Specific questions regarding PSF/AIX in MVS Download
ITEM: RTA000099599
Q:
ABSTRACT: Specific questions regarding PSF/AIX in MVS Download
environment.
SEARCH ARG: psf download spool
TOPIC THREAD: PRINT
PSF/AIX
..
I haven't found my proposed environment directly addressed by any
of the documentation I've reviewed. We are proposing MVS Download
to PSF/AIX for 3900s to replace channel extenders. We have both
line mode data as well as AFPDS from Group1 Doc1. We are recommending
ACIF be run on MVS primarily for centralized resource control. Don't
know yet if DOC1 output will need to go through ACIF or whether it
will have all resources inline & thus be able to bypass ACIF & be
acceptable, as is, to PSF/AIX. Does the Downloaded AFPDS file have
to be received in its entirety by PSF/AIX before printing begins?
If not, I guess the job could always be Segmented & presumably
the individual segments would then print before the entire job was
received.
Also, in the case of multiple PSF/AIXs is it possible to route a
Downloaded print job from one PSF/AIX to another if desired? If a
given printer was down it would be highly desirable to route the
received job to another PSF/AIX for printing to another printer.
I haven't seen any discussion on whether PSF/AIX treats an ACIF'd
file with data & resources concatenated together any differently than
say an AFPDS file with all inline resources such as I'm assuming
DOC1 produces. I described our environment to get your view on
whether we're missing anything. Any insight on our recommendation
would be appreciated.
A:
Q1) Do downloaded files have to received completely before printing
begins?
R1) Download files have to be received completely before the psfin
command is invoked. Once the psfin command is invoked, depending
on your configuration, if a transform (say, for line data) is
required, the transform need not complete before printing begins;
job segmenting allows you to print while transforming.
Q2) Is it possible to route a Downloaded print job from one PSF/AIX to
another, for example if a given printer is down?
R2) If you're talking about requeueing between PSF/AIX queues on a
single RS/6000 server, you can move jobs that are in QUEUED status.
If you're talking about requeueing between multiple servers, then
PSM should be considered (and PSM does interface with MVS Download).
Q3) How does PSF/AIX treat an ACIF'ed file with data and resources
concatenated?
R3) PSF/AIX can handle a file that has been ACIF'ed on MVS and
has the index (if any), resource and document files concatenated in
that order. You would specify a datatype of AFPDS or in the case
of MVS Download, modify the mvsprs.sh shell script to change the
datatype from line to AFPDS.
I have some additional considerations when sending different datatypes
to MVS Download. I strongly recommend reading informational APAR II09442
as it provides an overview of what to expect when using MVS Download
with PSF for AIX.
It is applicable in your case because you wish to send down AFPDS files
with inline or concatenated resources; PSF for AIX can handle that, but
ACIF on AIX cannot. Since your MVS files will already be ACIF'ed
and in AFPDS format with concatenated resources, you do not want them
them to be ACIF'ed again on the AIX platform. The default mvsprs.sh
shell script which is used on AIX with MVS Download assumes a datatype
of line, which invokes ACIF. APAR II09442 discusses several alternatives
for addressing this. In addition to the ones mentioned there (and we'll
add this), you could also start two daemons on the RS/6000, each using
a different shell script with the appropriate datatype hardcoded.
In other words, if you find that your customer will need to send down
both line data jobs and AFPDS jobs with inline resources, you can start
one daemon with a shell script for line data (ACIF) and a second daemon
with a shell script for AFPDS.
Another alternative mentioned in the APAR is coding some type of data
stream sniffing, and we do have Services subcontractors who can assist
with this. What's not mentioned in the APAR is that PSM both supports
data stream sniffing and works with MVS Download. That might not be a
feasible option for your customer, but I wanted to mention it for the
sake of completeness.
I hope this helps. Please reopen with any additional questions.
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:
CROSS AIX MVS DOWNLOAD PSF/6000 PSF/AIX ACIF INLINE SPOOL psf mixed
resources
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000099599 ITEM: RTA000099599
Dated: 07/1998 Category: XPSF6000
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