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System Management Guide:
Operating System and Devices

System Accounting

The system accounting utility allows you to collect and report on individual and group use of various system resources. Topics covered in this section are:

Setting Up an Accounting System

Prerequisites

You must have root authority to complete this procedure.

Procedure

The following is an overview of the steps you must take to set up an accounting system. Refer to the commands and files noted in these steps for more specific information.

  1. Use the nulladm command to ensure that each file has the correct access permission: read (r) and write (w) permission for the file owner and group and read (r) permission for others by typing: 

    /usr/sbin/acct/nulladm wtmp pacct

    This provides access to the pacct and wtmp files.

  2. Update the /etc/acct/holidays file to include the hours you designate as prime time and to reflect your holiday schedule for the year.

    Note: Comment lines can appear anywhere in the file as long as the first character in the line is an asterisk (*).
    1. To define prime time, fill in the fields on the first data line (the first line that is not a comment), using a 24-hour clock. This line consists of three 4-digit fields, in the following order:
      • Current year
      • Beginning of prime time (hhmm)
      • End of prime time (hhmm)
      Leading blanks are ignored. You can enter midnight as either 0000 or 2400.

      For example, to specify the year 2000, with prime time beginning at 8:00 a.m. and ending at 5:00 p.m., enter:

      2000  0800  1700
    2. To define the company holidays for the year on the next data line. Each line contains four fields, in the following order:
      • Day of the year
      • Month
      • Day of the month
      • Description of holiday
      The day-of-the-year field contains the number of the day on which the holiday falls and must be a number from 1 through 365 (366 on leap year). For example, February 1st is day 32. The other three fields are for information only and are treated as comments.

      A two-line example follows:

        1  Jan  1  New Year's Day
332  Nov 28  Thanksgiving Day 
  3. Turn on process accounting by adding the following line to the /etc/rc file or by deleting the comment symbol (#) in front of the line if it exists: 

    /usr/bin/su - adm -c /usr/sbin/acct/startup

    The startup procedure records the time that accounting was turned on and cleans up the previous day's accounting files.

  4. Identify each file system you want included in disk accounting by adding the following line to the stanza for the file system in the /etc/filesystems file: 

    account = true
  5. Specify the data file to use for printer data by adding the following line to the queue stanza in the /etc/qconfig file: 

    acctfile = /var/adm/qacct
  6. As the adm user, create a /var/adm/acct/nite, a /var/adm/acct/fiscal, a and /var/adm/acct/sum directory to collect daily and fiscal period records: 

    su - adm
cd /var/adm/acct
mkdir nite fiscal sum
exit
  7. Set daily accounting procedures to run automatically by editing the /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root file to include the dodisk, ckpacct, and runacct commands. For example: 

    0 2 * * 4 /usr/sbin/acct/dodisk
5 * * * * /usr/sbin/acct/ckpacct
0 4 * * 1-6 /usr/sbin/acct/runacct
              2>/var/adm/acct/nite/accterr

    The first line starts disk accounting at 2:00 a.m. (0 2) each Thursday (4). The second line starts a check of the integrity of the active data files at 5 minutes past each hour (5 *) every day (*). The third line runs most accounting procedures and processes active data files at 4:00 a.m. (0 4) every Monday through Saturday (1-6). If these times do not fit the hours your system operates, adjust your entries.

    Note
    You must have root user authority to edit the /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root file.
  8. Set the monthly accounting summary to run automatically by including the monacct command in the /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root file. For example, type: 

    15 5 1 * * /usr/sbin/acct/monacct

    Be sure to schedule this procedure early enough to finish the report. This example starts the procedure at 5:15 a.m. on the first day of each month.

  9. To submit the edited cron file, type: 

    crontab /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root

Generating System Accounting Reports

Once accounting has been configured on the system, daily and monthly reports are generated. The runacct command produces the daily reports and the monact command produces the monthly reports.

Daily Accounting Reports

To generate a daily report, use the runacct command. This command summarizes data into an ASCII file named /var/adm/acct/sum/rprtMMDD. MMDD specifies the month and day the report is run. The report covers the following:

Daily Report

The first line of the Daily Report begins with the start and finish times for the data collected in the report, a list of system-level events including any existing shutdowns, reboots, and run-level changes. The total duration is also listed indicating the total number of minutes included within the accounting period (usually 1440 minutes, if the report is run every 24 hours). The report contains the following information:

LINE Console, tty, or pty In use
MINUTES Total number of minutes the line was in use
PERCENT Percentage of time in the accounting period that the line was in use
# SESS Number of new login sessions started
# ON Same as # SESS
# OFF Number of logouts plus interrupts made on the line
Daily Usage Report

The Daily Usage Report is a summarized report of system usage per user ID during the accounting period. Some fields are divided into prime and non-prime time, as defined by the accounting administrator in the /usr/lib/acct/holidays directory. The report contains the following information:

UID User ID
LOGIN NAME User name
CPU (PRIME/NPRIME) Total CPU time for all of the user's processes in minutes
KCORE (PRIME/NPRIME) Total memory used by running processes, in kilobyte-minutes
CONNECT (PRIME/NPRIME) Total connect time (how long the user was logged in) in minutes
DISK BLOCKS Average total amount of disk space used by the user on all filesystems for which accounting is enabled
FEES Total fees entered with chargefee command
# OF PROCS Total number of processes belonging to this user
# OF SESS Number of distinct login sessions for this user
# DISK SAMPLES Number of times disk samples were run during the accounting period. If no DISK BLOCKS are owned the value will be zero
Daily Command Summary

The Daily Command Summary report shows each command executed during the accounting period, with one line per each unique command name. The table is sorted by TOTAL KCOREMIN (described below), with the first line including the total information for all commands. The data listed for each command is cumulative for all executions of the command during the accounting period. The columns in this table include the following information:

COMMAND NAME Command that was executed
NUMBER CMDS Number of times the command executed
TOTAL KCOREMIN Total memory used by running the command, in kilobyte-minutes
TOTAL CPU-MIN Total CPU time used by the command in minutes
TOTAL REAL-MIN Total real time elapsed for the command in minutes
MEAN SIZE-K Mean size of memory used by the command per CPU minute
MEAN CPU-MIN Mean numbr of CPU minutes per execution of the command
HOG FACTOR Measurement of how much the command hogs the CPU while it is active. It is the ratio of TOTAL CPU-MIN over TOTAL REAL-MIN
CHARS TRNSFD Number of characters transferred by the command with system reads and writes
BLOCKS READ Number of physical block reads and writes performed by the command
Monthly Total Command Summary

The Monthly Total Command Summary , created by the monacct command, provides information about all commands executed since the previous monthly report. The fields and information mean the same as those in the Daily Command Summary.

Last Login

The Last Login report displays two fields for each user ID. The first field is YY-MM-DD and indicates the most recent login for the specified user. The second field is the name of the user account. A date field of 00-00-00 indicates that the user ID has never logged in.

Fiscal Accounting Reports

The Fiscal Accounting Reports generally collected monthly by using the monacct command. The report is stored in /var/adm/acct/fiscal/fiscrptMM where MM is the month that the monacct command was executed. This report includes information similar to the daily reports summarized for the entire month.

Generating Reports on System Activity

To generate a report on system activity, use the prtacct command. This command reads the information in a total accounting file (tacct file format) and produces formatted output. Total accounting files include the daily reports on connect time, process time, disk usage, and printer usage.

Prerequisites

The prtacct command requires an input file in the tacct file format. This implies that you have an accounting system set up and running or that you have run the accounting system in the past. See Setting Up an Accounting System for guidelines.

Procedure

Generate a report on system activity by entering:

prtacct -f Specification -v Heading File

Specification is a comma-separated list of field numbers or ranges used by the acctmerg command. The optional -v flag produces verbose output where floating-point numbers are displayed in higher precision notation. Heading is the title you want to appear on the report and is optional. File is the full path name of the total accounting file to use for input. You can specify more than one file.

Summarizing Accounting Records

To summarize raw accounting data, use the sa command. This command reads the raw accounting data, usually collected in the /var/adm/pacct file, and the current usage summary data in the /var/adm/savacct file, if summary data exists. It combines this information into a new usage summary report and purges the raw data file to make room for further data collection.

Prerequisites

The sa command requires an input file of raw accounting data such as the pacct file (process accounting file). To collect raw accounting data, you must have an accounting system set up and running. See Setting Up an Accounting System for guidelines

Procedure

The purpose of the sa command is to summarize process accounting information and to display or store that information. The simplest use of the command displays a list of statistics about every process that has run during the life of the pacct file being read. To produce such a list, type:

/usr/sbin/sa

To summarize the accounting information and merge it into the summary file, type:

/usr/sbin/sa -s

The sa command offers many additional flags that specify how the accounting information is processed and displayed. See the sa command description for more information.

Starting the runacct Command

Prerequisites

  1. You must have the accounting system installed.
  2. You must have root user or adm group authority.

Notes:
  1. If you call the runacct command with no parameters, the command assumes that this is the first time that the command has been run today. Therefore, you need to include the mmdd parameter when you restart the runacct program, so that the month and day are correct. If you do not specify a state, the runacct program reads the /var/adm/acct/nite/statefile file to determine the entry point for processing. To override the /var/adm/acct/nite/statefile file, specify the desired state on the command line.
  2. When you perform the following task, you might need to use the full path name /usr/sbin/acct/runacct rather than the simple command name, runacct.

Procedure

To start the runacct command, type the following:

nohup runacct 2> \
/var/adm/acct/nite/accterr &

This entry causes the command to ignore all INTR and QUIT signals while it performs background processing. It redirects all standard error output to the /var/adm/acct/nite/accterr file.

Restarting the runacct Command

Prerequisites

  1. You must have the accounting system installed.
  2. You must have root user or adm group authority.
Note
The most common reason why the runacct command can fail are because:

Procedure

If the runacct command is unsuccessful, do the following:

  1. Check the /var/adm/acct/nite/active mmdd file for error messages.
  2. If both the active file and lock files exist in acct/nite, check the accterr file, where error messages are redirected when the cron daemon calls the runacct command.
  3. Perform any actions needed to eliminate errors.
  4. Restart the runacct command.
  5. To restart the runacct command for a specific date, type the following: 

    nohup runacct 0601 2>> \
/var/adm/acct/nite/accterr &

    This restarts the runacct program for June 1 (0601). The runacct program reads the /var/adm/acct/nite/statefile file to find out with which state to begin. All standard error output is appended to the /var/adm/acct/nite/accterr file.

  6. To restart the runacct program at a specified state, for example, the MERGE state, type the following: 

    nohup runacct 0601 MERGE 2>> \
/var/adm/acct/nite/accterr &

Showing System Activity

You can display formatted information about system activity with the sar command.

Prerequisites

To display system activity statistics, the sadc command must be running.

Note
The typical method of running the sadc command is to place an entry for the sa1 command in the root crontab file. The sa1 command is a shell-procedure variant of the sadc command designed to work with the cron daemon.

Procedure

To display basic system-activity information, type:

sar 2 6

where the first number is the number of seconds between sampling intervals and the second number is the number of intervals to display. The output of this command looks something like this:

    arthurd 2 3 000166021000    05/28/92

14:03:40    %usr    %sys    %wio   %idle
14:03:42       4       9       0      88
14:03:43       1      10       0      89
14:03:44       1      11       0      88
14:03:45       1      11       0      88
14:03:46       3       9       0      88
14:03:47       2      10       0      88

Average        2      10       0      88

The sar command also offers a number of flags for displaying an extensive array of system statistics. To see all available statistics, use the -A flag. For a list of the available statistics and the flags for displaying them, see the sar command.

Note
To have a daily system activity report written to /var/adm/sa/sadd, include an entry in the root crontab file for the sa2 command. The sa2 command is a shell procedure variant for the sar command designed to work with the cron daemon.

Showing System Activity While Running a Command

You can use the time and timex commands to display formatted information about system activity while a particular command is running.

Prerequisites

The -o and -p flags of the timex command require that system accounting be turned on.

Procedure

The timex command has two additional flags. The -o flag reports the total number of blocks read or written by the command and all of its children. The -p flag lists all of the process accounting records for a command and all of its children.

Showing Process Time

You can display formatted reports about the process time of active processes with the ps command or of finished processes with the acctcom command.

Prerequisites

The acctcom command reads input in the total accounting record form (acct file format). This implies that you have process accounting turned on or that you have run process accounting in the past. See Setting Up an Accounting System for guidelines.

Display the Process Time of Active Processes

The ps command offers a number of flags to tailor the information displayed. To produce a full list of all active processes except kernel processes, type:

ps -ef

Another useful variation displays a list of all processes associated with terminals. Type:

ps -al

Both of these usages display a number of columns for each process, including the current CPU time for the process in minutes and seconds.

Display the Process Time of Finished Processes

The process accounting functions are turned on with the startup command, which is typically started at system initialization with a call in the /etc/rc file. When the process accounting functions are running, a record is written to /var/adm/pacct (a total accounting record file) for every finished process that includes the start and stop time for the process. You can display the process time information from a pacct file with the acctcom command. This command has a number of flags that allow flexibility in specifying which processes to display.

For example, to see all processes that ran for a minimum number of CPU seconds or longer, use the -O flag, type:

acctcom -O 2

This displays records for every process that ran for at least 2 seconds. If you do not specify an input file, the acctcom command reads input from the /var/adm/pacct directory.

Showing CPU Usage

You can display formatted reports about the CPU usage by process or by user with a combination of the acctprc1, acctprc2, and prtacct commands.

Prerequisites

The acctprc1 command requires input in the total accounting record form (acct file format). This implies that you have process accounting turned on or that you have run process accounting in the past. See Setting Up an Accounting System for guidelines.

Show CPU Usage for Each Process

To produce a formatted report of CPU usage by process, type:

acctprc1 </var/adm/pacct

This information will be useful in some situations, but you might also want to summarize the CPU usage by user. The output from this command is used in the next procedure to produce that summary.

Show CPU Usage for Each User

  1. Produce an output file of CPU usage by process by typing: 

    acctprc1 </var/adm/pacct >out.file

    The /var/adm/pacct file is the default output for process accounting records. You might want to specify an archive pacct file instead.

  2. Produce a binary total accounting record file from the output of the previous step by typing: 

    acctprc2 <out.file >/var/adm/acct/nite/daytacct
    Note
    The daytacct file is merged with other total accounting records by the acctmerg command to produce the daily summary record, /var/adm/acct/sum/tacct.
  3. Display a formatted report of CPU usage summarized by user by typing: 

    prtacct </var/adm/acct/nite/daytacct

Showing Connect Time Usage

You can display the connect time of all users, of individual users, and by individual login with the ac command.

Prerequisites

The ac command extracts login information from the /var/adm/wtmp file, so this file must exist. If the file has not been created, the following error message is returned:

No /var/adm/wtmp

If the file becomes too full, additional wtmp files are created; you can display connect-time information from these files by specifying them with the -w flag.

Procedure

Showing Disk Space Utilization

You can display disk space utilization information with the acctmerg command.

Prerequisites

To display disk space utilization information, the acctmerg command requires input from a dacct file (disk accounting). The collection of disk-usage accounting records is performed by the dodisk command. Placing an entry for the dodisk command in a crontabs file is part of the procedure described in Setting Up an Accounting System.

Procedure

To display disk space utilization information, type:

acctmerg -a1 -2,13 -h </var/adm/acct/nite/dacct

This command displays disk accounting records, which include the number of 1 KB blocks utilized by each user.

Note
The acctmerg command always reads from standard input and can read up to nine additional files. If you are not piping input to the command, you must redirect input from one file; the rest of the files can be specified without redirection.

Showing Printer Usage

You can display printer or plotter usage accounting records with the pac command.

Prerequisites

Procedure

The pac command offers other flags for controlling what information gets displayed.

Fixing tacct Errors

If you are using the accounting system to charge user for system resources, the integrity of the /var/adm/acct/sum/tacct file is quite important. Occasionally, mysterious tacct records appear that contain negative numbers, duplicate user numbers, or a user number of 65,535.

Prerequisites

You must have root user or adm group authority.

Patch a tacct File

  1. Move to the /var/adm/acct/sum directory by typing: 

    cd /var/adm/acct/sum
  2. Use the prtacct command to check the total accounting file, tacctprev, by typing: 

    prtacct tacctprev

    The prtacct command formats and displays the tacctprev file so that you can check connect time, process time, disk usage, and printer usage.

  3. If the tacctprev file looks correct, change the latest tacct .mmdd file from a binary file to an ASCII file. In the following example, the acctmerg command converts the tacct.mmdd file to an ASCII file named tacct.new: 

    acctmerg -v < tacct.mmdd > tacct.new

    Note: The acctmerg command with the -a flag also produces ASCII output. The -v flag produces more precise notation for floating-point numbers.

    The acctmerg command is used to merge the intermediate accounting record reports into a cumulative total report (tacct). This cumulative total is the source from which the monacct command produces the ASCII monthly summary report. Since the monacct command procedure removes all the tacct.mmdd files, you recreate the tacct file by merging these files.

  4. Edit the tacct.new file to remove the bad records and write duplicate user number records to another file by typing: 

    acctmerg -i < tacct.new > tacct.mmdd
  5. Create the tacct file again by typing: 

    acctmerg tacctprev < tacct.mmdd > tacct

Fixing wtmp Errors

The /var/adm/wtmp, or "who temp" file, might cause problems in the day-to-day operation of the accounting system. When the date is changed and the system is in multiuser mode, date change records are written to the /var/adm/wtmp file. When a date change is encountered, the wtmpfix command adjusts the time stamps in the wtmp records. Some combinations of date changes and system restarts may slip past the wtmpfix command and cause the acctcon1 command to fail and the runacct command to send mail to the root and adm accounts listing incorrect dates.

Prerequisites

You must have root user or adm group authority.

Procedure

  1. Move to the /var/adm/acct/nite directory by typing: 

    cd /var/adm/acct/nite
  2. Convert the binary wtmp file to an ASCII file that you can edit by typing: 

    fwtmp < wtmp.mmdd > wtmp.new

    The fwtmp command converts wtmp from binary to ASCII.

  3. Edit the ASCII wtmp.new file to delete damaged records or all records from the beginning of the file up to the needed date change by typing: 

    vi wtmp.new
  4. Convert the ASCII wtmp.new file back to binary format by typing: 

    fwtmp -ic < wtmp.new > wtmp.mmdd
  5. If the wtmp file is beyond repair, use the nulladm command to create an empty wtmp file. This prevents any charges in the connect time. 

    nulladm wtmp

    The nulladm command creates the file specified with read and write permissions for the file owner and group, and read permissions for other users. It ensures that the file owner and group are adm.

Fixing General Accounting Problems

You might encounter several different problems when using the accounting system. You might need to resolve file ownership and permissions problems.

This section describes how to fix general accounting problems:

Prerequisites

You must have root user or adm group authority.

Fixing Incorrect File Permissions

To use the accounting system, file ownership and permissions must be correct. The adm administrative account owns the accounting command and scripts, except for /var/adm/acct/accton which is owned by root.

  1. To check file permissions using the ls command, type: 

    ls -l /var/adm/acct

-rws--x--- 1 adm adm 14628 Mar 19 08:11 /var/adm/acct/fiscal
-rws--x--- 1 adm adm 14628 Mar 19 08:11 /var/adm/acct/nite
-rws--x--- 1 adm adm 14628 Mar 19 08:11 /var/adm/acct/sum
  2. Adjust file permissions with the chown command, if necessary. The permissions are 755 (all permissions for owner and read and execute permissions for all others). Also, the directory itself should be write-protected from others. For example:
    1. Move to the /var/adm/acct directory by typing: 

      cd /var/adm/acct
    2. Change the ownership for the sum, nite, and fiscal directories to adm group authority by typing: 

      chown adm sum/* nite/* fiscal/*

      To prevent tampering by users trying to avoid charges, deny write permission for others on these files. Change the accton command group owner to adm, and permissions to 710, that is, no permissions for others. Processes owned by adm can execute the accton command, but ordinary users can not.

  3. The /var/adm/wtmp file must also be owned by adm. If /var/adm/wtmp is owned by root, you will see the following message during startup: 

    /var/adm/acct/startup: /var/adm/wtmp: Permission denied

    To correct the ownership of /var/adm/wtmp, change ownership to the adm group by typing the following command: 

    chown adm /var/adm/wtmp

Fixing Errors

Processing the /var/adm/wtmp file night produce some warnings mailed to root. The wtmp file contains information collected by /etc/init and /bin/login and is used by accounting scripts primarily for calculating connect time (the length of time a user is logged in). Unfortunately, date changes confuse the program that processes the wtmp file. As a result, the runacct command sends mail to root and adm complaining of any errors after a date change since the last time accounting was run.

  1. Determine if you received any errors.

    The acctcon1 command outputs error messages that are mailed to adm and root by the runacct command. For example, if the acctcon1 command stumbles after a date change and fails to collect connect times, adm might get mail like the following mail message:

    Mon Jan 6 11:58:40 CST 1992
acctcon1: bad times: old: Tue Jan 7 00:57:14 1992
new: Mon Jan 6 11:57:59 1992
acctcon1: bad times: old: Tue Jan 7 00:57:14 1992
new: Mon Jan 6 11:57:59 1992
acctcon1: bad times: old: Tue Jan 7 00:57:14 1992
new: Mon Jan 6 11:57:59 1992
  2. Adjust the wtmp file by typing: 

    /usr/sbin/acct/wtmpfix wtmp

    The wtmpfix command examines the wtmp file for date and time-stamp inconsistencies and corrects problems that could make acctcon1 fail. However, some date changes slip by wtmpfix. See Fixing wtmp Errors.

  3. Run accounting right before shutdown or immediately after startup.

    Using the runacct command at these times minimizes the number of entries with bad times. The runacct command continues to send mail to the root and adm accounts, until you edit the runacct script, find the WTMPFIX section, and comment out the line where the file log gets mailed to the root and adm accounts.

Fixing Errors Encountered When Running the runacct Command

The runacct command processes files that are often very large. The procedure involves several passes through certain files and consumes considerable system resources while it is taking place. That is why the runacct command is normally run early in the morning when it can take over the machine and not disturb anyone.

The runacct command is a scrip divided into different stages. The stages allow you to restart the command where it stopped, without having to rerun the entire script.

When the runacct encounters problems, it sends error messages to different destinations depending on where the error occurred. Usually it sends a date and a message to the console directing you to look in the activeMMDD file (such as active0621 for June 21st) which is in the /usr/adm/acct/nite directory. When the runacct command aborts, it moves the entire active file to activeMMDD and appends a message describing the problem.

  1. Review the following error message tables for errors you have encountered when running the runacct command.
Notes:
  1. The abbreviation MMDD stands for the month and day, such as 0102 for January 2. For example, a fatal error during the CONNECT1 process on January 2 creates the file active0102 containing the error message.
  2. The abbreviation "SE message" stands for the standard error message such as: 

    ********* ACCT ERRORS : see active0102 *********
Preliminary State and Error Messages from the runnacct Command
State Command Fatal? Error Message Destinations
pre runacct yes * 2 CRONS or ACCT PROBLEMS * ERROR: locks found, run aborted console, mail, active
pre runacct yes runacct: Insufficient space in /usr ( nnn blks); Terminating procedure console, mail, active
pre runacct yes SE message; ERROR: acctg already run for 'date': check lastdate console, mail, activeMMDD
pre runacct no * SYSTEM ACCOUNTING STARTED * console
pre runacct no restarting acctg for 'date' at STATE console active, console
pre runacct no restarting acctg for 'date' at state (argument $2) previous state was STATE active
pre runacct yes SE message; Error: runacct called with invalid arguments console, mail, activeMMDD
States and Error Messages from the runacct Command
State Command Fatal? Error Message Destinations
SETUP runacct no ls -l fee pacct* /var/adm/wtmp active
SETUP runacct yes SE message; ERROR: turnacct switch returned rc=error console, mail, activeMMDD
SETUP runacct yes SE message; ERROR: SpacctMMDD already exists file setups probably already run activeMMDD
SETUP runacct yes SE message; ERROR: wtmpMMDD already exists: run setup manually console, mail, activeMMDD
WTMPFIX wtmpfix no SE message; ERROR: wtmpfix errors see xtmperrorMMDD activeMMDD, wtmperrorMMDD
WTMPFIX wtmpfix no wtmp processing complete active
CONNECT1 acctcon1 no SE message; (errors from acctcon1 log) console, mail, activeMMDD
CONNECT2 acctcon2 no connect acctg complete active
PROCESS runacct no WARNING: accounting already run for pacctN active
PROCESS acctprc1 acctprc2 no process acctg complete for SpacctNMMDD active
PROCESS runacct no all process actg complete for date active
MERGE acctmerg no tacct merge to create dayacct complete active
FEES acctmerg no merged fees OR no fees active
DISK acctmerg no merged disk records OR no disk records active
MERGEACCT acctmerg no WARNING: recreating sum/tacct active
MERGEACCT acctmerg no updated sum/tacct active
CMS runacct no WARNING: recreating sum/cms active
CMS acctcms no command summaries complete active
CLEANUP runacct no system accounting completed at 'date' active
CLEANUP runacct no *SYSTEM ACCOUNTING COMPLETED* console
<wrong> runacct yes SE message; ERROR: invalid state, check STATE console, mail, activeMMDD
Note
The label <wrong> in the previous table does not represent a state, but rather a state other than the correct state that was written in the state file /usr/adm/acct/nite/statefile.
Summary of Message Destinations
Destination Description
console The /dev/console device
mail Message mailed to root and adm accounts
active The /usr/adm/acct/nite/active file
activeMMDD The /usr/adm/acct/nite/activeMMDD file
wtmperrMMDD The /usr/adm/acct/nite/wtmperrorMMDD file
STATE Current state in /usr/adm/acct/nite/statefile file
fd2log Any other error messages

Updating an Out-of-Date Holidays File

The acctcon1 command (started from the runacct command) sends mail to the root and adm accounts when the /usr/lib/acct/holidays file gets out of date. The holidays file is out of date after the last holiday listed has passed or the year has changed.

Update the out-of-date holidays file by editing the /var/adm/acct/holidays file to differentiate between prime and nonprime time.

Prime time is assumed to be the period when your system is most active, such as workdays. Saturdays and Sundays are always nonprime times for the accounting system, as are any holidays that you list.

The holidays file contains three types of entries: comments, the year and prime-time period, and a list of holidays as in the following example:

* Prime/Non-Prime Time Table for Accounting System
*
*   Curr       Prime             Non-Prime
*   Year       Start             Start
    1992       0830              1700
*
*   Day of     Calendar          Company
*   Year       Date              Holiday
*
*   1          Jan 1             New Year's Day
*   20         Jan 20            Martin Luther King Day
*   46         Feb 15            President's Day
*   143        May 28            Memorial Day
*   186        Jul 3             4th of July
*   248        Sep 7             Labor Day
*   329        Nov 24            Thanksgiving
*   330        Nov 25            Friday after
*   359        Dec 24            Christmas Eve
*   360        Dec 25            Christmas Day
*   361        Dec 26            Day after Christmas

The first noncomment line must specify the current year (as four digits) and the beginning and end of prime time, also as four digits each. The concept of prime and nonprime time only affects the way that the accounting programs process the accounting records.

If the list of holidays is too long, the acctcon1 command generates an error, and you will need to shorten your list. You are safe with 20 or fewer holidays. If you want to add more holidays, just edit the holidays file each month.

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