PSF/6000 : Valid configurations for supporting

ITEM: RTA000088007



Q:                                                                              
ABSTRACT:     PSF/6000 : Valid configurations for supporting                    
              TCP/IP ethernet 3900's                                            
ENVIRONMENT:                                                                    
SEARCH ARG:   psf/6000 tcp/ip ethernet                                          
TOPIC THREAD: PRINT                                                             
              AFP                                                               
              PSF6000                                                           
..                                                                              
Customer is planning to install TCP/IP 3900 driven by PSF/6000.  Print          
data will be sent to the PSF/6000 server from multiple HP/UX machines.          
The HP machines the PSF/6000 server and the 3900 will all be connected          
via a PlainTree intelligent ethernet switching hub. My understanding of         
this hub is that it is capable of providing a full 10 MB pathway between        
any two devices.                                                               
                                                                                
After reading the announce letters for PSF/6000 and 3900 TCP/IP my              
client has the following questions:                                             
1) Will the PSF/6000 and the 3900 TCP/IP connection work with the               
   proposed intelligent hub?  Will it work with any intelligent hub?            
                                                                                
2)  Will any make of TCP/IP software that supports LPR/LPD work for the         
   transfer of the print stream from the HP to the PSF server or must           
   the TCP/IP software be an IBM product?  The client seems particularly        
   concerned about support for IP stacks (of which I am completely              
   unfamiliar) - are there network software issues we need to understand        
   or will any flavor of TCP/IP and any hub hardware work?  For the             
   record, the announce letters lead us to believe that different makes         
   of hub hardware and software will work successfully as long as we            
   build a valid ethernet network - is this right?                             
                                                                                
A:                                                                              
We have not done any official testing of PSF/6000 or the 3900 TCP/IP            
attachment with hub hardware.  We followed industry standards in the            
design for the 3900 TCP/IP Ethernet attachment, so if PlainTree did as          
well, then it should work.  As far as PSF/6000 goes, it has nothing to          
do with communications at all; it just sits as a backend to the normal          
AIX spool.  AIX implemented their remote printing capability (LPR/LPD)          
following the industry standard RFC 1179, so I believe you should be            
okay there as well.                                                             
                                                                                
We do have customers printing today from HP9000s running HP/UX to               
PSF/6000-attached printers, including 3900-OW1s that are Ethernet-              
attached without problems.  I can give you the IBM contact for one              
account if you'd like a reference. I do not know if that customer's            
network uses hubs or not.  (The enhanced LPR sample code that we supply         
for OEM UNIX systems has been tested successfully on an HP/UX system,           
so not only can you print, with this sample C code compiled there, your         
customer will have the capability of passing parameters to PSF/6000             
if they so desire.)                                                             
                                                                                
Closing...                                                                      
                                                                                
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:                                                  
AIX PSF/6000 HP/UX HP9000 HUB ETHERNET 3900 psf/aix infoprint lan               
ipds                                                                            
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                               


WWQA: ITEM: RTA000088007 ITEM: RTA000088007
Dated: 03/1999 Category: XPSF6000
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