Accounting; Other Accounting-Related Features - Cisco 3.3 User Manual

AAA Server Functions and Concepts

Accounting

Other Accounting-Related Features

User Guide for Cisco Secure ACS for Windows Server
1-22
AAA clients use the accounting functions provided by the RADIUS and
TACACS+ protocols to communicate relevant data for each user session to the
AAA server for recording. Cisco Secure ACS writes accounting records to a
comma-separated value (CSV) log file or ODBC database, depending upon your
configuration. You can easily import these logs into popular database and
spreadsheet applications for billing, security audits, and report generation. You
can also use a third-party reporting tool to manage accounting data. For example,
aaa-reports! by Extraxi supports Cisco Secure ACS (http://www.extraxi.com).
Among the types of accounting logs you can generate are the following:
TACACS+ Accounting—Lists when sessions start and stop; records AAA
•
client messages with username; provides caller line identification
information; records the duration of each session.
RADIUS Accounting—Lists when sessions stop and start; records AAA
•
client messages with username; provides caller line identification
information; records the duration of each session.
Administrative Accounting—Lists commands entered on a network device
•
with TACACS+ command authorization enabled.
For more information about Cisco Secure ACS logging capabilities, see
Chapter 11, "Logs and
In addition to the accounting-related features discussed in this section, the
following features are provided by Cisco Secure ACS:
Centralized logging, allowing several Cisco Secure ACS for Windows Server
•
installations to forward their accounting data to a remote Cisco Secure ACS
(see Remote Logging, page
Configurable supplementary user ID fields for capturing additional
•
information in logs (see
Configurable logs, allowing you to capture as much information as needed
•
(see Accounting Logs, page
Reports".
11-26).
User Data Configuration Options, page
11-6).
Chapter 1 Overview
3-3).
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