PSF/AIX: Losing small jobs intermittently
ITEM: RTA000152835
Q:
Topic thread:
Printer Systems (PRINT - NA/ATS)
PSF/AIX
Hello¢ I have a customer that has a InfoPrint 4000 with AIX and PSF6000
and channel attachment. The printer is working, but when he needs to
submit a small job for printer, the job goes to queue after exit from
queue, but nothing is printed. Then he needs recovery and submit again
very fast three or four times until printer works. I have trying to
change some parameters, but nothing happens. I changed in tuning
options, shutdown interval from 9999 to 100, I verify if the PSF
directories (segments and seglists) are empty. Could you make any
suggestions?? Thanks.
A:
My first comment is that PSF/AIX does not support channel attachment
of any AFCCU printers, including the InfoPrint 4000. One of the
reasons this was necessary was because as the processors for the
AFCCUs got faster and faster, there were problems with the PSF/AIX
driver for the S/370 Channel Emulator/A adapter in terms of
synchronization and reliability. You may be encountering this problem;
I really can't say. Certainly what you are seeing is not normal
behavior for supported channel-attached printers (like the 3900-001)
or network-attached AFCCU printers (like the InfoPrint 4000), assuming
that you're saying that the same job will sometimes print and sometimes
not. If I'm misunderstanding your problem, please reopen this item.
Since you are in an unsupported environment, the only thing I can
suggest is that you ensure that you have the latest PTFs installed
on PSF/AIX and that the latest copy of the S/370 driver has been
loaded onto the S/370 card (according to the readme instructions that
come with the PTF; an IML is required). You will not be able to open
a defect with Level 2 Support Center, since your configuration is not
and has never been officially supported. AFCCU printers, such as the
InfoPrint 4000, are only supported by PSF/AIX as TCP/IP-attached
devices, either Ethernet or Token-Ring.
If you can switch the InfoPrint 4000 to a network-attachment and are
still having similar problems, then you can get official support
through Level 2 Support Center.
Thanks for using WWQ&A. I'm sorry I can't be of more assistance.
Q:
I'm really sorry because I changed the model of printer. The printer is
a 3900-001. Please, could you answer me again? Thank you.
A:
I would still ensure that you have the latest level of PSF/AIX PTFs
and that the latest level of the channel device driver is reloaded onto
the channel card after the PTFs are installed and the system is
rebooted.
If I understand your description correctly, your customer can print
large jobs okay. However, there are one or more small jobs that will
sometimes print, but will sometimes appear in the queue, then disappear
from the queue without printing.
Q1) Is that a correct description?
Q2) Is it always the same job that behaves this way? Or is it
different jobs -- in other words, do different kinds of jobs show the
behavior of sometimes printing, sometimes disappearing?
Q3) For the failing jobs, what is the input data stream? If it's
datatype=line (i.e., through line2afp/acif), are you capturing the acif
messages through the msgdd parameter? If so, what are the error
messages (including the message number)?
Q4) How is the job submitted?
Q5) Is there any information in the /var/psf//error.log?
Q6) As a test, I would disable the 3900 queue and resubmit the job to
make sure the job shows up in QUEUED status. Then I would enable the
queue to see what happens -- does the job print or disappear? Is the
behavior consistent -- does the same job behave the same way every
time?
Q7) As another test, if there's a transform involved, try running the
transform standalone from the command line to ensure that it completes
successfully. Check the transform error logs (if they exist) for any
error messages if the transform fails.
Q8) If the small jobs are intermingled with large jobs on a printer,
is it possible that they're just getting "lost" in the midst of the
large printouts and have really printed after all?
There aren't any timers or PSF configuration settings that I can think
of that would cause the symptoms you're seeing. Usually if jobs just
disappear, it's a problem with the datastream or missing resources, but
then I'd expect the same job to exhibit the same behavior every time.
If you can provide me with more information, I can try to help. Or,
after you make sure that you have the latest PTFs applied *and* then
have reloaded the driver onto the card, if you still have the problem,
then I would open a problem with the Support Center for PSF/AIX so
they can ask you to run the appropriate traces.
I hope this helps.
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:
psf/6000 psf/aix psf aix 3900 4000 channel microchannel s/370 emulator
adapter attached lose lost losing jobs incorrout disappear
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000152835 ITEM: RTA000152835
Dated: 11/1998 Category: XPSF6000
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