yfi_explain_realm

Realms Explained

Introduction

Realms can be found in many RADIUS setups. YFi Hotspot Manager also features realms. This page explains typical usage of realms.

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Segmentation

RADIUS setups of ISP's can grow quite huge.
Creating a realm in RADIUS helps segmenting the users. A realm adds a suffix to the user's username. The suffix is separated from the username by a delimiter character.
The standard used is the '@' sign.
Ths makes it easy to read, since it reads <username><at><realm>
The realm does not need to be the end part of a domain name EG yfi.co.za, but it makes things easy since most ISP's also provide e-mail and thus the user can use the email address as a username and email address.

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YFi Realms

Realms in YFi Hotspot Manager are used like the standard realms in RADIUS. It gives the option for extra information though.
A realm now have a human readable name instead of an encrypted suffix.
We also have an icon for a realm, an address and contact detail.
The suffix that you specify when creating a realm does not need to be the end part of a domain name, but can be.
The suffix must be unique though since the suffix can be seen as a group tying users together.
Each Voucher or Permananet User created through YFi Hotspot Manager has to be part of a realm - it is compulsory.

Yfi's realms can have one or more of the following tied to it, so be very carefull when you delete a realm.

• Vouchers - As stated before, each voucher created must belong to a realm.
• Permanent Users - Each Permanent User also has to be part of a realm.
• Accounting detail. When the accounting detail (usage) of a Voucher of Permanent User is logged, the realm is also part of it. This enable us to pull statistics on specified realms.
• Profile Templates. A Profile Template gets assigned to one or more realms.
• Profiles. Profiles also gets assigned to one or more realms, making them available as a choice when creating Vouchers or Permanent Users.
• NAS Devices. When you add a NAS device, you have to specify to which realms the NAS Device will be available.
• Access Providers. They get assigned to one or more realms, allowing them to (depending on their individual rights) manage Vouchers and Permanent Users belonging to those realms.

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Conclusion

Be carefull when you delete a realm since the knock-on effect may not be what you expected.
Once a Voucher or Permanent User user is created as part of a realm it is stuck with it for life!