Network Policy Server (Radius Server) Monitoring

Network Policy Server (Radius Server) - An Overview

Network Policy Server (NPS) is the Microsoft implementation of a Remote Authentication Dial-in User Service (RADIUS) server and proxy. As a RADIUS server, NPS performs authentication, authorization, and accounting for wireless, authenticating switch, and remote access dial-up and virtual private network (VPN) connections. NPS allows you to centrally configure and manage network access authentication, authorization, and accounting. Implementing an efficient tool for NPS monitoring will help to track performance and availability of the radius servers. NPS can be implemented as RADIUS Server or RADIUS Proxy or both.

RADIUS Server:

NPS performs centralized authentication, authorization, and accounting for wireless, authenticating switch, remote access dial-up and virtual private network (VPN) connections. When you use NPS as a RADIUS server, you configure network access servers, such as wireless access points and VPN servers, as RADIUS clients in NPS. You also configure network policies that NPS uses to authorize connection requests, and you can configure RADIUS accounting so that NPS logs accounting information to log files on the local hard disk or in a Microsoft SQL Server database.

RADIUS Proxy:

When you use NPS as a RADIUS proxy, you configure connection request policies that tell the NPS which connection requests to forward to other RADIUS servers and to which RADIUS servers you want to forward connection requests. You can also configure NPS to forward accounting data to be logged by one or more computers in a remote RADIUS server group.

Creating a new NPS Radius server monitor

Prerequisites for monitoring NPS Radius server metrics: Click here

Using the REST API to add a new NPS Radius server monitor: Click here

1. Go to New Monitor and click on Add New Monitor link.
2. Select Network Policy Server (Radius Server) under Services category.
3. Enter the Display name of the monitor to be created.
4. Enter the Hostname of the host where Network Policy Server runs.
5. Choose the Roles that you want to monitor in the server. (Radius Server and Radius Proxy)
6. Enter the credential details like user name and password for authentication, or select the required credentials from the Credential Manager list after enabling the Select from Credential list option.
7. Select the Enable Kerberos Authentication checkbox if you want to monitor NPS Radius server through Kerberos authentication.
8. Enter the polling interval time in minutes.
9. If you are adding a new monitor from an Admin Server, select a Managed Server.
10. Choose the Monitor Group from the combo box with which you want to associate NPS Radius server monitor (optional). You can choose multiple groups to associate your monitor.
11. Click Add Monitor(s). This discovers NPS Radius server from the network and starts monitoring them.

Monitored Parameters

Go to the Monitors Category View by clicking the Monitors tab. Click on Network Policy Server (Radius Server) under the Services table. Displayed is the Network Policy Server (Radius Server) bulk configuration view distributed into three tabs:

• Availability tab gives the Availability history for the past 24 hours or 30 days.
• Performance tab gives the Health Status and events for the past 24 hours or 30 days.
• List view tab enables you to perform bulk admin configurations.

On clicking a monitor from the list, you'll be taken to the NPS Radius server monitor dashboard. It has 3 tabs -

• Performance Overview
• Radius Server
• Radius Proxy

Performance Overview

Radius Server

Radius Proxy