Using system accounting

Using system accounting

The system accounting utilities are a set of tools that collect data on system usage (by CPU usage, users, and processes) and organize this data into summary files and reports. By using these tools to keep track of connect sessions and disk usage, you can

charge for usage
troubleshoot performance problems
tune the performance of applications
manage installation security

Once the accounting system has been set up as described in ``Setting Up Accounting'', it runs, for the most part, automatically.

Between system startup and shutdown, it collects (in accounting files) raw data about system use, such as records of the logins used, processes run, and data stored.
Once a day, cron invokes the runacct program, which does three tasks: (1) it processes the various accounting files; (2) it produces both cumulative summary files and daily accounting reports; and (3) it prints the daily reports (via the prdaily program).

The cumulative summary files generated by runacct can be processed and printed monthly by executing the monacct program. The summary reports produced by monacct provide an efficient means for billing users on a monthly or other fiscal basis.