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Local RADIUS/TACACS+ instances
Local RADIUS: open-vm-tools
In this topic, you will learn how to install and run VMware’s open-vm-tools on a VMware virtual machine (VM) running the Portnox™ Local RADIUS server.

Knowledge base
- Security/Architecture
- Certificates
- Licensing
- Portnox Cloud portal
- Network access
- Onboarding
- Cloud RADIUS
- Local RADIUS/TACACS+ instances
  - Troubleshooting using SSH
    In this topic, you will learn how to troubleshoot problems with the operation of the local RADIUS or local TACACS+ instance in a virtual machine by using the PuTTY application, the SSH protocol, and Linux shell commands.
  - Local RADIUS: Performance monitoring
    In this topic, you will find suggestions on monitoring the performance of the local RADIUS instance in a virtual machine. Such monitoring will require third-party tools.
  - Local RADIUS: Firewall configuration
    In this topic, you will learn how to configure your firewall to make sure that the local RADIUS instance can communicate with the Cloud.
  - Local RADIUS: Load balancing
    Use this task to configure local RADIUS and Portnox Cloud groups for RADIUS load balancing, using Citrix NetScaler as an example.
  - Azure ACI: Local RADIUS with stable IPs
    In this topic, you will learn how to deploy local RADIUS and TACACS+ container instances in Microsoft Azure while ensuring stable IP addresses for NAS device configuration.
  - Azure ACI: Local RADIUS dormant
    In this topic, you will find guidance to diagnose and resolve a situation where the Portnox™ Local RADIUS container on an Azure container instance (ACI) enters a dormant state. This problem is usually caused by DNS or networking issues within Azure or your network environment.
  - Local RADIUS: open-vm-tools
    In this topic, you will learn how to install and run VMware’s open-vm-tools on a VMware virtual machine (VM) running the Portnox™ Local RADIUS server.
  - TACACS+ troubleshooting
    In this topic, you will learn how to troubleshoot typical problems with the operation of the Portnox™ TACACS+ service.
  - TACACS+: Firewall configuration
    In this topic, you will learn how to configure your firewall to make sure that the local TACACS+ instance can communicate with the cloud TACACS+ instances.
  - TACACS+: connection security
    In this topic, you will find information about how Portnox Cloud secures the connection between a local TACACS+ server and Cloud services, including encryption and credential handling.
- LDAP Broker
- AgentP
- Docker containers
- NAS devices
- Guest network (captive portal)
- Zero Trust Network Access
- Integrations
- Risk assessment/Remediation
- Fingerprinting and tracking
- Support

How to run open-vm-tools on a Local RADIUS virtual machine

In this topic, you will learn how to install and run VMware’s open-vm-tools on a VMware virtual machine (VM) running the Portnox™ Local RADIUS server.

VMware’s open-vm-tools provides services and modules that help VMware manage virtual machines and allow seamless interaction with guest operating systems. It includes kernel modules that improve performance for Linux or other VMware-supported UNIX-like guest OSes. It enables integration with VMware vSphere/ESXi for:

Graceful shutdown of the guest OS without console access
Guest heartbeat monitoring
Displaying the VM’s DNS name and IP address in vSphere

Note:

These features are not mandatory for the Local RADIUS server, but VMware administrators find them useful for managing virtual infrastructure. The steps below only affect the startup of vmtoolsd and do not interfere with Local RADIUS services or Portnox processes.

Note:

Other hypervisors use their own integration packages. For example, Hyper-V uses Hyper-V Integration Services (built into modern Linux kernels), and Oracle VirtualBox uses VirtualBox Guest Additions.

Note:

For better control, we recommend running the Local RADIUS server as a Docker container, which provides full host-level control and integrates more easily with monitoring and operational tools.

Create a script file inside the VM:
```
cat >vmtools.sh
```

Paste the following content:

#!/bin/sh
                        
if [ ! -f /mnt/sda1/tce/optional/glib2.tz ] ; then
  tce-load -wi glib2
fi
if [ ! -f /mnt/sda1/tce/optional/open-vm-tools.tz ] ; then
  tce-load -wi open-vm-tools
fi

Then, press Ctrl+D to send an EOF (end-of-file) signal.

Make the script executable and run it:
```
chmod +x vmtools.sh
./vmtools.sh
```

Start vmtoolsd manually (one-time):

sudo /usr/local/bin/vmtoolsd -b /var/run/vmtoolsd.pid

Verify:

which vmtoolsd
vmware-checkvm
ps aux | grep vmtoolsd | grep -v grep

Persist across reboots:
```
echo "/usr/local/bin/vmtoolsd -b /var/run/vmtoolsd.pid &" | sudo tee -a /opt/bootlocal.sh
filetool.sh -b
```
Note:
This configuration will persist for in-place updates. Changes to /opt/bootlocal.sh are saved with filetool.sh -b. However, if you deploy a new OVA image, you must repeat the above steps.