csa - overview of Comprehensive System Accounting (CSA)


DESCRIPTION

       Linux  Comprehensive System Accounting (CSA) is a set of C
       programs and shell scripts that, like the other accounting
       packages,   provide  methods  for  collecting  per-process
       resource usage data, monitoring disk usage,  and  charging
       fees to specific login accounts.

       CSA provides the following features:

       ·   Per-job accounting

       ·   Daemon  accounting  (workload  management  systems and
           tape (tape is deferred))

       ·   Flexible  accounting  periods  (daily   and   periodic
           accounting  reports  can  be  generated  as  often  as
           desired and not restricted to once per day or once per
           month)

       ·   Flexible system billing units (SBUs)

       ·   Offline archiving of accounting data

       ·   User  exits  for  site specific customization of daily
           and periodic accounting

       ·   Configurable parameters within the //eettcc//ccssaa..ccoonnff file

       ·   User job accounting (ja(1) command)

       CSA takes this per-process accounting information and com­
       bines it by job identifier (jjiidd) within system boot uptime
       periods.  CSA accounting for an interactive  job  consists
       of all accounting data for a given job identifier during a
       single system boot period.  CSA accounting for a batch job
       includes  the  accounting  data  associated with the batch
       system identifier, which may consist of one  or  more  job
       identifiers and may span multiple reboots.

       Daemon accounting records are written at the completion of
       daemon specific events.  These records are  combined  with
       per-process  accounting  records  associated with the same
       interactive or batch job.

       By default, CSA only reports accounting  data  for  termi­
       nated  jobs.  Interactive jobs, ccrroonn jobs and aatt jobs ter­
       minate when the last process in the job  exits,  which  is
       normally  the  login  shell.  A workload management job is
       recognized as terminated by CSA based upon daemon account­
       ing  records  and an end-of-job record for that job.  Jobs
       which  are  still  active  are  recycled  into  the   next

       use of the ccssaarruunn --AA option.

       A system billing unit (SBU) is  a  unit  of  measure  that
       reflects  use  of  machine resources.  SBUs are defined in
       the CSA configuration file //eettcc//ccssaa..ccoonnff and  are  set  to
       00..00 by default.  The weighting factor associated with each
       field in the CSA accounting  records  can  be  altered  to
       obtain  an SBU value suitable for your site.  See the Com­
       prehensive System Accounting for Linux manual for  further
       information.

       The CSA accounting records are not written into the System
       V  pacct  file  but  are  written  into  a  separate   CSA
       //vvaarr//ccssaa//ddaayy//ppaacccctt  file.   The  CSA  commands can only be
       used with CSA generated  accounting  records.   Similarly,
       the  System  V  accounting  commands can only be used with
       System V generated accounting records.

       There are four user exits  available  with  the  csarun(8)
       daily accounting script.  There is one user exit available
       with the csaperiod(8) periodic accounting  script.   These
       user  exits  allow  sites to tailor the daily and periodic
       run of accounting to their specific needs by creating user
       exit  scripts  to perform any additional processing and to
       allow for archiving of accounting data.  See the csarun(8)
       and csaperiod(8) man pages for further information.

       CSA  provides  two user accounting commands, csacom(1) and
       ja(1).  The ccssaaccoomm command reads the CSA  pacct  file  and
       writes  selected  accounting  records  to standard output.
       The jjaa command provides job accounting information for the
       current  job  of the caller.  This information is obtained
       from a separate user job accounting file to which the ker­
       nel  writes.   See  the  csacom(1) and ja(1) man pages for
       further information.

       The //eettcc//ccssaa..ccoonnff file contains  CSA  configuration  vari­
       ables.  These variables are used by the CSA commands.

       The  ccssaasswwiittcchh command is used to dynamically configure on
       or off CSA record types, set memory and I/O threshold val­
       ues,  switch the CSA pacct file, and provide status infor­
       mation.  See the csaswitch(8) man page for further  infor­
       mation.

       CSA  can  be  automatically  configured  on  across system
       reboots using the cchhkkccoonnffiigg ----aadddd ccssaaaacccctt command.


INSTALLATION/STARTUP SUMMARY

       The following  steps  are  required  to  set  up  CSA  job
       accounting:

       ·   Install a distribution of CSA commands.

           kernel module.

       ·   Configure CSA on across system reboots  by  using  the
           cchhkkccoonnffiigg utility as follows: cchhkkccoonnffiigg ----aadddd ccssaaaacccctt

       ·   Modify    the    CSA    configuration   variables   in
           //eettcc//ccssaa..ccoonnff as desired

       ·   Use ccssaasswwiittcchh to configure on  the  accounting  record
           types  and thresholds defined in //eettcc//ccssaa..ccoonnff as fol­
           lows: ccssaasswwiittcchh --cc oonn

       This step will be done automatically for subsequent system
       reboots  when  CSA  is  configured on via the chkconfig(8)
       utility.


FILES

       //uussrr//ssbbiinn//                      Contains the CSA  adminis­
                                       trator commands

       //uussrr//bbiinn//                       Contains the CSA user com­
                                       mands, ccssaaccoomm and jjaa

       //eettcc//ccssaa..ccoonnff                   CSA configuration file

       //vvaarr//ccssaa//ddaayy//ppaacccctt              Current process accounting
                                       file

       //vvaarr//ccssaa//ssuumm                    CSA daily reports and data
                                       files

       //vvaarr//ccssaa//ffiissccaall                 CSA periodic  reports  and
                                       data files


SEE ALSO

       acctdisk(8),   csaaddc(8),  csabuild(8),  csachargefee(8),
       csackpacct(8),    csacms(8),     csacom(1),     csacon(8),
       csacrep(8),   csadrep(8),   csaedit(8),   csagetconfig(8),
       csajrep(8),    csaperiod(8),    csarecy(8),     csarun(8),
       csaswitch(8),   csaverify(8),  dodisk(8),  ja(1),  lastlo­
       gin(8).

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