Radiator-x.x-x.noarch.rpm users: Paths, file names (for example configuration files, log files, source files) as well as user account name and group have changed in radiator-4.xx-nnn.el8.noarch.rpm installation. Verify that your configuration files are in correct locations and have current names, modified init.d scripts are cleared out and radiator user belongs to radiator group. These are not automatically handled when installing from radiator-4.xx-nnn.el8.noarch.rpm.

Install the package with yum install ./radiator-4.xx-nnn.el8.noarch.rpm
Make Radiator service start on boot systemctl enable radiator.service
Start the service systemctl start radiator.service
Test authentication and accounting /opt/radiator/radiator/radpwtst -trace 4
Edit /etc/radiator/radiator.conf to suit your site and needs. For more details, see the locally installed reference manual in /opt/radiator/radiator/doc/ref.pdf or HTML or PDF version.
Now go to Configuration

Linux deb for Ubuntu 16.04/18.04/20.04/22.04 and Debian 9/10/11

Easy install from deb packages. All prerequisites will be automatically downloaded and installed.

Install the package with apt install ./radiator_4.xx-nnn_all.deb
Make Radiator service start on boot systemctl enable radiator.service
Start the service systemctl start radiator.service
Test authentication and accounting /opt/radiator/radiator/radpwtst -trace 4
Edit /etc/radiator/radiator.conf to suit your site and needs. For more details, see the locally installed reference manual in /opt/radiator/radiator/doc/ref.pdf or HTML or PDF version.
Now go to Configuration

Unix systems

Radiator offers a wide selection of installation packages in various formats, for example RPM, deb and MSI. In case a suitable format is not available, Radiator can also be installed from the archive package.

Your system very likely has Perl and most of the required Perl modules installed or readily packaged for installation. If a required module is not already packaged, you need to install it from CPAN. If you need to install from CPAN, try the latest available version first.

Make sure you are (or have access to) a system administrator and someone who understands your Radius authentication and accounting requirements.
Obtain and install Perl 5 version 5.8.8 or better.
Obtain and install Perl Digest-MD5 and Perl Digest-SHA
This installation method requires ExtUtils-MakeMaker which is part of Perl. Some recent Linux distributions, such as RHEL 6, may not have ExtUtils-MakeMaker installed by default but it can be installed with something like yum install perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker
If you plan to use SQL for authentication and/or accounting, obtain and install DBI and the DBD module for your selected database. DBD modules are available for many commercial, free and other RDBMSs
If you plan to use MS-CHAP or MS-CHAP2 authentication, obtain and install Digest-MD4
If you plan to use LDAP for authentication and/or accounting, obtain and install perl-ldap
If you plan to use EAP TLS, TTLS or PEAP for 802.1x authentication, obtain and install OpenSSL, Net-SSLeay and Digest-HMAC
If you plan to use the GUI interface to radpwtst, obtain and install Perl Tk (version Tk800.002 or better)
Unpack the distribution with gunzip -c Radiator-x.x.tgz|tar xvf -
Check the latest patches and bug alerts for patches that might be relevant to your installation.
Change to the distribution directory: cd Radiator-x.x
perl Makefile.PL
make test This is the regression test. You should see lots of lines saying “ok” and none saying “not ok”.
As a final test, run Radiator with a simple configuration file:
- Run radiator with perl radiusd -config_file goodies/simple.cfg. This runs Radiator with logging turned on (so you can see whats happening), and authenticates all requests from the file users. You will see some messages, followed by “NOTICE: Server started:”. Radiator is now waiting for requests to arrive.
- In another window, change to your Radiator directory, and run the test application with:
  perl radpwtst -user fred -password fred
  You should see “OK”.
- Rerun radpwtst, this time with the wrong password from fred:
  perl radpwtst -user fred -password wrong
  You should see “Rejected”.
- If you configure a test NAS to use this server, you will able to log in as the user “mikem” with password “fred”.
If all goes well, make install. This will install the Radius perl modules in your site-perl directory, and radiusd, radpwtst, builddbm and buildsql in your local executable directory.
Now go to Configuration

Linux generic RPM

This RPM should only be used on systems that do not have their specific packages (i.e. RHEL 6). The minimum prerequisite is Perl Digest-SHA module which is part of core Perl since Perl 5.10.0. On RHEL 6 it is packaged separately and can be installed with yum.

Note: In Radiator 4.21 and earlier, this was the only type of RPM package available. New installations on RHEL/CentOS 7/8 should be done using specific el7/el8 packages.

Make sure you are (or have access to) a system administrator and someone who understands your Radius authentication and accounting requirements.
Log in as root
Check that Digest-SHA is installed. Install it on RHEL 6 with yum install perl-Digest-SHA
Check that Digest-MD5 is installed. Install it on RHEL 6 with yum install perl-Digest-MD5
Install the package with rpm -Uvh Radiator-x.x-x.noarch.rpm
Start the server /etc/init.d/radiator start
Test authentication radpwtst
Edit /etc/radiator/radius.cfg to suit your site and needs. See the reference manual in /usr/share/doc/packages/Radiator-x.x for more details.
Now go to Configuration

macOS

We recommend installing Xcode and a Perl installation management tool, such as Perlbrew which can be used to install, for example, cpanm to obtain modules from CPAN. This allows you to start working with Radiator without modifying the Perl installation that comes with macOS.

Perl that comes with macOS works with Radiator, but may not have all the modules your configuration might require.

Solaris

On Solaris, we recommend install from the tarball as described above. Previous Radiator versions were packaged for Solaris, but required Perl from Sunfreeware (http://www.sunfreeware.com) to find the correct installation locations. We now recommend to install Perl from your preferred source and then use the Radiator tar package for Radiator installation.

Windows installation

You can install Radiator with an MSI package that bundles Radiator and Strawberry Perl, or with a source code package using a process that is similar to full source distribution installation.

If you’d like to use Radiator source code package, we recommend that you use ActivePerl from ActiveState, or Strawberry Perl. See the respective links for more about support and other options these Perl distributions provide. Both ActivePerl and Strawberry Perl install very easily and have many additional precompiled modules available.

Windows installation MSI package

Radiator MSI package includes Strawberry Perl for convenience, so that separate installation of Perl is no longer needed. However, if your environment already has a Perl installation, Strawberry Perl in the package does not disturb it. Supported Windows versions are Windows Server 2012 or newer, but older Windows Server versions can also be used provided they have at least PowerShell 3.0 installed. To install Radiator, double click the MSI file, approve licence screens, and the installation is done. It is not possible to select where Radiator is installed, it will automatically install to the drive with most space available under \Radiator\Radiator. The package will arrange for Radiator service to start automatically as a Windows service each time you reboot your host. Raditor MSI package also supports silent operations, so it is possible to start the installation, upgrade, or uninstallation from command line without any UIs.

By default, the installer creates the following directories for configuration, logs, Radiator itself, its utilities and other files. See \Radiator\Radiator\goodies\ for configuration samples:

\Program Files\Radiator\
\Radiator\Radiator\
\Radiator\Strawberry Perl\

You can find documentation, additional dictionaries, and the goodies collection in \Radiator\Radiator\ directory. For quick access to the above locations, Radiator Software is added to Start menu.

Windows installation with ActivePerl

Download and install ActivePerl ActiveState
During installation, we recommend installing it in C:\Perl64. This is typically the default for the MSI package.
Connect your computer to the Internet so you will be able download any required Perl modules from ActiveState using PPM.
Open a Command Prompt window. Install some prerequisite Perl modules. If a module is already installed, the command will tell you so.
cd \
ppm install Win32::Daemon
ppm install Digest::HMAC
ppm install Digest::MD4
If you plan to use SQL authentication, find the database specific DBD module(s) by typing ppm search DBD. For example to install DBD::ODBC, type ppm install DBD::ODBC
If you plan to use LDAP for authentication and/or accounting, obtain and install Net::LDAP by typing: ppm install Net::LDAP
If you plan to use EAP TLS, TTLS or PEAP for 802.1x authentication obtain and install Net::SSLeay by typing: ppm install Net::SSLeay
Download Radiator Zip file from Radiator downloads Opens in new window. Let it unpack to the default location, C:\Radiator. When using the default location, Radiator distribution will be in C:\Radiator\Radiator-x.yy where x.yy is the version number.
Start a command window with administrator access, change directories to the distribution directory.
Type perl Makefile.PL. This will check that your distribution is complete.
Run the regression tests with perl test.pl. You should see lots of lines like “ok xx”, and none saying “not ok xx”.
Install Radiator with perl Makefile.PL install. This will install the Radiator programs and libraries in the standard places, and will create a basic Radiator configuration file in C:\Program Files\Radiator\radius.cfg and a sample users file in C:\Program Files\Radiator\users.
Run radiator to test the sample configuration with perl c:\perl64\bin\radiusd. You will see some messages, followed by “NOTICE: Server started:”. Radiator is now waiting for RADIUS requests to arrive.
In another command window run the test client program with perl c:\perl64\bin\radpwtst -user mikem -password fred. You should see “OK” for all requests. This proves that Radiator has correctly authenticated the user mikem, whose login details are in the users file in C:\Program Files\Radiator\users.
Rerun radpwtst, this time with the wrong password for mikem: perl c:\perl64\bin\radpwtst -user mikem -password wrong. You should see “Rejected:” for Access-Request.
If you configure a test NAS to use this server, you will able to log in as the user “mikem” with password “fred”.
To optionally arrange for Radiator to be run as a service automatically at boot time, see the Radiator Reference Manual
Now go to Configuration

Windows installation with Strawberry Perl

Download and install Strawberry Perl from StrawberryPerl website
During installation, we recommend installing it in C:\Strawberry. This is typically the default for the MSI package.
Connect your computer to the Internet so you will be able download any required Perl modules from CPAN
Open a Command Prompt window. Install some prerequisite Perl modules. If a module is already installed, the command will tell you so.
cd \
cpan Win32::Daemon
cpan Digest::HMAC
cpan Digest::MD4
If you plan to use SQL authentication, find the database specific DBD module(s) from CPAN. For example to install DBD::ODBC, type: cpan DBD::ODBC
If you plan to use LDAP for authentication and/or accounting, obtain and install Net::LDAP by typing: cpan Net::LDAP
If you plan to use EAP TLS, TTLS or PEAP for 802.1x authentication obtain and install Net::SSLeay by typing: cpan Net::SSLeay
Download Radiator Zip file from Radiator downloads Opens in new window. Let it unpack to the default location, C:\Radiator. When using the default location, Radiator distribution will be in C:\Radiator\Radiator-x.yy where x.yy is the version number.
Start a command window with administrator access, change directories to the distribution directory.
Type perl Makefile.PL. This will check that your distribution is complete.
Run the regression tests with perl test.pl. You should see lots of lines like “ok xx”, and none saying “not ok xx”.
Install Radiator with perl Makefile.PL install. This will install the Radiator programs and libraries in the standard places, and will create a basic Radiator configuration file in C:\Program Files\Radiator\radius.cfg and a sample users file in C:\Program Files\Radiator\users.
Run radiator to test the sample configuration with perl c:\strawberry\perl\bin\radiusd. You will see some messages, followed by “NOTICE: Server started:”. Radiator is now waiting for RADIUS requests to arrive.
In another command window run the test client program with perl c:\strawberry\perl\bin\radpwtst -user mikem -password fred. You should see “OK” for all requests. This proves that Radiator has correctly authenticated the user mikem, whose login details are in the users file in C:\Program Files\Radiator\users.
Rerun radpwtst, this time with the wrong password for mikem: perl c:\strawberry\perl\bin\radpwtst -user mikem -password wrong. You should see “Rejected:” for Access-Request.
If you configure a test NAS to use this server, you will able to log in as the user “mikem” with password “fred”.
To optionally arrange for Radiator to be run as a service automatically at boot time, see the Radiator Reference Manual
Now go to Configuration

Configuration

Now that Radiator is installed and you know that it is working properly, you need to configure it to suit your own local needs. Radiator uses a configuration file to tell it important things like which NASs it will talk to, and how to handle authentication and accounting requests from those NASs. Radiator has a large number of ways to handle authorisation and accounting. You will have to create a configuration file for your site. Because your needs will almost certainly be different from anyone else, you will need to spend some time building and testing it.

Read the configuration reference manual
Check the example configuration files in the goodies directory. You might find one that suits your needs very closely.
Create and edit a configuration file. We suggest you start with a very simple config file such as the the one in goodies/radius.cfg. Add extra features as you go.
Run radiusd by hand, and test it with radpwtst until you are sure it is configured the way you need for your site. You may want to specify your config file with -config_file filename.
When you are sure Radiator is configured the way you want, arrange for radiusd to start automatically at boot time (see the reference manual for details of different ways to do this for different platforms)
Join the Radiator Free Mailing List. This will allow you to exchange help and information with other Radiator owners.

Additional Resources

There is a complete archive of the Radiator Free Mailing list.
Documentation is available online

If you have trouble

If you have an Email support contract send any questions to the relevant email support contract address, quoting your Email Support User Name. Otherwise, you may use the Radiator Free Mailing List

Before you post to the email support address or free mailing list asking for assistance, we suggest you go through the following check list:

If you have trouble downloading the software, please contact info@radiatorsoftware.com.
Consult the Reference Manual.
Consult the FAQ for extra hints.
Check that you are using the latest version of Radiator. See downloads, use the username and password we have issued to you. Upgrade if you need to.
Check whether there are any patches that address your problem. See the README in the patches directory for your revision. Apply any patches that you think you might need.
If you still have the problem post to the free mailing list by mailing to radiator@lists.open.com.au (you will need to subscribe first before posting to that list) Be sure to include at least the following information:
- A detailed description of the problem.
- Your Radiator configuration file (remove any secrets and passwords first).
- An extract from your Radiator log file (with Trace level of 4) illustrating the problem, or at least what is happening at the time of the problem.
- Details of the computer type, operating system etc.
This information helps people to understand your problem and help find a solution more quickly. If you have a support contract, you may email us at support@radiatorsoftware.com. Mail to this address will be ignored unless you have a support contract.