PSF/6000 functions and printing capabilities

ITEM: RTA000087692



Q:                                                                              
ABSTRACT:     PSF/6000 functions and printing capabilities                      
ENVIRONMENT:                                                                    
SEARCH ARG:   PSF/6000 printer sharing; AFP Driver w/ PSF/6000                  
TOPIC THREAD: PRINT                                                             
              AFP                                                               
              PSF6000                                                           
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A couple questions for a PSF/6000 installation??                                
                                                                                
A customer has 1 3935 and is getting the second one shortly, the person         
at the customer site is an ex-IBMer who was familiar with doing print           
sharing. At the 3820 in his branch, if one of the printers was busy it          
would automatically route the print to the second printer sitting right         
next to the other. The customer did not have to bother selecting which         
printer to print to; the queue would determine which printer it sent the        
print job to. Is there any way to accomplish this with the 3935s at this        
customers site which has PSF/6000 v1.2??                                        
                                                                                
Also, I thought someone told me they were able to print from Windows            
or OS/2 applications to their RS/6000 and print through PSF/6000. How           
could this be accomplished. We've attempted it with the Windows and OS/2        
drivers and can not do it in one step, it has to be a multiple step             
process. Which is fine for operations, but not the end users. Does any          
one have a work around?? Is there a way to route print from the applic.         
on a network to the RS/6000 and then redirect through PSF to the                
printers??                                                                      
                                                                                
A:                                                                              
Please see ASKQ item RTA000087395 about balancing workload between two         
printers using a single queue.  If that doesn't answer your question,           
let me know.                                                                    
                                                                                
As for your question regarding routing output from Windows, you have            
received a note under separate cover. To summarize, one thing to check          
would be the ability of the TCP/IP program on the Windows workstation to        
associate an LPT port with a remote host and printer attached via               
TCP/IP.  I know this can be be done under TCP/IP for OS/2 (LPRMON or            
LPRPORTD, although I'm out of the office and can't check my notes for           
possible limitations or test it. I know that PSF/2 only works with one          
of the two; see various ASKQ items.) So if they have TCP/IP on each             
of the Windows workstations from which they're trying to use the driver,        
I would check the capabilities of that TCP/IP program with that vendor.         
                                                                                
If they have a LAN Server network, then there is now a LAN Server for          
AIX program announced late last year.  Although it has not been tested          
yet with PSF/6000, the information in the LAN Server for AIX                    
announcement letter says that clients can access normal AIX resources           
for printing and files; to me that means they can place jobs on the             
AIX spool. Since PSF/6000 runs as a backend to the AIX spool, we                
should be able to set up queues to work with this just fine.  If you            
like, reopen this item and I can requeue this question to the ASKQ              
queue for AIX LAN Server and get their comments.                                
                                                                                
At any rate, you probably do have alternatives to creating a file and           
then FTPing it over to the RISC where PSF/6000 is running, but you'll           
need to know if your customer has TCP/IP on each Windows workstation,           
and if so whose, and can it associate a DOS printer port with a remote          
TCP/IP host and print queue similar to that which OS/2 TCP/IP can do?           
Or AIX Connections or TotalNet from Syntax may be an option.                   
                                                                                
Closing...                                                                      
                                                                                
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:                                                  
AIX PSF/6000 WINDOWS AFP DRIVER BALANCING WORKLOAD SHARING psf/aix              
totalnet                                                                        
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                               


WWQA: ITEM: RTA000087692 ITEM: RTA000087692
Dated: 03/1999 Category: XPSF6000
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