Tag: Printing

How do I change a printer’s IP address in AIX?

The mappings of IP addresses to “lp” names are contained in the /etc/hosts configuration file. To change the IP address:

    Log into your server as root user via Eterm or PuTTY
    Edit the /etc/hosts file using vi: 
vi /etc/hosts
    Locate the entry for the printer(s) you wish to change
    Make the change
    Save the file and quit

How do I manage UniVerse print spooler?

To administer print jobs in UniVerse spooler, first log into the server as root and run the following commands:

Displays the spooler status of all printers.

 usa

To reload/refresh the spooler configuration file

 usa -R

To manually start the spooler

cd /u2/uv
bin/usd /usr/spool/uv -t

Resets the print spooler for this specific printer.

usa +o -p lp#

Displays the spooler status only for the specified printer.

usa -p lp#

Displays all active print jobs.

usa -A

Stops printing current job for the specified printer.

usa -b -p lp#

Restarts current job for the specified printer.

usa -c -p lp#

Cancels a specified job in the UniVerse spooler.

usm -k job#

Cancels all print jobs from a specified UniVerse spooler.

usm -k -p lp#

How do I change a printer’s IP address in Linux?

The mappings of IP addresses to “lp” names are contained in the /etc/hosts configuration file. You may modify the IP addresses for entries in the /etc/hosts files in a couple of different ways:

Command Line

  • Log into your server via PuTTY
  • Launch your favorite text editor to edit the hosts file. For example, using vim:
vim /etc/hosts
  • Locate the entry for the printer(s) you wish to change
  • Make the change
  • Save the file and quit

GUI

To view a step-by-step screencast of this process:

To change the printer’s IP address from the GUI interface:

  • Log into the GUI via any method (ie VNC, DRAC, physical console)
  • Navigate to Applications -> Accessories -> Text Editor
  • Navigate to File -> Open Location
  • Enter /etc/hosts
  • Locate the entries for the printer(s) you wish to change
  • Select Save
  • Exit

Are there any CUPS settings that I can change to keep my Linux print queues from going down?

The default CUPS (Linux print spooler) settings have been shown to be reliable for Eclipse legacy printing at over 100 customer locations. In nearly all instances where print queues are consistently “going down,” a wide area network (WAN) issue has been proven to be the root cause. While working to resolve long-term networking issues, here are a few useful settings that can be adjusted to increase the amount of time allowed by CUPS before disabling a print queue

Timeout

The Timeout directive controls the amount of time CUPS will wait before an active HTTP or IPP request times out. The default timeout is 300 seconds (5 minutes), but this can be increased by modifying the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf configuration file, per the example below (1200 seconds or 20 minutes):

Timeout 1200

Maximum Job Limit

The MaxJobs directive controls the maximum number of jobs that are kept in memory. Once the number of jobs reaches the limit, the oldest completed job is automatically purged from the system to make room for the new one. If all of the known jobs are still pending or active then the new job will be rejected.

In a real-world scenario, if there is a printer down with a very large number of jobs in its queue this setting could cause printing to stop functioning server-wide. For this reason, and to ensure there are no hidden hardware or network issues, it is important to periodically monitor the number of jobs in the print queues (using the lpstat or similar tools).

If you regularly submit more than a few hundred jobs at one time to a print queue, you may wish to increase this setting in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf, taking care not to raise it too high to avoid system crash or spooler filesystem from filling up from an out of control print job.

By default, CUPS limits the number of active jobs at any one time to 500, but this can be increased to a larger value or be disabled entirely by setting the value in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf to 0 per the example below:

MaxJobs 0

Resources

http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/doc-1.3/ref-cupsd-conf.html

AIX Printer Setup

NOTE: The instructions below are for configuring a new printer for “traditional” or “legacy” printing on an AIX server, not for printing via Eclipse Forms.

To view a step-by-step screencast of this process, click here.

In each of the steps below, substitute your printer’s IP address and new “lp” number.

Add an entry for the printer’s hostname and IP address to the /etc/hosts file:

echo "172.17.189.5	lp1" >> /etc/hosts

Add an AIX print queue:

/usr/lib/lpd/pio/etc/piomisc_ext mkpq_remote_ext  -q 'lp1' -h 'lp1' -r 'lp1' -t 'aix' -T '999' -C 'FALSE'

Add the UniVerse driver file:

echo "lp -dlp1" > /usr/spool/uv/lp1.dvr
chmod 777 /usr/spool/uv/lp1.dvr

Add the UV print queue:

cd /u2/uv
uv

Select Spooler -> Device -> Maintain Devices
Use ENTER to advance, selecting all defaults unless otherwise specified.

  • Name = LP1 (shows all caps)
  • Path = /dev/null
  • Driver = lp1.dvr (ignore error)
  • Lock = lock.lp1

Press ESC -> Q -> ENTER to exit

Launch Eterm and log into Eclipse to setup the Eclipse print queue
Select F2 -> F -> P -> A (Assign Printer)

  • Printer/Fax = new
  • Name = 1 (# from lp#)
  • Type = (press F10 to select)
  • ESC to apply and exit
  • L (Location Maintenance)
  • Location = NEW
  • Name = HERE
  • Ship Ticket Branch = (blank)
  • Physical Branch = (blank)
  • Printer = 1 (number of printer)
  • ESC to apply and exit