Setting Up System Accounting

You can set up system accounting to run while the system is in multiuser mode (system state 2). Generally, this task involves:

1. Creating the /etc/rc0.d/K22acct and /etc/rc2.d/S22acct startup scripts

2. Modifying the /var/spool/cron/crontabs/adm and /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root crontab files

The following table describes the default accounting scripts.

Table 19-2 Default Accounting Scripts

You can choose which accounting scripts run by default. After these entries have been added to the crontab files, accounting should run automatically.

How to Set Up System Accounting

1. Become superuser.

2. If necessary, install the SUNWaccr and SUNWaccu packages on your system by using the pkgadd command.

3. Install /etc/init.d/acct as the startup script for Run Level 2.

   # ln /etc/init.d/acct /etc/rc2.d/S22acct

4. Install /etc/init.d/acct as the stop script for Run Level 0.

   # ln /etc/init.d/acct /etc/rc0.d/K22acct

5. Add the following lines to the adm crontab file to start the ckpacct, runacct, and monacct scripts automatically.

   # EDITOR=vi; export EDITOR # crontab -e adm 0 * * * * /usr/lib/acct/ckpacct 30 2 * * * /usr/lib/acct/runacct 2> /var/adm/acct/nite/fd2log 30 7 1 * * /usr/lib/acct/monacct

6. Add the following line to the root crontab file to start the dodisk script automatically.

   # crontab -e 30 22 * * 4 /usr/lib/acct/dodisk

7. Edit /etc/acct/holidays to include national and local holidays.

   For more information, see holidays(4) and the example that follows.

8. Reboot the system, or start accounting manually by typing:

   # /etc/init.d/acct start

Examples--Setting Up Accounting

This modified adm crontab contains entries for the ckpacct, runacct, and monacct scripts.

#ident  "@(#)adm        1.5     92/07/14 SMI"    /* SVr4.0 1.2   */
#
# The adm crontab file should contain startup of performance 
# collection if the profiling and performance feature has been 
# installed.
0 * * * * /usr/lib/acct/ckpacct
30 2 * * * /usr/lib/acct/runacct 2> /var/adm/acct/nite/fd2log
30 7 1 * * /usr/lib/acct/monacct

This modified root crontab contains entries for the dodisk program.

#ident  "@(#)root       1.19    98/07/06 SMI"   /* SVr4.0 1.1.3.1       */
#
# The root crontab should be used to perform accounting data collection.
#
# The rtc command is run to adjust the real time clock if and when
# daylight savings time changes.
#
10 3 * * * /usr/sbin/logadm
15 3 * * 0 /usr/lib/fs/nfs/nfsfind
1 2 * * * [ -x /usr/sbin/rtc ] && /usr/sbin/rtc -c > /dev/null 2>&1
30 3 * * * [ -x /usr/lib/gss/gsscred_clean ] && /usr/lib/gss/gsscred_clean
30 22 * * 4 /usr/lib/acct/dodisk

The following example shows a sample /etc/acct/holidays file.

* @(#)holidays	January 1, 2001
*
* Prime/Nonprime Table for UNIX Accounting System
*
* Curr	Prime	Non-Prime
* Year	Start	Start
*
  1999	0800	1800
*
* only the first column (month/day) is significant.
*
* month/day	Company
* 		Holiday
*
1/1		New Years Day
7/4		Indep. Day
12/25		Christmas

Billing Users

If you provide special user services by request, such as restoring files or remote printing, you might want to bill users by running the chargefee utility. The chargefee utility records charges in the /var/adm/fee file. Each time the runacct utility is executed, new entries are merged into the total accounting records.

See acctsh(1M) for more information.

How to Bill Users

1. Become superuser.

2. Charge a user for special services.

   # /usr/lib/acct/chargefee username amount

   username	User account you want to bill.
   amount	Number of units to bill the user. This is an arbitrary unit that you set to charge users based on some task like printing or restoring a file. You would have to write a script that invokes chargefee and charges a user for a specific task.

Example--Billing Users

The following example charges the user print_customer 10 units.

# /usr/lib/acct/chargefee print_customer 10

Maintaining Accounting Information

This section describes how to fix corrupted accounting files and how to restart the runacct script.