2. COST ACCOUNTING CONCEPTS FOR IS ORGANIZATIONS › 2.9 UNIX Accounting

2.9 UNIX Accounting

The UNIX operating system is an increasing part of the
enterprise computing solution.  UNIX is finding its way into
organizations for two reasons:  maturity and openness. It is
a mature operating system available for high-end
client-server systems and it is open in nature, available on
many platforms and from many vendors.

CA offers a solution to an organization's need to integrate
UNIX systems into their enterprise.  The CA MICS Analyzer
Option for MeasureWare (MW OS Agent Analyzer) and CA MICS
Accounting and Chargeback enable state-of-the-art management
of UNIX systems.  Accounting data is integrated with
mainframe, midrange and network charges, presenting a
complete view of IS expenses to the user.

The CA MICS Analyzer Option for MeasureWare OS Agents
processes data collected by HP MeasureWare.  The resulting
data, presented to CA MICS Accounting and Chargeback, allows
users to charge for UNIX systems either by application
category or at the detailed level of processes executed by
each user.

The following section gives a brief overview of the UNIX
system.


The UNIX System
---------------

The UNIX operating system was originally developed in the
late 1960s through early 1970s by AT&T.  Since then, AT&T,
along with various other companies and major universities,
has made significant additions and enhancements to the UNIX
system.  Currently, there are several versions of UNIX
available in the marketplace:  an updated version of the UNIX
system from UNIX System Laboratories (USL, formerly a
division of AT&T), operating systems derived from the USL
UNIX system and new operating systems based on UNIX
standards.  It is the only computer operating system that has
been implemented by nearly all major computer vendors and is
available on systems that range in size from microcomputers
to super mainframes.
Every UNIX system provides at least the following set of
features:

o  The UNIX kernel--In a strict sense, this is the UNIX
   system itself.  The kernel is the operating system.  It
   encapsulates the hardware and provides system services
   such as process management, memory management, I/O
   services and timer functions to application programs.

o  A shell--The system interface between users and the
   operating system.  Most UNIX systems provide more than one
   shell, including graphic shells such as the X Window
   System.

o  A system library--Utility programs and system functions
   that may be invoked by users and applications.

The basic unit of work in a UNIX system is called a process.
The UNIX system creates and destroys processes frequently.
For example, when a user enters a command, the shell creates
a process to execute the program, or executable file,
associated with the command.  If the command is made up of
more than one executable file, a new process is created for
each file that is executed.  In an interactive UNIX
application, each transaction is usually executed as a
separate process, so a single user session may result in many
UNIX processes.

The following sections describe the metric data available for
charging and provide guidance in setting up PCS and
MeasureWare parameters.