Checking Remote printers

[Shailesh Solanki]

Hello All,

I am just starting using HPUX and this is my first post in this forum, but I Have read many posts (the ITRC has been a life saver!),
I am currently working on a migration from a HP3000 environment, and as part of this I have to install a lot of printers, but some of the printers on the old 3000 box do not actually exist in the real world (don’t ask me why), but in HPUX is there anyway to test if a printer actually exists on a remote server before actually installing it and trying to print?

Any advice that you can offer will be much appreciated.

Regards

Shailesh Solanki

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

I'd say the only way to be sure is to try and print on the printer and see if the job gets hung up in the print spool or not.

SEP

[OFC_EDM]

Do the printers have jetdirect interfaces on them? Telnet to the IP and see if you get the printer configuration interface up.

[Fabien GUTIERREZ]

just issue a lpstat -p and look for the one's that are disabled and the time they were disabled to see which are useless

[Avinash20]

Hi Shailesh,

Good Day,

One more alternative would be via

# sam
> Printers and Plotters
>> LP Spooler
>>> Printers and Plotters

Check here for
'Accepting Requests': If no, that means that the printer is not accepting any connection

Also check 'Enable to Print'

[Bill Hassell]

The last thing you want to do is to add a ghost printer. HP-UX's spooler system is quite primitive compared to MPE and remote printers are the worst in terms of reliability and status. Now to some definitions (used by SAM):

Remote printer: a printer connected to another system, or a print server card (cleverly disguised as a LAN card) in a printer. You local HP-UX system uses a simple protocol to send data to the print server. There are no -o options to control the print job.

Network printer: an HP printer with a built-in LAN card or an HP JetDirect External adapter connected to any printer. The JetDirect protocol is very reliable, allows for extensive -o options and eliminates print servers.

The RFC 1179 protocol has no query or status so the technique to discover the printers is to use sneakernet (walk around and look at each one...). Seriously, the best way is to look at the MPE logs and see what printers have been used in the last 6 months. That becomes your short list.

Now you have two choices: leave the working printers alone and just add them as remote printers. You'll have no controls over printing such as landscape or duplex or characters per inch, but they will work. You may have an issue converting LF into CR/LF which can be tricky to resolve.

Or: Add all the printers directly onto the network using JetDirect cards. Somed of the printers may already use JetDirect cards, so all you do is to use the addqueue command. For other types of connections (ie, an old WinNT box with a parallel Centronix printer cable), replace the server with a JetDirect external box.

You may find some very old printers that should be retired. Most of the old printers cost a lot more than new ones and maintenance costs and performance will dictate replacement.

[Shailesh Solanki]

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for all your time and help on this matter, but from the general direction of everyones replys I think that there is no way to do a pre test on the printer, so I will have to manually check them then install only the valid printers that are on the print server.

Once again Thanks for all your coments and yout time.

Shailesh Solanki