print queue disabled - timeout value?

[Kevin Liquori_1]

I know in HP-UX the print spooler will disable a print queue if the physical printer is not communicating for a certain amount of time. In this case I'm running HP-UX 11.31. The printer in question is configured as a network printer (not remote). The printer is going offline because users are taking it offline.

I have two questions:
1) How long does the printer have to be offline before the queue becomes disabled?
2) I have a script that runs every 5 minutes that will disable then enable the queue if there are 10 or more jobs pending. Sometimes print jobs are printed twice when this script triggers. Can anyone suggest an alternative scripting solution?

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin Liquori_1]

An amendment to the above ... the script does not check for 10 or more print jobs. It checks to see if the leading print job is 10 minutes or more old.

Kevin

[Michael Steele_2]

I've never heard of the print daemon acting like this before.

Please paste in the output of hppi.

# hppi

If you don't have hppi then you can download it from here:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?〈=en&cc=us&pnameOID=18922&taskId=135&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=27349〈=en&cc=us

This is how admins have been doing since HPUX 9 or so. Its a menu driven utilty use to be from jet direct.

Note the diagnostics option in the menu and see if you can figure it out our self - if you can, then respond.

:-)

[Kevin Liquori_1]

Here's the output of hppi:

****************************************************************
*****] ****
**** ] **** JetDirect Printer Installer for UNIX
**** ]]]]] ]]]]] **** Version E.10.34
**** ] ] ] ] ****
**** ] ] ]]]]] **** M A I N M E N U
***** ] ****
****** ] **** User: (root) OS: (HP-UX B.11.31)
I N V E N T
****************************************************************

1) Spooler Administration (super-user only)


2) JetDirect Configuration (super-user only)
- TCP/IP configurable parameters

3) Diagnostics:
- diagnose printing problems


?) Help q) Quit

[Michael Steele_2]

a) get a test print file ready: I.e., CALL ME AT phone # IF YOU RECEIVE THIS PRINTOUT

b) Name of printer and ip address

c) Someone on at the printer who can verify its operation,i.e., its ONLINE

d) Select diagnostics, answer questions aksed by hppi, if you get confused then post all the questions beginning with diagnostics.

[Kevin Liquori_1]

I made some assumptions about the print spooler behavior which I now realize are incorrect. If a network printer is physically offline then the spooler does not disable it.

Here's the scenario I'm dealing with:
Users take the physical printer offline. An application is still sending jobs to that queue. The users then put the physical printer back online, but the jobs do not print. I have to run a disable/enable on the queue to get the jobs to print. When I do this a duplicate job is printed.

I've been troubleshooting HP-UX jobs for years with disable/enable and never have seen (or maybe just never noticed) duplicate jobs. Maybe it's related to the model of the physical printer?

For business reasons the duplicates are causing large problems. It's not as easy as telling the users to discard them.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Michael Steele_2]

View printer jobs:

# /usr/bin/lpstat [-t]

Cancel jobs

# /usr/bin/cancel job-ID [printer]

[Bill Hassell]

There is no use in disabling the printer. This simply allows jobs to stack up with no limits. Use reject rather than disable. This prevents any new jobs from being created (applications will give error messages). The other fix is to disable TEOJ and job recovery. These options have never worked properly. Use the command:

modifyqueue -q printer_name -t off -r off

for each printer. To add a new printer, skip SAM/smh completely and use addqueue like this:

addqueue -q newPrinterName -h 12.34.56.78 -t off -r off -b off

(-b off is to turn off the pre-job banner page)

[Kevin Liquori_1]

Thanks for the comments, Bill. I've disable TEOJ & Job Recovery. I don't want to use reject since I don't mind if jobs are being sent to the queue. What I don't understand is why the oldest pending job, after I do disable/enable to get the jobs moving, get printed in duplicate. I've done some testing with another printer and I'm starting to think it may be an issue that is specific to the printer itself (a Zebra label printer). I'm going to look in the settings on the printer itself.

Thanks

[Bill Hassell]

A job will get repeated after disable/enable if it got started first. There may not have been any data printed but if the scheduler started the job, disable will stop and reset the job back to the beginning. Then enable starts the job again. Similarly, the job may be printed but did not fully complete, perhaps hung slightly at the end. Disable resets the pointer and enable prints it again.