Using Extended Accounting Functionality

Users can manage extended accounting (start accounting, stop accounting, and change accounting configuration parameters) if they have the appropriate rights profile for the accounting type to be managed:

• Extended Accounting Flow Management

• Process Management

• Task Management

• Network Management

How to Activate Extended Accounting for Flows, Processes, Tasks, and Network Componentss

To activate the extended accounting facility for tasks, processes, flows, and network components, use the acctadm command. The optional final parameter to acctadm indicates whether the command should act on the flow, process, system task, or network accounting components of the extended accounting facility.

The System Administrator role includes the Process Management profile. For information on how to create the role and assign the role to a user, see Managing RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

2. Activate extended accounting for processes.

   # acctadm -e extended -f /var/adm/exacct/proc process

3. Activate extended accounting for tasks.

   # acctadm -e extended,mstate -f /var/adm/exacct/task task

4. Activate extended accounting for flows.

   # acctadm -e extended -f /var/adm/exacct/flow flow

5. Activate extended accounting for network.

   # acctadm -e extended -f /var/adm/exacct/net net

   Run acctadm on links and flows administered by the dladm and flowadm commands.

See Also

See acctadm(1M) for more information.

How to Display Extended Accounting Status

Type acctadm without arguments to display the current status of the extended accounting facility.

machine% acctadm
                 Task accounting: active
            Task accounting file: /var/adm/exacct/task
          Tracked task resources: extended
        Untracked task resources: none
              Process accounting: active
         Process accounting file: /var/adm/exacct/proc
       Tracked process resources: extended
     Untracked process resources: host
                 Flow accounting: active
            Flow accounting file: /var/adm/exacct/flow
          Tracked flow resources: extended
        Untracked flow resources: none

In the previous example, system task accounting is active in extended mode and mstate mode. Process and flow accounting are active in extended mode.

In the context of extended accounting, microstate (mstate) refers to the extended data, associated with microstate process transitions, that is available in the process usage file (see proc(4)). This data provides substantially more detail about the activities of the process than basic or extended records.

How to View Available Accounting Resources

Available resources can vary from system to system, and from platform to platform. Use the acctadm command with the -r option to view the accounting resource groups available on your system.

machine% acctadm -r
process:
extended pid,uid,gid,cpu,time,command,tty,projid,taskid,ancpid,wait-status,zone,flag,
memory,mstatedisplays as one line
basic    pid,uid,gid,cpu,time,command,tty,flag
task:
extended taskid,projid,cpu,time,host,mstate,anctaskid,zone
basic    taskid,projid,cpu,time
flow:
extended 
saddr,daddr,sport,dport,proto,dsfield,nbytes,npkts,action,ctime,lseen,projid,uid
basic    saddr,daddr,sport,dport,proto,nbytes,npkts,action
net:
  extended name,devname,edest,vlan_tpid,vlan_tci,sap,cpuid, \
  priority,bwlimit,curtime,ibytes,obytes,ipkts,opks,ierrpkts \
  oerrpkts,saddr,daddr,sport,dport,protocol,dsfield
  basic    name,devname,edest,vlan_tpid,vlan_tci,sap,cpuid, \
  priority,bwlimit,curtime,ibytes,obytes,ipkts,opks,ierrpkts \
  oerrpkts

How to Deactivate Process, Task, Flow, and Network Management Accounting

To deactivate process, task, flow, and network accounting, turn off each of them individually by using the acctadm command with the -x option.

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

2. Turn off process accounting.

   # acctadm -x process

3. Turn off task accounting.

   # acctadm -x task

4. Turn off flow accounting.

   # acctadm -x flow

5. Turn off network management accounting.

   # acctadm -x net

6. Verify that task accounting, process accounting, flow and network accounting have been turned off.

   # acctadm Task accounting: inactive Task accounting file: none Tracked task resources: none Untracked task resources: extended Process accounting: inactive Process accounting file: none Tracked process resources: none Untracked process resources: extended Flow accounting: inactive Flow accounting file: none Tracked flow resources: none Untracked flow resources: extended Net accounting: inactive Net accounting file: none Tracked Net resources: none Untracked Net resources: extended