What is the Portnox local RADIUS server?

In this topic, you will learn what is the Portnox™ local RADIUS server software and how it works.

The Portnox local RADIUS server is a lightweight standalone server that provides RADIUS services within your local network.

For an overview of how the local RADIUS server interacts with Portnox Cloud, see How do local RADIUS servers work?.

The local RADIUS server is available as a Docker container (recommended) or as virtual machine images.

Installation requirements

The local RADIUS server is available in the public Docker repository as portnox/portnox-radius, and in OVA (Open Virtualization Appliance) and VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) formats for virtual machines.

The following are the recommended minimum resources when installing the local RADIUS server on a virtual machine:

Warning:
The performance of a local RADIUS server depends on how many RADIUS authentication and accounting packets it processes, which cannot be predicted in advance. At a minimum, a local RADIUS server needs 1 CPU and 4 GB of RAM. This is enough for most customers, but actual results may vary. Customers should monitor the server’s performance and add more resources if needed to avoid overloading it. For very large setups, it’s recommended to use up to 8 CPUs with a combined PassMark score above 14,000, 32 GB of RAM, and SSD storage. This setup is similar to a higher-end laptop.

These requirements and the related performance considerations also apply when running the server as a Docker container. If the host machine runs additional containers or software, allocate resources accordingly.

The virtual machine version of the local RADIUS server is accessible via SSH. For security, the underlying Tiny Core Linux system includes only the components required to operate the server.