creating print queue and assigning printer

[owilliams]

I need to create a print queue and put the setup in a startup COM file for auto start on re-boot. Can someone help me with this?
New to VMS.
Printer info
Name - COR-LJETT11
ON - CORPRN02
MODEL - HP LASERJET 4300 PLC 6
LOCATION - 507 - HORSHAM- PROGRAMMING

Any help as always is greatly appreciated.

[Hoff · Accepted solution]

Install DECprint Supervisor (DCPS) package off your distro. DCPS is licensed with OpenVMS, and all current versions work nicely with the LaserJet 4300 series printer.

Start your quest here:

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/dcps24.html

DCPS deals with all of what this printer can do. Easily.

I'd probably select the RAW TCP/IP path with this particular printer. (This assumes you have TCP/IP Services or a supported IP package installed, and most sites do have that.)

You will need to know the IP address and a few other details as part of following the DCPS printer configuration... These details are available from the printer set-up page, or from your local IT organization.

Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs LLC

[odwillia]

I have no direct access to the system. Is there another way?

[Hoff]

<<<
I have no direct access to the system. Is there another way?
>>>

Um, by osmosis?

But seriously, you have to be able to log into the target OpenVMS box to perform the software configuration and operational steps, or to perform a software installation, whether via DECnet, via IP, via LAT, serial connection into the box via satellite link, or otherwise. (Talk to the owner of the box, and get access if you can at all manage it. Via a two-password login, SET HOST/LOG, or whatever is needed to verify a level of trust involved for the owner.)

If you're doing this entirely from batch, I'd look to break into the box and make the necessary changes to allow access, and to install this software. Given console access, you can follow the sequence from the the OpenVMS FAQ, the OpenVMS manuals, or you can see the following:
http://64.223.189.234/node/204
to gain access to the box.

Any other means of performing a batch-based remote installation installation is going to be either seriously more difficult (and will likely involve various local steps to access the system) and more expense, or it's likely going to be unsupported by HP. (And it'll involve substantial back-and-forth during the whole installation and configuration process.)

I've been doing this for years, and it'd take me a couple of hours to sort this out through a batch-based install, and either a couple of reboots or access to a sufficiently-identical test configuration. It's bigger than ITRC, in other words.

[owilliams]

Osmosis - LOL.
I tried to create the queue and get errors.

$ INITIALIZE/QUEUE/PROCESSOR=TCPIP$TELNETSYM -
_$ /ON="CORPRN02:23" DEV_LJETT11
$ SHOW QUEUE DEV_LJETT11
Printer queue DEV_LJETT11, stopped, on NRCAVB::"CORPRN02:23", mounted form DEFAULT
$ START/QUEUE DEV_LJETT11
%SYSTEM-F-IVDEVNAM, invalid device name

[Bill Hall]

I don't ever recall seeing any HP LaserJet that used a port other than 9100. I can't say I've ever seen any brand that used port 23 for printing.

I'd also second Hoff's recommendation to install DCPS for use with this printer and any other that DCPS supports. It is much easier to get nice looking output on a printer with DCPS than it is when rolling your own device control library. It can be done with a well planned and designed setup modules and forms, but it has always been a lot of work and reams of paper.

Bill

[Hoff]

Compared with DECprint Supervisor (DCPS) and what it can do with this LaserJet 4300 printer, telnetsym access is rather less capable. With this printer, DCPS is both easier to manage, and can allow access to rather more of the capabilities of the printer. To the (optional) stapler, for instance.

As for the telnetsym error, ensure the clients are configured and running; that too usually requires interactive (direct, SET HOST or telnet login) access to invoke the necessary TCPIP$CONFIG or UCX$CONFIG commands to set up the telnetsym or lpr/lpd mechanisms.

You need interactive access to the OpenVMS box to make these changes in any sort of a sustainable and maintainable fashion. I'm guessing this is some sort of security measure? if so, talk to your boss, or whomever asked you to make this change.

(If you can modify the system startups, there's zero, zip, zilch, nada reason to disallow interactive access -- and every reason to allow interactive access, as I'd expect I'd make various and possibly nasty mistakes trying to perform interactive and system management operations from batch. Messing about attempting system management in batch is more prone to errors, and more likely to require many, many, many reboots. Interactive access is faster.)

[owilliams]

THANKS!!
That works much better.