IP Accounting Questions

Danielh22185

This may be a very noob question but I haven't been working in the networking field terribly long so I wouldn't call myself experienced by any stretch. Anywho, I noticed that with my company we have IP Accounting shut off on pretty much all interfaces on most all of our network equipment. I'd assume this is shut off by default but not sure of that. Also this is commonly used when we have areas of our network reporting network latency, we can view the top talkers, etc. My questions are first why is this normally shut off by default if that is the case and what impact might it have on devices running in on many / all interfaces?

My thoughts are it can consume an unneeded amount of CPU resources by collecting top talker data. Just my thoughts on the why anyway. Thanks!

networker050184

You are pretty much spot on! It is off by default and there are resource utilization constraints to consider.

Most modern networks use netflow rather than IP accounting as it is a much more robust reporting mechanism. I'd suggest you do some research on this and possibly bring it up to the company for some kudos.

Danielh22185

I think we do use something that is a lot more robust but it's a bit beyond me. What that is I am not so sure. We use IP accounting when doing some initial troubleshooting but always turn it off after not needed anymore. I will have to look into it more. Thanks!