ipacc: IP accounting package

The following describes the process of installing ipacc on supported platforms.

D.1. Compiling ipacc from source

If ipacc is supplied in source form, it should be extracted and compiled as follows. Assuming the distribution file is ipacc-4.1.0.tgz, the following steps should be taken:

$ tar xfz ipacc-4.1.0.tgz
$ cd ipacc-4.1.0
$ ./configure
$ make

This should compile the ipacc software ready for installation.

D.2. Extracting ipacc binaries

Binary releases of ipacc contain all required files ready for installation. For example:

$ tar xfz ipacc-bin-freebsd-4.1.0.tgz
$ cd ipacc-4.1.0

would place the binary files for ipacc version 4.1.0 compiled for FreeBSD into a directory called ipacc-4.1.0, and change the current working directory to it ready for installation.

D.3. Running the installation procedure

To install the software, run the install script while logged in as root:

# make install
Preparing to install ipacc version 4.1.0

UID/GID:          1001/1001
Run directory:    /home/ipacc
Binary directory: /usr/local/ipacc

Continue? (Y/n): yes

If a user called ipacc exists, the UID, GID, run directory and binary directory are taken from the existing user parameters. Thus, the defaults can be overridden by manually creating an ipacc user, with its home directory pointing to the desired run directory, and its shell pointing to path/ipacc-shell, where path is the desired binary directory.

If the user exists and its shell is not path/ipacc-shell, the installation will fail.

If the installation is proceeded with, the following steps are performed:

Create a ipacc user, if it does not already exist;
Create the directories (if they do not exist);
Create a data directory below the run directory;
Install program files to the binaries directory;
Create a default SSH identity for the ipacc user;
Create a default ipacc.cf file in the run directory, if one does not already exist;
Install system startup file /usr/local/etc/rc.d/ipacc.sh or /etc/rc.d/init.d/ipacc as appropriate, and run chkconfig if appropriate to have ipacc started at system startup time.

D.4. Preparing the configuration

The default configuration file, ipacc.cf in the ipacc run directory, contains a simple configuration designed to log traffic through the default interface. This should be edited according to site requirements before starting ipacc.

Similarly, any equipment configuration should be done before ipacc collection starts. See the documentation on the appropriate data collectors.

D.5. Starting ipacc

Once configured, ipacc should be started using the startup script /usr/local/etc/rc.d/ipacc.sh on BSD systems, or /etc/rc.d/init.d/ipacc on systems using the System V style "rc.d" scripts:

# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/ipacc.sh start

By default, logging is done to the daemon class of syslog. Check the logs for any problems.

D.6. Disabling ipacc from system startup

By default, ipacc is configured to start automatically at system boot time. To disable automatic start on BSD systems, rename the startup script as follows:

# cd /usr/local/etc/rc.d/
# mv ipacc.sh ipacc.sh.disabled

Automatic startup can be enabled again by renaming the file back to ipacc.sh.

On systems using chkconfig, it can be disabled at the current runlevel using the utility, e.g.

# chkconfig ipacc off

and can be re-enabled with:

# chkconfig ipacc on

See the manual pages for chkconfig for further information.

Note that these steps do not start or stop ipacc on the running system.

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