ACUA Overview
ACUA is a software package designed to facilitate the administration
of user accounts and the enforcement of access restrictions on a Linux
system. ACUA is most often used on systems that host modem pools
such as:
-
ISPs
-
School Dial-Ups
-
Business Dial-ups
-
Hobby ISPs
However you don't need to have a modem pool to make use of it. Here
is an overview of the functionality provided by the package:
Access Control
-
Temporarily "freezing" accounts - acua lock,
acua unLock.
-
E-Mailing users to explain why they were kicked off the system - ExplainBoot.
-
Warning users when their time is almost up - WarnBoot.
-
Warning users (via email) when their account/subscription will be expired
soon - WarnExpire.
-
Booting users who have been idle too long - IdleBoot.
-
Enforcement of accounting-period time limits (i.e. time per day, time per
month).
-
Enforcement of session time limits.
-
Distinct time limits that apply only to certain weekdays and times - TimeClass.
-
Optionally, time can be deducted only when the system is busy - SmartTime.
-
Optionally, time limits can be enforced only when the system is busy -
SmartBoot.
-
Optionally, at most n users may be kicked off the system per minute
- MaxKick.
-
User priorities.
-
User priorities may be mapped to CPU priorities (i.e. niceness).
-
Lower-priority users are kicked off instead of higher-priority users.
-
Priority 0 users can be kicked off even when they have time left!
-
Enforcing data transfer limits.
-
Accounting period and per-session limits.
-
Separate limits can be placed on:
-
Total bytes transferred
-
Bytes uploaded
-
Bytes downloaded
User Administration
-
Automatic deletion of accounts.
-
Based on preset expiration date.
-
Based on the time since last login.
-
Subscriptions (temporarily increased access) - acua
subscribe, acua unSubscribe.
-
User-created accounts with call-back verification - acua_verify.
-
Specific users can be banned from the system temporarily or indefinitely
- acua ban.
Information Reporting
Miscellaneous Utility Programs
Robert Davidson