Remote printing from openspool to an NT server.

[Paul Thomson_2]

On one of our Unix servers D370 V10.20, in openspool there are 2 queues set up. These are not bound to any device. However one of these queues eg QUEUE1 prints to an NT server with an IP adddress that is in the /etc/hosts file. The other queue does not, QUEUE2. My question is where do you need to check in openspool files to check where the QUEUE1 is configured so openspool knows to send to the NT server Ip address in host file.
I have checked
/opt/openspool/sw-master/.opsp_aliases
At the end there was a line showing...
QUEUE TORONT1 BSD:yy529ds3:TORONT1
TORONT1 being the queue. I have added the same for TORONT2 and ran an openspool activation. Now however, requests to TORONT2 go to load paper and there is no paper configured as there is no device. Does anyone know where I need to check to make sure the paper loaded is the same for TORONT1 and TORONT2 ??

[Denis_37]

Hi Paul,

You are mentioning 2 queues on your server. Those queues can server you fine for your
local printing, but to print
remotely they are not needed.

Let me shortly explain the Remote printing concept of OpenSpool:

First you need to have queue called ForeignQ on your server. If it is not there, create it by command :

$ npcglobal -g on

Then activate this change on server by npact.

After that you need to have an QUEUE ALIAS for your destination queue in .opsp_aliases file. As you mentioned you already have that :

QUEUE TORONT1 BSD:yy529ds3:TORONT1

The name of this alias is TORONT1.It is recommended not to have the same name for regular queue name and also for queue alias.

Example of use:

$np -q TORONT1 /etc/group

Will first put yor request for short time into queue
ForeignQ and if connection will be OK, it will dissapear and print on NT system.

You can read more about that also in OpenSpool Man page, for example man (5) openspool.

Now to your question:

1) " My question is where do you need to check in openspool files to check where the QUEUE1 is configured so openspool knows to send to the NT
server Ip address in host file."

Regular queue QUEUE1 actually should not print remotely! Maybe you have somewhere defined another queue alias with the name QUEUE1. Please check for example in spooladm's home directory for file .opsp_aliases or for the same file in your $HOME directory.

2) "I have added the same for TORONT2 and ran an openspool
activation. Now however, requests to TORONT2 go to load paper and there is no pa
per configured as there is no device. Does anyone know where I need to check to
make sure the paper loaded is the same for TORONT1 and TORONT2 ?? "

I suspect that you may have queue TORONT2 defined 2 times : as an regular queue (you can check that by npcshow -q TORONT2 ) and also
an queue alia (added in .opsp_aliases file). I recommend that you change the name of one of them..for example rename queue alias to toron2 and reactivate.
Then the commnad :

$ np -q toron2 /etc/group should send the print request to NT system.

If you neeed some additional claridifcation, no problem.

Regards,
Denis

[Paul Thomson_2]

Hi Denis.

Thanks for advice. I am currently awaiting the results of testing by people where the printers are as they are in a different country to me. Will advise you of results.

Paul

[Paul Thomson_2]

Denis/and others. I have moved this to HP-UX system admin as raised this in error under Linux which is not used as the server platform.