Remote Print Server and Optio

[Andrew Dutton]

I have a requirement to setup my HP-UX box as a print server.

HP-UX isqpro03 B.11.11 U 9000/800 647359383 unlimited-user license


The box currently run optio ECI 7.7 which is a pre-print processing software. It creates a virtual printer that then sends the processed output to a windows server to send to the printer.

This works fine for print jobs originating from that server but now I need to enable other HP-UX system to print to this server and then have the server process the information and then either send again to the windows box or directly to the printer.

I have never had to do anything like this in the printing evironment so all help appreciated.

thanks

[OldSchool]

Andrew,

First off, are the boxes that *send* this server print jobs running Optio also, or do you need the "print" jobs submitted by other servers to be run thru Optio and then printed?

If the later case (Optio and then print), will every job send to every printer *always* need pre-processing via Optio?

Need the above info to determine a course of action here

Scott

[Andrew Dutton]

No the boxes that will be sending the data will only provide raw data (text) and then it will go to an optio printer on the box running Optio. This printer is really a virtual printer which processes the information and then sends it on to the physical printer.

The printers that will use optio will be a different name than the straight printer, so yes all output through this print queue will be processed by optio.

thanks

[skt_skt]

'The box currently run optio ECI 7.7 which is a pre-print processing software. It creates a virtual printer that then sends the processed output to a windows server to send to the printer"

i hope that s/w helps you to avoid creating print queue on ths server and the s/w does the function of lp sub system. The printer might be configured on the windows machine and that is why you send the processed output to windows first and later to the printer.

"I need to enable other HP-UX system to print to this server"

why you need this way ? does that s/w do any other customized function for you.

You may configure the printer(whihc is on the windows system) as a remote printer to other HP-UX system.So that you can avoid a depency on a print server.Again depends on what your s/w does.

I think your plan sounds like "i have this way and need everything that way". Or i might have not understood the scenario properly.

[Andrew Dutton]

Well... my plan was to move Optio to the windows server. So that you can just use Optio as a remote queue on the windows box. However Optio wants to charge allot of money to purchase a new license for the windows server. So bascially I am trying to setup my Unix box, which already has the SW licensed to it to accept jobs as a print server. And I am not even sure where to start. I don't even have it setup as a print server for standard PS printers.

thanks

[OldSchool]

ok, so lets call the "new" print server SvrA, the one of the other boxes SvrB. SvrA has Optio, and SvrB doesn't.

The goal- when run on SvrB, the command "lp -doptio1 somefile" causes:
a) "somefile" to be transmitted to SvrA
b) SvrA to invoke Optio on "somefile"
c) SvrA to print the processed file to print.

This is doable. it gets a little easier if SvrB and SvrA can (or do already) share disks in some manner, such as nfs.

My initial thought is to have the printer scripts on SvrB store the file (or ftp it) to somewhere where the data is accessible by SvrA. A scheduled job on SvrA examines the directory where the data is stored and for each file found, it processes it thru Optio for printing. In this scenario, it should be possible to process and save the "lp" options if necessary for processing on SrvrB

Another, somewhat easier (at least in my mind) would be to bypass the lp command on SvrB and have the app that creates the file on SvrB save the file in the proper location for SvrA to find it and process. Then all you need to deal with is processing via Optio and printing. Note that it may not be possible to process options in this case, but multiple destinations could be handled by saving the data in different directories and using each directory as kind of a queue for each real destination / option set. I did something similar to this when using AutoCad in batch mode to create plot files from dxf files.

So the question now is which method works best for you? If neither is works well, describe how you would like it to work.

I'm hoping A. Clay chimes in here. You might want to look at this thread about Epson printers and his response. http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1170682
It has some discussion on modifying model scripts for printers. Do let the script complexity rattle you, I don't think this is going to be a major undertaking.

I just read your other reply, so it seems that you want to by-pass the Windows box as well? If so, then:

What make/model(s) of printers do you need to support? Do they have JetDirect cards attached today?