How to Create a File for Flow-Accounting Data

Before you add a flowacct action to the IPQoS configuration file, you must create a file for flow records from the flowacct module. You use the acctadm command for this purpose. acctadm can record either basic attributes or extended attributes in the file. All flowacct attributes are listed in Table 6–4. For detailed information about acctadm, refer to acctadm(1m).

1. Log in as superuser to the IPQoS-enabled system.

2. Create a basic flow-accounting file.

   The following example shows how to create a basic flow-account file for the premium web server that is configured in Example 3–1.

   # /usr/sbin/acctadm -e basic -f /var/ipqos/goldweb/account.info flow

   Statement	Definition
   acctadm -e	Invokes acctadm with the -e option. The -e option enables the arguments that follow.
   basic	States that only data for the eight basic flowacct attributes are to be recorded in the file.
   /var/ipqos/goldweb/account.info	Specifies the fully qualified path name of the file to hold the flow records from flowacct.
   flow	Tells acctadm to enable flow accounting.

3. View information about flow accounting on the IPQoS system by typing acctadm without arguments.

   acctadm generates the following output:

   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,host,mstate
               Flow accounting: active
          Flow accounting file: /var/ipqos/goldweb/account.info
        Tracked flow resources: basic
      Untracked flow resources: dsfield,ctime,lseen,projid,uid

   All but the last four entries are for use with the Solaris 9 Resource Manager feature. The next table explains the entries that are specific to IPQoS.

   Entry	Description
   Flow accounting: active	Indicates that flow accounting is turned on
   Flow accounting file: /var/ipqos/goldweb/account.info	Gives the name of the current flow-accounting file
   Tracked flow resources: basic	Indicates that only the basic flow attributes are tracked
   Untracked flow resources: dsfield,ctime,lseen,projid,uid	Lists the flowacct attributes that are not tracked in the file

4. (Optional) Add the extended attributes to the accounting file as follows:

   # acctadm -e extended -f /var/ipqos/goldweb/account.info flow

5. (Optional) Return to recording only the basic attributes in the accounting file.

   # acctadm -d extended -e basic -f /var/ipqos/goldweb/account.info

   The -d option disables extended accounting.

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