Unix Print Server Spooler restarts

[Kanti_1]

we have a Print server on HP-UX (11.11)which holds about thousand printers. Eevery time we add or delete printer, print spooler gets re-started which impacts other printers on the same print server for short period of time.

Is this normal behaviour for HP-UX?

How can we add/remove printer without impacting other hundreds of printers on the same server?

Any advice will be very much apprecitaed.

[Dennis Handly]

>Is this normal behaviour for HP-UX?

Yes.

>How can we add/remove printer without impacting other hundreds of printers on the same server?

I don't think you can.
Are these local, remote or network printers?

[Bill Hassell]

This is standard behavior for all SysV print spoolers. It has been that way for more than 20 years. For a large printer environment, printer changes must be scheduled after hours or during non-printing periods. For a large environment like yours, the standard lp spooler is quite problematic and you should look for a non-HP print spooler package that runs on HP-UX.

[Kanti_1]

Thanks for the responses.

These are network printers.

Is their any recommended non-hp product for printer servers?

[OldSchool]

The capabilities vary...and not all are suitable for every application. If the product is "built" on top of the existing spooler, then it won't address the issue of adding / removing printers without restarting the spooler.

OM Plus has been around for years:

http://www.plustechnologies.com/PrintSpooler.aspx

HP offers

http://www.hp.com/united-states/outputmanagement/output_server.html

(and may well have others).

Google "output management" or "print management", research and contact vendors that appear to meet what you need. I've no experience with any of the above, so I can't recommend either. And they may be costly, if implemented on a large scale.

There also appears to be a product called CCS that may be useful.