I can't speak for Access (we use SQL), but I've run across a pretty similar
thing here. Our backup RadiusNT (was 2.2.41 until last week) machine only
used a text file (users) to authenticate from incase there was a problem
with the primary server. The reason we did this was because if SQL went
down or that server went down for some reason, our backup RadiusNT would
crash if it were running in ODBC or "both" mode (because the connection to
SQL would have been gone). To prevent this, we only ran the backup in text
mode and occasionally updated the users file if I was going out of town or
something.
Unfortunately, I could never leave it running because if I did, after a
while, the one or more of our Maxes would suddenly start split AUTH and
ACCT records between the two RadiusNT servers. This would cause problems
with authentication because the database would think that a user was still
online because it never received a STOP record. The user would then dial
back up and wouldn't be allowed in because the system thought he/she was
still online.
I don't remember all of the specifics on this because we haven't had a
running backup RadiusNT server running on a regular basis in quite some
time. Though I haven't tested it yet, I think that RadiusNT 2.5 (beta) is
supposed to not crash when an ODBC link is broken, so if this is the case,
I'll then be able to run our backup RadiusNT in "both" mode while I'm away
and won't have to worry about anything.
Josh Hillman
hillman@talstar.com