Bieling%Psuarch.Bitnet@WISCVM.ARPA (Timothy J Bieling) (09/07/85)
We have found a need lately to restrict the use of our tape drive
or, if possible, control it's use in the following manner:
We have some paying users of our system which requires us to
keep track of their use of specific resources. Things such as
connect and CPU time, and for that matter, disk space usage are
relatively easy to monitor. Our problem arises when we want to
charge for usage of the tape drive attached to the system.
The one method we had considered was monitoring "allocated"
time with the drive, i.e., consider the time a user has the drive
as "connect" time, and then charge for this connect time. I'm
not sure if this is even possible.
The problems with the above which occur to me immediately are
the following:
1. Unless there's some "protection" on the drive, ANY user can
ALLOCATE it directly, thus overriding our possible control.
2. From the ALLOCATE command, a user could request a MOUNT, and
the operator may accidently mount the tape, not checking if
the mount was requested from inside some control program.
3. If a user logs off the system without releasing the tape drive
(using a similar release procedure) the drive is released,
and we have no way of "knowing" that the drive is no longer
being used by this user. (with out checking periodically.)
I'm looking for ANY suggestions regarding how something like
this can be achieved, even if it means some involved programming.
(Programming is part of my job, so I'll end up doing the work)
Thanks for any information you may be able to provide!
- Tim Bieling - System Manager ComCAD Lab (PSUARCH)
Bitnet:
Qaa%psuvm@wiscvm.bitnet (I think that's correct format)
Bieling%Psuarch@wiscvm.bitnet
Manager%Psuarch@wiscvm.bitnet
Snailnet: Bel:
Penn State University (814) 863-0063 (w)
Dept of Architecture
202 Eng. Unit "D" (814) 234-8698 (h)
University Park, PA 16802