Configuring Diameter-based Accounting

Diameter-based Rf accounting relies on many of the same configuration elements used for RADIUS based accounting. The following two sections explain how to configure both the account-config and account-servers configuration elements. In addition, you must ensure that accounting is enabled for each realm where you want it to occur. The accounting-enable parameter in the realm-config is enabled by default.

Configure the Global Diameter-based Accounting (Rf) Features

To configure the global Diameter-based accounting (Rf) features in the account-config:

In Superuser mode, type configure terminal and press Enter.
```
ORACLE# configure terminal
```
Type session-router and press Enter.
```
ORACLE(configure)# session-router
```

Type account-config and press Enter.

ORACLE(session-router)# account-config
ORACLE(account-config)#

hostname—Enter a hostname for this system.
port—Enter 3868 for the RFC-recommended Diameter port number. You may enter a different port number.
- minimum: 1025
- maximum: 65535
strategy—Set the strategy used to select the accounting server which the SBC sends accounting messages. The following are the available strategies:
- hunt—Selects accounting servers in the order in which they are listed. If the first accounting server is online, working, and has not exceeded any of the defined constraints, all traffic is sent to it. Otherwise the second accounting server is selected. If the first and second accounting servers are offline or exceed any defined constraints, the third accounting server is selected. And so on through the entire list of configured servers
- failover—Uses the first server in the list of predefined accounting servers until a failure is received from that server. Once a failure is received, it moves to the second accounting server in the list until a failure is received. And so on through the entire list of configured servers.
- round robin—Selects each accounting server in order, distributing the selection of each accounting server evenly over time.
- fastest round trip time—Selects the accounting server that has the fastest round trip time (RTT) observed during transactions with the servers (sending a record and receiving an ACK).
- fewest pending—Selects the accounting server that has the fewest number of unacknowledged accounting messages (that are in transit to the SBC).
protocol—Set this parameter to diameter to use the Rf accounting interface with a Diameter-based accounting server.
state— Enter enabled to use accounting on this system.
max-msg-delay—Retain the default value of 60 seconds or indicate the length of time in seconds that you want the SBC to continue trying to send each accounting message. During this delay, the SBC can hold a generic queue of 4096 messages.
- Minimum: zero (0)
- Maximum: 4294967295
acr-retry-interval — Retain the default value of 10 seconds or enter the time in seconds for the SBC to wait before resending an ACR for a session.
- Minimum: 5
- Maximum: 20
max-acr-retries — Retain the default value of zero (0) or enter the maximum number of times that the SBC can resend an ACR for a session.
- Minimum: zero (0)
- Maximum: 4
max-wait-failover—Retain the default value of 100 messages or indicate the maximum number of accounting messages the SBC can store its message waiting queue for a specific accounting server, before it is considered a failover situation.

Once this value is exceeded, the SBC attempts to send it accounting messages, including its pending messages, to the next accounting server in its configured list.
- Minimum: one (1) message
- Maximum: 4096 messages
trans-at-close—Retain the default value of disabled if you do not want to defer the transmission of message information to the close of a session. Enter enabled if you want to defer message transmission.
- disabled—The SBC transmits accounting information at the start of a session (Start), during the session (Interim), and at the close of a session (Stop). The transmitted accounting information for a single session might span a period of hours and be spread out among different storage files.
- enabled—Limits the number of files on the SBC used to store the accounting message information for one session. It is easiest to store the accounting information from a single session in a single storage file.
generate-start—Retain the default value ok if you want the ACR Start message to be generated once the SBC receives an OK message in response to an INVITE.

Other options include:
- none—Accounting Start message should not be generated.
- invite—Accounting Start message should be generated once the SBC receives a SIP INVITE.
- ""—When two quotation marks are entered next to each other (empty), behavior is identical to none value.
generate-interim—Retain the default value reinvite-response to cause the SBC to send an Interim charging message to the accounting server.
You can select none, one, or more than one of the following values:
- ok—Start message is generated when the SBC receives an OK message in response to an INVITE.
- reinvite—Interim message is generated when the SBC receives a SIP session reINVITE message.
- reinvite-response (default)—Interim message is generated when the SBC receives a SIP session reINVITE and responds to it (for example, session connection or failure).
- reinvite-cancel—Interim message is generated when the SBC receives a SIP session reINVITE, and the Reinvite is cancelled before the SBC responds to it.
- unsuccessful-attempt—Interim message is generated when a SIP session set-up attempt from a preference-ordered list of next-hop destinations is unsuccessful. This can happen when a local policy lookup, LRT lookup, ENUM query response, or SIP redirect returns a preference-ordered list of next-hop destinations. The interim message contains: the destination IP address, the disconnect reason, a timestamp for the failure, and the number that was called.
generate-event—Enter one or more valid events that prompt creation of an Event record. Enclosed multiple values in parenthesis and separate by spaces.

value settings include triggering the SBC to generate an accounting message when it:
- none—(default)
- Register—Receives a SIP REGISTER.
- Local-Register—Prompts the SBC to create Event ACRs on a re-REGISTER to which it replied.
- message—Receives an SMS message.
intermediate-period—Enter amount of time in seconds between generating periodic interim ACR messages during a SIP call. This parameter defaults to zero, which disables continuous Interim charging messages.
vsa-id-range—Ensure that this parameter is left blank when communicating with a Diameter-based Rf accounting server.
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Configure Accounting Servers

You must create one or more servers to which the SBC can send accounting messages.

Continuing from the previous account-config configuration, enter the account server sub-element by typing account-servers Enter.
```
AZALEA(account-config)# account-servers
AZALEA(account-server)#
```
hostname—Set this to the IP address of the Diameter-based Rf accounting server.
port—Enter 3868 for the RFC-recommended Diameter port number. You may enter a different port number if desired.
- minimum: 1025
- maximum: 65535
state—Retain the default enabled to enable this account server or enter disabled to disable it.
min-round-trip—Retain the default 250 milliseconds or indicate the minimum round trip time of an accounting message.
- minimum: 10 milliseconds
- maximum: 5000 milliseconds
  
  A round trip consists of the following:
  
  The SBC sends an accounting message to the account server.
  
  The account server processes this message and responds back to the SBC.
  
  If the fastest RTT is the strategy for the account configuration, the value you enter here can be used to determine an order of preference (if all the configured account servers are responding in less than their minimum RTT).
max-inactivity—Retain the default 60 seconds or indicate the length of time in seconds that you want the SBC with pending accounting messages to wait when it has not received a valid response from the target account server.
- minimum: 1 second
- maximum: 300 seconds
Once this timer value is exceeded, the SBC marks the unresponsive account server as disabled in its failover scheme. When a server connection is marked as inactive, the SBC attempts to restart the connection and transfers pending messages to another queue for transmission. Accounting messages might be moved between different account servers as servers become inactive or disabled.
restart-delay—Retain the default 30 seconds or indicate the length of time in seconds you want the SBC to wait before resending messages to a disabled account server.
- minimum: 1 second
- maximum: 300 seconds
priority—Enter the number corresponding to the priority of this account server, for use with server prioritization. The default for this parameter is 0, meaning the prioritization feature is turned off—and that the SBC will therefore prioritize accounting servers by IP address and port.
origin-realm—Enter the realm in which the SBC communicates with the Diameter Rf accounting server.
domain-name-suffix—Enter the suffix to be appended to any Diameter FQDN or Diameter Identity used when the SBC communicates with the Diameter Rf accounting server. Your value can be any string, to which the SBC will prepend with a dot.
watchdog-ka-timer—Set this parameter to the value in seconds that the SBC waits between sending DWRs. 0 disables this feature. Valid non-zero values are 6 - 65535
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