If you have lot of developers or programmers who access your servers frequently in your company and if you wanna to keep an eye on what data they are accessing, what commands they are issuing, how long they have been accessing servers and how much system resources are consumed by them, then psacct or acct are the tools that you should have. Already we have covered some topics about monitoring tools such as Nagios and Cacti.
Both psacct and acct are similar tools whereas psacct is available for RPM based systems and acct is available for DEB based systems.
Install psacct/acct
To install psacct under RPM based distributions, enter the following command:
[root@server ~]# yum install psacct -y
To install acct under DEB based systems, enter the following command:
sk@sk:~$ sudo apt-get install acct
After installing psacct or acct, start the services. You don’t need to start acct under Debian based systems. It will automatically start after installing it:
[root@server ~]# /etc/init.d/psacct start Starting process accounting:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â [Â OKÂ ] [root@server ~]# chkconfig psacct on
Usage of psacct or acct
Let us see some examples of using psacct or acct tools.
Displaying total statistics of connect time of users
The ac command will show you the total connect time of users in hours:
[root@server ~]# ac total      27.99
Displaying Day-wise user statistics
The following command will show you the statistics of users in day-wise in hours:
[root@server ~]# ac -d Mar 12   total       0.87 Mar 14   total       0.10 May 5   total      16.45 May 6   total       2.25 May 7   total       3.77 May 8   total       4.02 Today   total       0.62
Displaying total login statistics of each user
The following command will show you the total login time each user in hours:
[root@server ~]# ac -p root 28.09 total 28.09
Displaying Individual users statistics
The following command will show you the total login time of a particular user called sk in hours:
sk@sk:~$ ac sk total      24.28
Displaying day-wise login statistics of a particular user
The following command will show you the login statistics of a particular user called sk:
sk@sk:~$ ac -d sk May 1   total       1.24 May 2   total       2.19 May 3   total       1.11 May 4   total       1.11 May 5   total       3.10 May 6   total       1.95 May 7   total       5.10 May 8   total       5.15 Today   total       3.42
Printing all Users activities
The sa command is used to display all the commands executed by the users:
[root@server ~]# sa    1209 204132.34re      0.67cp     700k       6      2.16re      0.36cp   12405k  php     327      0.30re      0.10cp     593k  gzip     345      1.82re      0.06cp     746k  sh      42      1.01re      0.05cp     701k  awk     327      0.29re      0.03cp     519k  iconv      27      0.15re      0.03cp    1142k  perl      12 204124.35re      0.01cp     722k  ***other*      40      0.03re      0.01cp     653k  find       3      0.79re      0.00cp    2310k  rrdtool       3      0.01re      0.00cp     699k  ps      13      0.02re      0.00cp     570k  grep      12      0.01re      0.00cp     517k  df       7      0.01re      0.00cp     509k  cat       3      1.35re      0.00cp    1490k  crond*       3      0.00re      0.00cp     533k  uptime       3      0.00re      0.00cp     523k  who       3      0.00re      0.00cp     504k  ac       2      0.01re      0.00cp     666k  logrotate      10      0.00re      0.00cp     747k  makewhatis*       2      0.00re      0.00cp     555k  sed       5      0.00re      0.00cp     503k  basename       3      0.00re      0.00cp     509k  tr       4      0.00re      0.00cp     500k  logger       3      0.00re      0.00cp     512k  rm       2      0.00re      0.00cp     746k  makewhatis.cron*       2      0.00re      0.00cp     802k  touch
Printing individual users activity
The following command will show you the activities of root user:
sk@sk:~$ sa -u root      0.00 cpu    1042k mem     0 io accton         root      0.00 cpu    1100k mem     0 io acct           root      0.00 cpu    1100k mem     0 io invoke-rc.d    root      0.00 cpu    1100k mem     0 io acct.postinst  root      0.00 cpu    1100k mem     0 io ureadahead.post root      0.09 cpu    8144k mem     0 io dpkg           root      0.00 cpu    6666k mem     0 io touch          root      0.00 cpu    1100k mem     0 io sh             root      0.00 cpu   25312k mem     0 io apt-get        * root      0.00 cpu    6988k mem     0 io dpkg           root      0.00 cpu    6988k mem     0 io dpkg           root      0.00 cpu    6988k mem     0 io dpkg           root      1.24 cpu   14010k mem     0 io apt-get        root      0.00 cpu    5604k mem     0 io rm             root      0.00 cpu    1100k mem     0 io sh             root      0.03 cpu   11518k mem     0 io sudo           sk        0.08 cpu   11752k mem     0 io lsb_release    sk        0.00 cpu    6988k mem     0 io dpkg           sk        0.00 cpu    6988k mem     0 io dpkg           sk        0.00 cpu    6988k mem     0 io dpkg           sk        0.00 cpu    6988k mem     0 io dpkg           root      0.00 cpu       0k mem     0 io kworker/1:0    *
Printing number of Processes
The following command will show the total number of processes and CPU minutes. If you see the increase in these numbers, you should look in to systems to find out what is happening:
sk@sk:~$ sa -m                                       59    214.15re      0.06cp        0avio     4923k sk                                    24      3.06re      0.04cp        0avio     7515k root                                  35    211.09re      0.02cp        0avio     3145k
Printing sort by percentage
The following command will show you the highest percentage of users:
sk@sk:~$ sa -c      62 100.00%    224.18re 100.00%      0.06cp 100.00%        0avio     4787k      19  30.65%    103.84re  46.32%      0.06cp  96.42%        0avio    10144k  ***other*       8  12.90%      0.02re   0.01%      0.00cp   2.48%        0avio     7132k  dpkg       3   4.84%      0.00re   0.00%      0.00cp   1.10%        0avio     4825k  unix_chkpwd       6   9.68%     60.16re  26.84%      0.00cp   0.00%        0avio        0k  kworker/1:0*       6   9.68%     60.16re  26.84%      0.00cp   0.00%        0avio        0k  kworker/1:2*       5   8.06%      0.00re   0.00%      0.00cp   0.00%        0avio     1100k  sh       4   6.45%      0.00re   0.00%      0.00cp   0.00%        0avio     2663k  sa       4   6.45%      0.00re   0.00%      0.00cp   0.00%        0avio     1079k  ac       3   4.84%      0.00re   0.00%      0.00cp   0.00%        0avio     1100k  acct       2   3.23%      0.00re   0.00%      0.00cp   0.00%        0avio     3344k  rm       2   3.23%      0.00re   0.00%      0.00cp   0.00%        0avio     1042k  accton
Listing last executed commands
The lastcomm command will show you the list of last commands executed by users:
[root@server ~]# lastcomm gzip                   root    __        0.02 secs Thu May 9 09:33 sh                     root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 iconv                  root    __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:33 gzip                   root    __        0.02 secs Thu May 9 09:33 sh                     root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 gzip                   root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 iconv                  root    __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:33 sh                     root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 gzip                   root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 iconv                  root    __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:33 sh                     root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 iconv                  root    __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:33 gzip                   root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 sh                     root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 iconv                  root    __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:33 gzip                   root    __        0.02 secs Thu May 9 09:33 sh                     root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 iconv                  root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 gzip                   root    __        0.03 secs Thu May 9 09:33 sh                     root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 gzip                   root    __        0.02 secs Thu May 9 09:33 iconv                  root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 sh                     root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 gzip                   root    __        0.02 secs Thu May 9 09:33 iconv                  root    __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:33 sh                     root    __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:33 iconv                  root    __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:33
To see the list of last commands executed by a particular user called sk, enter the following command:
sk@sk:~$ lastcomm sk lastcomm              sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:54 sa                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:52 sa                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:52 sa                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:47 sa                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:47 sa                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:39 ac                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:36 ac                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:34 ac                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:31 ac                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:25 sh                    sk      __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:09 grep                  sk      __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:09 ps                    sk      __        0.01 secs Thu May 9 09:09 unix_chkpwd           sk      __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:07 unix_chkpwd           sk      __        0.02 secs Thu May 9 09:07 unix_chkpwd           sk      __        0.02 secs Thu May 9 09:07 xscreensaver-co       sk      __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 08:57 plugin-containe       sk      __        0.06 secs Thu May 9 08:52 acct                  sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 08:55 logger                sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 08:55 accton                sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 08:55 acct                  sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 08:55 apt-check             sk      __        1.98 secs Thu May 9 08:54 dpkg                  sk      __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 08:54 dpkg                  sk      __        0.00 secs Thu May 9 08:54
Searching logs of a particular command
The following command will show you the particular usage of a command by users:
sk@sk:~$ lastcomm ac ac                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:36 ac                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:34 ac                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:31 ac                    sk      pts/2     0.00 secs Thu May 9 09:25
That’s it! Happy Monitoring.
