Network printer re-addressing...

[Ian Kinthar]

We are about to undergo a network redesign. Most of this will not affect the actual IP addresses of devices on the network, but it WILL require us to change our default gateways and subnet masks. This is not a big problem for the hosts and network devices such as switches, routers, etc., but it is a concern for our printers.

We have a LOT of network attached printers that have print queues on numerous HP Unix systems. Printing is absolutely not a strength of mine, so I turn to you... How do I go about reconfiguring the print queues on a couple dozen systems with potentially a couple dozen printers on each system?

I'm not overly concerned about the actual scripting part of this so much as I'm not sure about the actual commands to modify the print queues themselves. I've done some looking on the man pages for 'lpadmin and lpstat', but I don't think I'm looking in the right place.

You're help would be greatly appreciated.

[Pete Randall]

So what is it that you need to change on the print queues? If the IP addresses are not changing, the print queues won't be changing either.

(Maybe I'm missing something here)


Pete

[Patrick Wallek]

If the IP addresses of the printers are not going to change, then there is NOT anything to worry about on the HP-UX machines. The only thing stored there is the IP address or name, depending on how you set it up.

Now, what you DO need to worry about are the physical printers themselves. The subnet mask and gateway are configured on the PRINTER ITSELF, if you are not using something like DHCP or BOOTP for the printers.

To fix this you will have to touch each and every printer, or check the configuration on your DHCP or BOOTP server.

Depending on the type of printers and/or print servers you have, you *MAY* be able to do this by telnet'ing to the device or via a browser (some devices have web servers built in).

Good luck!

[Peter Nikitka]

Hi,

the required changes depend on the mode, your network printers are defined:
- are your network printers working with the HP-JetDirect SW / other SW / remote printing?
- need the IP addresses of the printers be modified?
- how is the IP-configuration done for the printers: static IP or bootp/dhcp?
- is the access to a printer defined by IP-address or hostname? If a hostname was used, no changes for printer scripts will be necessary, when the name resolution is uptodate (again).

Actions necessary will highly depend on your answers...

mfG Peter

[Ian Kinthar]

Thanks Patrick. Seeing your response makes me realize how obvious that particular answer is. However, I'm not entirely sure that the IPs themselves won't be changing. I'm finding out about that right now.

If necessary, I'll post another reply to this if I need to continue digging for further information.

[Ian Kinthar]

OK. I was incorrect on the network changes pertaining to the printers. The hosts are all maintaining their IPs and need only their gateways and subnet masks. The printers however are all being assigned new IPs, so I need to reconfigure the print queues with the new IPs.

Thanks again.

[Patrick Wallek]

How were the printers defined originally? Were they configured with host names or IP addresses?

If these are all JetDirect type printers that were configured with the older JetAdmin or the newer HP Printer Installer (HPPI) software, then you can check by going to the /var/spool/lp/interface directory and having a look at the files there. There should be a file for each printer defined. The line in the file you are looking for is PERIPH=. Where the is either a hostname or an IP address.

If is a hostname, then you have it easy. All you need to do is change the IP address in /etc/hosts on each machine, or in DNS if you have a corporate DNS server. DNS is much easier since one change will take care of all machines.

If you is an IP address, then you will need to change PERIPH= for all printers on all machines.

Remember that you will have to touch ALL printers as well to give them new IP addresses, subnet masks and gateways.