Q:
Topic thread:
Printer Systems (PRINT - NA/ATS)
PSF/AIX
Customer has PSF/AIX running on RS6000 with a TCP/IP connection to MVS
host system running MVS/PSF and AFP Upload. tried to turn on header
and trailer pages both in the PSF/AIX print queue and on the ENQ print
command as a '-o' option. Both ways fail to produce the header or
trailer pages. printing to 3160 channel attached printer on MVS. The
JES2 banner pages can be produced but are no value. What and or how does
the customer need to define his queues to make this work??
AIX level 4.1.5
psf/aix base 2.1.0
mvs/upload for aix new install
A:
Only the print data itself is sent to MVS; the PSF/AIX header and
trailer pages are not.
I'll include an overview of how AFP Upload works below. Please also
also see libraried item RTA000105846 for additional information on
AFP Upload, including accounting and userid issues.
When Upload transmits the contents of a print file from AIX to MVS, it
also transmits attributes of the print file. It uses the attributes
to create an MVS OUTPUT descriptor for the SYSOUT data set into
which the print file contents are placed.
Most MVS customers create OUTPUT descriptors using the OUTPUT JCL
statement. Since Upload doesn't know the print file attributes until
run-time, it can't use JCL; it creates an OUTPUT descriptor
dynamically. However, if the customer wants to understand what
attributes can be communicated from AIX and recorded on MVS, it's
important to understand that Upload is using the facilities provided
by an OUTPUT descriptor.
ACCOUNT comes from the static JCL that is used to start the
transaction program. So does JOBNAME.
The following table summarizes the information that is being
transmitted AND used. Note that OUTPUT BIN is not supported because
it would require us to pre-req a higher MVS level and an APAR.
OUTPUT JCL statement enq operand
parameter
-------------------- -----------
ADDRESS -o address1=
(up to 4 subparameters) -o address2=
-o address3=
-o address4=
BUILDING -o building=
CLASS -o passthru=class=
COPIES -o copies=
DATACK -o datack=
DEPARTMENT -o department=
DESTINATION -o passthru=destination=
FORMDEF -o formdef=
FORMS -o passthru=forms=
NAME -o name=
ROOM -o room=
TITLE -o title=
Finally, customers could impose some accounting control by defining
several MVS servers, each started by different JCL including different
account numbers.
If you have additional questions after reviewing this information and
the other libraried item I referenced, please reopen this item.
Thanks for using ViewBlue.
Q:
The customer wants to identify his printed output at the MVS level. It
looks like we need to upload relevant information in one or more of the
support values (perhaps NAME and TITLE) that could then print on the MVS
banner page.
These jobs will be arriving from an NT workstation via lpr/lpd
protocol. Hence, the enq -o options are not natively supported.
Here is my thought : We could set up a "dummy queue" which receives the
job via lpr. This queue would contain a backend program which
interrogates the lpr file received, and issues a "native AIX" enq
command with the appropriate -o options to pass NAME and TITLE values.
This enq command would queue the job to the "real" PSF/AIX Upload queue,
which would transform the job and upload the resulting AFPDS to MVS,
along with values that will be printed on the JES banner page.
Given this approach, I have several questions:
- Does this idea make sense? Do you think it will work?
- I have never written a backend program. Does a working example
exist? Is anyone in support willing to code up an example for us
(unsupported code, of course)?
- We don't need accounting information at the MVS level. We just need
to have an identifying banner page printed with the output so that
the paper can be routed to the requesting person. Is there an easy
way to do this that we are missing?
Thanks for your help.
A:
I think that whay you suggest is feasible. I believe one of the
specialists at the AIX Support Center has written custom backends
that interrogate the Job Descriptor File (JDF) for certain fields and
then requeue the job using that information. I don't know if this is
something that they can provide at no charge, or if this would fall
under the AIX ConsultLine ($$). I'd suggest you call 1-800-CALL-AIX
and talk to the Printer specialists to see what they might have
available.
There is also an internal only web site maintained by an AIX printer
specialist in the Advanced Tech Support group that has some information
on coding backends, as well as some sample ksh scripts and C programs.
http://tesch.aix.dfw.ibm.com/printips/backends.html
http://tesch.aix.dfw.ibm.com/printips/baseback.html
Hopefully one of these resources will be helpful to you.
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:
psf/6000 psf/aix infoprint afp upload mvs psf aix banner header
trailer separator auxiliary missing userid name title jes windows nt
-o flags parameters
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000154138 ITEM: RTA000154138
Dated: 01/1999 Category: XPSF6000
This HTML file was generated 99/06/24~12:43:42
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