Accounting Overview

The accounting system utility allows you to collect and report on individual and group use of various system resources.

This accounting information can be used to bill users for the system resources they utilize, and to monitor selected aspects of the system's operation. To assist with billing, the accounting system provides the resource-usage totals defined by members of the adm group, and, if the chargefee command is included, factors in the billing fee.

The accounting system also provides data to assess the adequacy of current resource assignments, set resource limits and quotas, forecast future needs, and order supplies for printers and other devices.

The following information should help you understand how to implement the accounting utility in your system:

• Collecting and Reporting System Data
• Collecting Accounting Data
• Reporting Accounting Data
• Accounting Commands
• Accounting Files

Collecting and Reporting System Data

For data to be collected automatically, a member of the adm group needs to follow the procedures described in "Setting Up an Accounting System". These procedures enable the cron daemon to run the commands that generate data on:

• Amount of time each user spends logged in to the system
• Usage of the processing unit, memory, and I/O resources
• Amount of disk space occupied by each user's files
• Usage of printers and plotters
• Number of times a specific command is given

The system writes a record of each session and process after they are completed. These records are converted into total accounting (tacct) records arranged by user and merged into a daily report. Periodically, the daily reports are combined to produce totals for the defined fiscal period. Methods for collecting and reporting the data and the various accounting commands and files are discussed in the following sections.

Although most of the accounting data is collected and processed automatically, a member of the adm group can enter certain commands from the keyboard to obtain specific information. These commands are discussed in "Keyboard Commands".

Collecting Accounting Data

There are several types of accounting data: connect-time data, process data, disk-usage data, printer-usage data, and fee data. Each is described in the following paragraphs.

Connect-Time Accounting

Connect-time data is collected by the init command and the login command. When you log in, the login program writes a record in the /etc/utmp file. This record includes your user name, the date and time of the login, and the login port. Commands, such as who, use this file to find out which users are logged into the various display stations. If the /var/adm/wtmp connect-time accounting file exists, the login command adds a copy of this login record to it.

When your login program ends (normally when you log out), the init command records the end of the session by writing another record in the /var/adm/wtmp file. Logout records differ from login records in that they have a blank user name. Both the login and logout records have the form described in the utmp.h file.

The acctwtmp command also writes special entries in the /var/adm/wtmp file concerning system shutdowns and startups.

For more information, see "Connect-Time Reports" .

Process Accounting

The system collects data on resource usage for each process as it runs. These data include:

• User and group numbers under which the process runs
• First eight characters of the name of the command
• Elapsed time and processor time used by the process
• Memory use
• Number of characters transferred
• Number of disk blocks read or written on behalf of the process

The accton command records these data in a specified file, usually the /var/adm/pacct file.

Related commands are the startup command, the shutacct command, the dodisk command, the ckpacct command, and the turnacct command.

For more information, see "Reporting Accounting Data" .

Disk-Usage Accounting

Much accounting information is collected as the resources are consumed. The dodisk command, run as specified by the cron daemon, periodically writes disk-usage records for each user to the /var/adm/acct/nite/dacct file. To accomplish this, the dodisk command calls other commands. Depending upon the thoroughness of the accounting search, the diskusg command or the acctdusg command can be used to collect data. The acctdisk command is used to write a total accounting record. The total accounting record, in turn, is used by the acctmerg command to prepare the daily accounting report.

The dodisk command charges a user for the links to files found in the user's login directory and evenly divides the charge for each file between the links. This spreads the cost of using a file over all who use it and removes the charges from users when they relinquish access to a file.

For more information, see "Disk-Usage Accounting Report" .

Printer-Usage Accounting

The collection of printer-usage data is a cooperative effort between the enq command and the queuing daemon. The enq command enqueues the user name, job number, and the name of the file to be printed. After the file is printed, the qdaemon command writes an ASCII record to a file, usually the /var/adm/qacct file, containing the user name, user number, and the number of pages printed. You can sort these records and convert them to total accounting records.

For more information, see "Printer-Usage Accounting Report" .

Fee Accounting

You can enter the chargefee command to produce an ASCII total accounting record in the /var/adm/fee file. This file will be added to daily reports by the acctmerg command.

For more information, see "Fee Accounting Report" .

Reporting Accounting Data

After the various types of accounting data are collected, the records are processed and converted into reports.

Accounting commands automatically convert records into scientific notation when numbers become large. A number is represented in scientific notation in the following format:

Basee+Exp

OR

Basee-Exp

which is the number equal to the Base number multiplied by 10 to the +Exp or -Exp power. For example, the scientific notation 1.345e+9 is equal to 1.345x109, or 1,345,000,000. And the scientific notation 1.345e-9 is equal to 1.345x10-9 or, .000000001345.

Connect-Time Reports

The runacct command calls two commands, acctcon1 and acctcon2, to process the login, logout, and system-shutdown records that collect in the /var/adm/wtmp file. The acctcon1 command converts these records into session records and writes them to the /var/adm/acct/nite/lineuse file. The acctcon2 command then converts the session records into a total accounting record, /var/adm/logacct, that the acctmerg command adds to daily reports.

If you run the acctcon1 command from the command line, you must include the -l flag to produce the line-use report, /var/adm/acct/nite/lineuse. To produce an overall session report for the accounting period, /var/adm/acct/nite/reboots, use the acctcon1 command with the -o flag.

The lastlogin command produces a report that gives the last date on which each user logged in.

Process Accounting Reports

Two commands process the billing-related data that was collected in the /var/adm/pacct or other specified file. The acctprc1 command translates the user ID into a user name and writes ASCII records containing the chargeable items (prime and non-prime CPU time, mean memory size, and I/O data). The acctprc2 command transforms these records into total accounting records that are added to daily reports by the acctmerg command.

Process accounting data also provides information that you can use to monitor system resource usage. The acctcms command summarizes resource use by command name. This provides information on how many times each command was run, how much processor time and memory was used, and how intensely the resources were used (also known as the hog factor). The acctcms command produces long-term statistics on system utilization, providing information on total system usage and the frequency with which commands are used.

The acctcom command handles the same data as the acctcms command, but provides detailed information about each process. You can display all process accounting records or select records of particular interest. Selection criteria include the load imposed by the process, the time period when the process ended, the name of the command, the user or group that invoked the process, and the port at which the process ran. Unlike other accounting commands, acctcom can be run by all users.

Disk-Usage Accounting Report

The disk-usage records collected in the /var/adm/acct/nite/dacct file are merged into the daily accounting reports by the acctmerg command.

Printer-Usage Accounting Report

The ASCII record in the /var/adm/qacct file can be converted to a total accounting record to be added to the daily report by the acctmerg command.

Fee Accounting Report

If you used the chargefee command to charge users for services such as file restores, consulting, or materials, an ASCII total accounting record is written in the /var/adm/fee file. This file is added to the daily reports by the acctmerg command.

Daily Reports

Raw accounting data on connect-time, processes, disk usage, printer usage, and fees to charge are merged into daily reports by the acctmerg command. Called by the runacct command as part of its daily operation, the acctmerg command produces the following:

The acctmerg command can convert records between ASCII and binary formats and merge records from different sources into a single record for each user.

Monthly Report

Called by the cron daemon, the monacct command produces the following:

Accounting Commands

The accounting commands function several different ways. Some commands:

• Collect data or produce reports for a specific type of accounting: connect-time, process, disk usage, printer usage, or command usage.
• Call other commands. For example, the runacct command, which is usually run automatically by the cron daemon, calls many of the commands that collect and process accounting data and prepare reports. To obtain automatic accounting, you must first configure the cron daemon to run the runacct command. See the crontab command for more information about how to configure the cron daemon to submit commands at regularly scheduled intervals.
• Perform maintenance functions and ensure the integrity of active data files.
• Enable members of the adm group to perform occasional tasks, such as displaying specific records, by entering a command at the keyboard.
• Enable a user to display specific information. There is only one user command, the acctcom command, which displays process accounting summaries.

Commands That Run Automatically

Several commands usually run by the cron daemon automatically collect accounting data.

Other commands are run automatically by procedures other than the cron daemon:

Keyboard Commands

A member of the adm group can enter the following commands from the keyboard:

Accounting Files

There are two main accounting directories: the /usr/sbin/acct directory, where all the C language programs and shell procedures needed to run the accounting system are stored, and the /var/adm directory, which contains the data, report and summary files.

The accounting data files belong to members of the adm group, and all active data files (such as wtmp and pacct) reside in the adm home directory /var/adm.

Data Files

Files in the /var/adm directory are:

Report and Summary Files

Report and summary files reside in a /var/adm/acct subdirectory. You must create the following subdirectories before the accounting system is enabled. See "Setting Up an Accounting System" for more information.

runacct Command Files

The following report and summary files, produced by the runacct command, are of particular interest:

Files in the /var/adm/acct/nite Directory

Files in the /var/adm/acct/sum Directory

Files in the /var/adm/acct/fiscal Directory

Accounting File Formats

Accounting file output and formats are summarized in the following.