How does PSF/AIX V2 compare in function to JES?
ITEM: RTA000098876
Q:
ABSTRACT: How does PSF/AIX V2 compare in function to JES?
SEARCH ARG: psfAIX upload
TOPIC THREAD: PRINT
PSF/AIX
..
How limited is PSF/AIX V2 function as compared to JES? Can you give
specifics? Thanks.
A:
| Note that PSF/AIX V2 (5765-505) was withdrawn from marketing
| 11 December 1998, though it will continue to be supported by level 2
| until 31 January, 2001.
| For a comparison of JES, PSF/AIX and InfoPrint Manager 2.1.1 functions
| please see libraried item RTA000154019.
After talking with you, the intent of your question is "How do the print
management functions of the MVS JES spool and PSF/MVS compare to those
of the AIX spooling subsystem and PSF/AIX?" Your MVS customers are
accustomed to functions like backspacing, forwardspacing, interrupt and
resume, moving jobs from queue to queue, class, forms, and the ability
through SDSF to view jobs currently on the queue. In your particular
customer's case, this will be a standalone RS/6000-PSF/AIX system, e.g.,
jobs originate on the RS/6000 and are not submitted from remote clients.
The first thing to keep in mind is that all of the PSFs use the
functions of the native spooling subsystem wherever possible, e.g.,
PSF/MVS uses JES and PSF/AIX uses the AIX spool and qdaemon. As noted
above, the JES spool provides some very powerful capabilities for job
management. The AIX spool is less powerful, although there have been
improvements over time, particularly with the introduction of AIX V4.
When PSF/6000 V1 was first introduced, it relied totally on the AIX V3
spool and was subject to the AIX spool's limitations. You really
couldn't do much besides displaying print queue status, starting and
stopping a print queue, cancelling a job, and reprioritizing jobs.
AIX V4 added some improvements to its spooling capability, including
the ability to hold and release a queued job and to move queued jobs
between queues. This is some improvement, but still not up to the level
of JES.
Because there are numerous MVS customers looking to move production
printing to an RS/6000-platform, the IBM Printing Systems Company added
enhanced production print functions to PSF for AIX V2 (5765-505). These
new functions bring PSF printing on AIX closer to JES-like functions.
However, there is still some room for further enhancement (which I'll
discuss below).
PSF for AIX V2 will run under either AIX 3.2.5 or AIX V4. The production
print enhancements added to PSF/AIX V2 will function in either an AIX
3.2.5 or AIX V4 environment. Access to some of these production print
enhancements is limited to jobs submitted through the new Input Manager
function, i.e., either through the "smit psf" panels, through the psfin
command, or through MVS Download (which by default invokes psfin). Jobs
submitted to the AIX spool (LPD) from remote systems do not currently
use Input Manager, although there is a workaround available (uses
double queueing).
So, what is included in PSF/AIX V2 in the way of production print
enhancements?
1) Backspacing or restarting the currently printing file
2) Reprinting a completed job
3) Interrupting the current job
a) on input device (usu. tape, since PSF/AIX supports tape-to-print)
b) on output device (printer or Anacomp)
4) Resuming an interrupted job
5) Moving a queued job from one queue to another (PSF implementation,
not AIX implementation; since PSF, will work with AIX 3.2.5 or AIX V4
6) Cancel a job
7) Reprioritize jobs
8) Job segmenting (most commonly used to handle files larger than 2GB
or to begin printing a file while it is still being transformed;
for example, without segmenting, a PostScript file would have to be
completely transformed before printing could begin.)
9) Tape-to-print
It is important to note that the functions above rely on having enough
available fixed disk to store the jobs, in particular for reprinting,
backspacing, interrupting and resuming.
Of the above, numbers 2, 5, 8 & 9 are available only for jobs submitted
through the Input Manager (as discussed earlier). And some functions,
while available via command line or smit, can only be activated through
smit if the job was submitted through Input Manager (like cancel); jobs
can still be managed from the command line or through AIX if submitted
outside of Input Manager.
Now, of the JES capabilities I mentioned earlier, what is so far lacking
in AIX and PSF for AIX V2?
1) Forwardspacing is not currently in PSF for AIX. The afpsplit command
can be used to select a range of pages from an AFPDS file (and, by
extension, any file that can be transformed to AFPDS like PostScript,
PCL, linedata with a pagedef, and so on) for subsequent printing.
Note that forwardspacing is available in InfoPrint Manager for AIX
(see announcement letter 297-365). InfoPrint Manager does not use
the AIX spool, but rather uses its own spooling mechanism, thus the
ability to do forwardspacing of most jobs.
2) CLASS: AIX has no concept of job classes, nor does PSF. On the other
hand, JES has no concept of print queues. The closest concept to
CLASS on AIX is that of prioritization or print queues.
3) FORMS: AIX has no concept of FORMS, nor does PSF. It is possible in
AIX to submit a job with a -m or -M flag; these flags write a message
to the console. The operator must explicitly respond to the message
before the job will print, so that message could say something along
the lines of "Change to special forms BILLING before printing this
job". I should also note that Printing Systems Manager (PSM) and
InfoPrint Manager can supply function approximately equivalent to
FORMS.
4) Viewing currently queued jobs (as through SDSF): There is no canned
way to look at the contents of a currently queued job. It is possible
to locate and browse the Job Descriptor File (JDF) created by the AIX
qdaemon; in that JDF, it will point to where the file to be printed
is located. Depending on how the job was submitted, it could be the
original source file for the job or a temporary copy of that file.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have additional questions.
| Updated 15 January, 1999.
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:
AIX PSF PSF/AIX PSF/6000 JES MVS PRODUCTION FUNCTION MANAGEMENT
InfoPrint compare comparison rta000154019
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000098876 ITEM: RTA000098876
Dated: 01/1999 Category: XPSF6000
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