Xerox Soluzione digitale Xerox 8825 con AccXES Controller serial number EV4-16649 - Manual

AccXES Legacy To V7 Job Accounting Migration White Paper
Editor: JMGotta Date Modified: Nov. 19, 2001
Introduction
In AccXES v7, a new job accounting module is being introduced. This completely replaces the accounting
function that was introduced in v4. This white paper will describe the high level differences between the
old and new accounting modules. It will then address how to transition current uses to the new system.
Legacy Job Accounting
In the original job accounting scheme, the AccXES Controller handled just about everything. The
accounting administrator defined account IDs through the Controller at the copier UI, printer UI, or
WebPMT. A tab delimited file of accounts could also be read in through the floppy. The accounts were
numeric only and forced into a 6.4 account.sub-account architecture. There was also a limitation on the
maximum number of IDs. Only 100 accounts were allowed with a maximum of 20 sub-accounts under
each account. ACT, drivers, and walk up users would have to enter a valid account ID for the job to be
processed and then the Controller would update the log. The only log information kept was a running total
of square area processed for bond, vellum, film, and scanning.
If multiple devices were being tracked, the administrator would have to define the accounts on all the
controllers. The data would then have to be manually merged together.
Job Based Accounting (JBA)
The new accounting module breaks the accounting system into two pieces. In many ways, it follows a
client – server model so we’ll take some liberty and call them the External Accounting Server (EAS) and
the AccXES Controller which acts like the client. However, don’t take the model literally and imply EAS
is a network server or needs a server version of operating system (OS). The EAS is simply a piece of
software running on a PC on the network.
The EAS is where the accounting administrator now defines IDs. There are now two 32 character
alphanumeric IDs for user and account. There is now also the concept of association or permission. A
given user can only use certain accounts on certain machines. These associations are also defined by the
administrator on the EAS. The last item defined are the devices which will be accounted. The EAS sends
to each of the defined AccXES Controllers the list of valid user IDs, account IDs and their associations.
The Controller will then validate each job to ensure a valid user ID, a valid account ID, and that the user
can use that account ID. The details of each job are logged in the Controller’s job log file. The EAS pulls
the detail log files from each Controller. Depending upon the EAS, this could be manually initiated by an
administrator or automatically done based upon a timing interval. It deletes the file on the Controller after
successful transmission. The EAS can then perform some type of tally function to summarize the data.
Each AccXES Controller can be setup such that accounting is either Enabled or Optional or Disabled. If
Enabled, users have to provide a valid user and account ID combination for that device in order to submit a
print request or make a scan or copy. If Optional, users will still be prompted to enter in their IDs. If they
choose to, they can simply not enter any IDs. The job will still be run and then logged against IDs called
GenericUserID and GenericAccountID. Obviously if accounting is disabled, users are not prompted for
IDs at all.
XES is providing a very lite EAS called AccXES Account Management Tool (AMT). Equitrac has a
product called OfficeTrac that will also work in this system as a more feature rich accounting server. Other
third party packages may become available in the future.
ID Schemes
Within the new 32 character account and user IDs, there is a lot of flexibility for extensions or “sub-
accounting” and linkages. This is an exercise in creativity, but several possibilities are listed here to help
get the ideas flowing.
User ID Account ID
Full Name Company Name or ID
Employee ID Project name or ID
Company.Person Budget Category
Person.Shift Department.Budget