Steel-Belted Radius Carrier 7.2.x Reference Guide > Accounting Configuration Files > account.ini File

account.ini File

The account.ini file contains information that controls how RADIUS accounting attributes are logged to a comma-delimited text file by Steel-Belted Radius Carrier. Specifically, the account.ini file controls file creation settings, such as file creation frequency, maximum size, and default directory, and file content, such as what information is recorded for each received accounting request.

[Alias/name] Sections

The [Alias/name] sections of account.ini are used to associate attributes of different names, but identical meaning. For example, one network access server vendor might call an attribute Acct-Octet-Pkt and another might call it Acct-Oct-Packets, yet the two attributes mean the same thing.

Each [Alias/name] section permits you to map one RADIUS accounting attribute that is already being logged by Steel-Belted Radius Carrier to any number of other attributes. You can provide as many [Alias/name] sections as you want, using the following syntax for each section:

[Alias/name]

VendorSpecificAttribute=

VendorSpecificAttribute=

M

Table 75: account.ini [Alias|name] Syntax 

Parameter	Function
name	The preferred attribute name. The name attribute must be one that you are currently logging to a column in the Steel-Belted Radius Carrier accounting log file (.act). Therefore, it must be listed in the [Attributes] section of account.ini.
VendorSpecificAttribute	Each entry is given on one line. An equal sign (=) must immediately follow each VSA name, without any intervening space. Improperly formatted entries are considered invalid and are ignored.

Each VendorSpecificAttribute in the list is logged to the name column in the accounting log file. Because you are listing these attributes in an [Alias/name] section, verify they are not listed in the [Attributes] section, otherwise, they are logged to their own columns as well as the name column.

All of the attribute names that you reference in an [Alias/name] section must be defined in a dictionary file that is already installed on the Steel-Belted Radius Carrier server. This includes name and each VendorSpecificAttribute entry.

In the following example, the standard RADIUS attribute Acct-Octet-Packets is mapped to the vendor-specific attributes Acct-Octet-Pkt and Acct-Oct-Packets. Values encountered for all three attributes are logged in the Acct-Octet-Packets column in the accounting log file:

[Alias/Acct-Octet-Packets]

Acct-Octet-Pkt=

Acct-Oct-Packets=

[Attributes] Section

The [Attributes] section of the account.ini file lists all the attributes logged for each received accounting request in the accounting log file. When you install Steel-Belted Radius Carrier, the account.ini file is set up so that all standard RADIUS attributes and all supported vendors' accounting attributes are listed.

You can change the order of columns in the accounting log file by rearranging the sequence of attributes in the [Attributes] section. You can delete or comment out any attributes that are not relevant to your billing system or which do not apply to the equipment that you are using. This lets you design the content and column order of any spreadsheets that you plan to create based upon the accounting log file.

The syntax is:

[Attributes]

AttributeName=

AttributeName=

M

For example:

[Attributes]

User-Name=

NAS-Port=

Framed-IP-Address=

Acct-Status-Type=

Acct-Delay-Time=

Acct-Session-Id=

The [Attributes] section lists one AttributeName on each line. You must ensure that an equal sign (=) immediately follows each AttributeName, with no spaces in between. Improperly formatted entries are considered invalid and are ignored.

Each AttributeName in the [Attributes] section must be defined in a standard RADIUS dictionary file (.dct file), a subattribute dictionary file (.jdict file), or a vendor-specific dictionary file on the Steel-Belted Radius Carrier server.

NOTE: The first six attributes in each log file entry (Date, Time, RAS-Client, Record-Type, Full-Name, and Auth-Type) are always enabled, and cannot be re-ordered or deleted. Therefore, these attributes do not appear in the account.ini file [Attributes] section.

[Configuration] Section

Table 76: account.ini [Configuration] Syntax 

Parameter	Function
LogDir	Sets the destination directory on the local host where accounting log files are stored. Default value is the Steel-Belted Radius Carrier directory. NOTE: You cannot write accounting log files to a linked drive. NOTE: With directed realms, you can maintain separate accounting log locations for each realm.

[Settings] Section

Steel-Belted Radius Carrier writes all accounting data to the current accounting log file (.act) until that log file is closed. After closing the file, Steel-Belted Radius Carrier opens a new one and begins writing accounting data to it. You can configure how often this rollover of the accounting log file occurs.

The naming conventions for accounting log files permit more than one file to be generated during a day. Table 77 lists the file naming conventions used for different rollover periods. In the examples below, y=year digit, M=month digit, d=day digit, h=hour digit, and m=minute digit. When more than one file is generated during a day, the sequence number _nnnnn starts at _00000 each day.

Table 77: Accounting File Rollover 

File Generation Method	File Naming Convention
Default (24 hours)	yyyyMMdd.act
Non-24-hour rollover	yyyyMMdd_hhmm.act
Rollover based on size only	yyyyMMdd_nnnnn.act
Rollover based on both time and size	yyyyMMdd_hhmm_nnnnn.act

The [Settings] section of the account.ini file (Table 78) controls how entries are written to the accounting log file, and ensures the compatibility of these entries with a variety of database systems.

Table 78: account.ini [Settings] Syntax 

Parameter	Function
BufferSize	The size of the buffer used in the accounting logging process, in bytes. Default value is 131072 bytes.
Enable	If set to 1, the accounting log feature is enabled. If set to 0, no .act files are created on this server. Accounting servers should have Enable set to 1; for efficiency, non-accounting servers should have Enable set to 0. Default value is 1.
LineSize	Number in the range 1024-32768 that specifies the maximum size of a single accounting log line. Default value is 4096. NOTE: Logging will fail if this value is exceeded.
LogFilePermissions	Specifies the owner and access permission setting for the accounting log file. Enter a value for the LogFilePermissions setting in owner:group permissions format, where: owner specifies the owner of the file in text or numeric format. group specifies the group setting for the file in text or numeric format. permissions specifies what privileges can be exercised by Owner/Group/Other with respect to the file in text or numeric format. For example, ralphw:1007 rw-r----- specifies that the file owner (ralphw) can read and edit the log file, members of group 1007 can read (but not edit) the log file, and that other users cannot access the log file.
MaxSize	The maximum size of an accounting log file, in bytes. If the accounting log file reaches or exceeds this size when it is checked, the log file is closed and a new file started. A value of 0 (the default) means unlimited size.
QuoteBinary	If set to 1, binary values written to the accounting log file are enclosed in quotes. If set to 0, quotes are not used. Set this value according to the format expected by the accounting application that processes the entries. Default value is 1.
QuoteInteger	If set to 1, integer values written to the accounting log file are enclosed in quotes. If set to 0, quotes are not used. Set this value according to the format expected by the accounting application that processes the entries. Default value is 1.
QuoteIPAddress	If set to 1, IP addresses written to the accounting log file are enclosed in quotes. If set to 0, quotes are not used. Set this value according to the format expected by the accounting application that processes the entries. Default value is 1.
QuoteText	If set to 1, text strings written to the accounting log file are enclosed in quotes. If set to 0, quotes are not used. Set this value according to the format expected by the accounting application that processes the entries. Default value is 1.
QuoteTime	If set to 1, time and date values written to the accounting log file are enclosed in quotes. If set to 0, quotes are not used. Set this value according to the format expected by the accounting application that processes the entries. Default value is 1.
RollOver	Specifies how often the current accounting log file is closed and a new file opened (a rollover), up to one rollover per minute. Non-zero values indicate the number of minutes until the next rollover. If set to 0, the accounting log file rolls over once every 24 hours, at midnight local time. Default value is 0.
RollOverOnStartup	If set to 1, each time Steel-Belted Radius Carrier is started, it closes the current accounting log file and opens a new one. A sequence number _nnnnn is appended to the log file name, just as when MaxSize is reached. If set to 0, each time Steel-Belted Radius Carrier is started, it appends entries to the previously open accounting log file. Default value is 0.
Titles	If set to 1, each time a new accounting log file is created, the title line (containing column headings) is written to the file. If set to 0, the line is not written. Default value is 1.
UTC	If set to 1, time and date values are provided according to Universal Time Coordinates (UTC, formerly known as Greenwich Mean Time or GMT). If set to 0, time and date values reflect local time. Default value is 0.

[TypeNames] Section

Each entry in the [TypeNames] section of account.ini maps a possible value of the Acct-Status-Type attribute to a string. The value of this attribute is written into the fourth column of each accounting log record.

The syntax is:

[TypeNames]

TypeID = TypeName

TypeID = TypeName

M

Table 79: account.ini [TypeNames] Syntax 

Parameter	Function
TypeID	Each TypeID is a numeric value that corresponds to a possible value of the Acct-Status-Type attribute. This attribute appears in every incoming RADIUS accounting packet to identify the types of data it is likely to contain.
TypeName	Each TypeName value is a string. This string is written to the accounting log to identify the type of packet.

The standard Acct-Status-Type values 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8 are already listed in the [TypeNames] section of account.ini as:

[TypeNames]

1=Start

2=Stop

3=Interim

7=On

8=Off

You can edit the [TypeNames] section to add vendor-specific packet types to this list, which makes your accounting log files easier to read and use. For example:

[TypeNames]

1=Start

2=Stop

3=Interim

7=On

8=Off

639=AscendType

28=3ComType

If no string is given for a particular Acct-Status-Type, Steel-Belted Radius Carrier uses the numeric value of the incoming Acct-Status-Type attribute, formatted as a string.