Hello David,
The difference between start-stop and stop-only in the commands you provided lies in when the accounting records are sent to the AAA server.
start-stop: This method sends an accounting record at the start and end of each process. The “start” record is sent at the beginning of the process, indicating that the process has begun. The “stop” record is sent at the end of the process, indicating that the process has ended.
stop-only: This method sends an accounting record only at the end of each process. There is no “start” record sent at the beginning of the process. This means that the AAA server only receives a notice when the process ends.
The choice between the two depends on your specific requirements for tracking and recording network activity. If you only need to know when a process has ended, stop-only should suffice. But if you need to track the entire lifecycle of a process, from start to finish, you would use start-stop.
More information can be found at this Cisco command reference:
I hope this has been helpful!
Laz