Chapter 9 - Managing StreetTalk Print Services
Overview of Managing StreetTalk Print Services
This chapter explains how to use StreetTalk Explorer to manage the following for a StreetTalk print service:
You cannot use StreetTalk Explorer to manage jobs in the print queue. Use SETPRINT to manage jobs in the queue. Refer to Chapter 11.
You cannot relocate a print service. To move a print service to another server, delete the service from the source server and recreate it on the target server.
Preparing to Manage Print Services
To manage a print service, you must be a member of the AdminList of the group in which the service is created, or be a member of the Operator List for the service. The following section explains the difference between operators and administrators of a print service.
A print service maintains two lists that determine access rights to the service:
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User List ![]()
Operator List
The User List specifies users who can submit jobs to the print queue.
The Operator List specifies users who can administer the print destination and print queue. An Operator is responsible for the physical printer, and can perform routine configuration and maintenance tasks for this printer without administrator intervention. For example, an operator can change the paper in the printer, determine the order in which jobs print, take the printer offline, and so forth. Being a member of the Operator List does not provide a user with all of privileges that belong to members of the AdminList.
Refer to Chapter 10 for a complete list of the administrative rights of Administrators, Operators, and Users.
By default, the only entry on the Operator List is the AdminList of the group to which the service belongs. For example, if the service's group name is Mkt@WCTUS, the default entry in the Operator List is AdminList@Mkt@WCTUS. Members of the AdminList for the group retain their privileges to manage the service even if the AdminList entry is removed from the Operator List.
A StreetTalk administrator for the group where the service is located can add users to the Operator List. If you add users who are not on the AdminList to the Operator list, those users possess a subset of the rights that belong to administrators.
Refer to Chapter 10 for more information about print service access rights.
Stopping and Restarting StreetTalk Print Services
A StreetTalk print service starts automatically after you create it. You can stop and start each StreetTalk print service independently of other StreetTalk print services. Stopping and starting a single print service, does not affect the status of any other print service on the Windows NT Server. When you stop an individual StreetTalk print service, non-Banyan clients of the Windows NT Server can still use the Windows NT print queue that corresponds to the stopped StreetTalk print service.
To stop and start an individual StreetTalk file service, use StreetTalk Explorer. A stopped print service is also automatically restarted when you start the StreetTalk Print Service from the Windows NT Control Panel.
To Stop a StreetTalk Print Service
1. In StreetTalk Explorer, open the property sheets for the print service.
2. On the Summary property sheet, click Stop.
Stop all print services on a StreetTalk for Windows NT server by stopping the StreetTalk Print service. Refer to "Stopping and Restarting the StreetTalk Print Software" in Chapter 8 for information about how to stop the StreetTalk Print service.
Print queue settings determine whether the print service is active or inactive. After adding a print service, configure the print queue so that it is ready to accept and print jobs. By default, the queue does not accept or print jobs.
You can change the status of the print queue without changing the status of the service. Changing the status of the print queue is not the same as starting and stopping the service.
Specifying Print Queue Settings
You specify the following print queue settings:
Accepting jobs - When enabled, the service sends print jobs it receives to the destination print queue up to the maximum number of jobs specified.
Printing jobs - When enabled, the print destination prints any jobs accepted by the queue. Jobs continue to be queued even if the destination is not currently printing.
1. From StreetTalk Explorer, open the Queue property sheet for the print service.
2. In the Print Queue section, select the appropriate checkbox to change the status of the queue settings.
3. Do one of the following:
- Click OK. The property sheets for the service close.
- Click Apply. The Apply button is dimmed. Proceed to another task or click OK to finish.
Clearing the Queue of Print Jobs
You can clear the queue of waiting jobs as follows:
1. From StreetTalk Explorer, open the Queue property sheet for the print service.
2. In the Print Queue section, clear the Accepting Jobs checkbox. Leave the Printing Jobs checkbox selected. All jobs currently in the queue print, but the queue does not accept more jobs until you change the status again.
A print service places print jobs in a queue where the jobs wait until a printer becomes available. Job limit settings determine the maximum number and size of jobs queued to the print destination. You specify the following job limit settings:
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Maximum number of jobs that can exist in the queue at one time ![]()
Maximum size, in bytes, of the largest job a user can submit to the queue
By default, a print service places no restrictions on jobs sent to it.
1. From StreetTalk Explorer, open the Queue property sheet for the print service. Refer to Figure 9-1.
2. In the Job Limits section of the page, do the following:
- Select the appropriate checkbox to change the job limit settings.
- Enter a value in the corresponding text box to specify the appropriate limit.
For example, select the Limit job size checkbox, and enter a value to specify the size, in bytes, of the largest job a user can submit to the queue.
3. Do one of the following:
- Click OK. The property sheets for the service close.
- Click Apply. The Apply button is dimmed. Proceed to another task or click OK to finish.
You can modify log settings to increase logging when troubleshooting, or decrease logging to improve performance. All log information for StreetTalk Print services is written to the Application log of the Windows NT Event Viewer.
The Windows NT Event Viewer displays log entries for events reported by system services and applications. By default, StreetTalk Print services report only service status information. You can modify the event log settings to change the number and type of events reported to the log. You can also configure how the Windows NT Event Viewer creates the log file.
It is recommended that you configure StreetTalk Print services to log only those events necessary to properly administer the service. Excessive logging can significantly decrease the performance of a print service. Only increase the number and type of events reported to the Event Viewer to assist you in troubleshooting problems.
If the number of events reported to the Application log in the Windows NT Event Viewer becomes too great, the log begins to overwrite itself, causing you to lose essential event information. Consider increasing the maximum size of the event log or enabling Event log wrapping. Refer to your Windows NT documentation for information on modifying these Event Viewer settings.
Refer to Table 9-1 to information about the events available for inclusion in the StreetTalk Print logs.
Event Name | Description of Event or Operation Recorded |
Service Status | Service starts, stops, pauses, and continues. |
New Print Job | Reports each job printed on the service. Log this event to obtain usage reports. |
Job Status Changes | Reports all changes made to print jobs from the SETPRINT program, including cancelling the job, changing its position in the queue, reprinting, placing a job on hold, and releasing a held job. |
Access Violations | Reports attempted uses of the print service that result in access violations. |
1. From StreetTalk Explorer, open the Logging property sheet for the print service.
2. Do the following:
- From the Available Events window, select events to record in the log and click Add. The events selected appear in the Logged Events windows on the left.
- Click Add All to record all events.
- Click Remove All to eliminate logging.
3. Do one of the following:
- Click OK. The property sheets for the service close.
- Click Apply. The Apply button is dimmed. Proceed to another task or click OK to finish.
Specifying Print Queue Options
You can specify options for the print service, as follows:
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Print banner pages ![]()
Output strings
The options you enable must be supported by your Windows NT printer.
Printing a Banner Page for StreetTalk Print Jobs
A print job consists of a banner page, if configured, and data. A banner page is an extra page that prints before the print job and contains information that allows users to identify their own print jobs more easily. The banner can print before or after the data.
Windows NT lets you configure a separator page for a print queue. This separator page provides much of the same information as the StreetTalk for Windows NT banner page, except that it does not identify the StreetTalk user who submits a print job. Instead, for all StreetTalk print jobs, the separator page indicates that the user SYSTEM (the account under which StreetTalk Print is logged on) submitted the job.
For StreetTalk for Windows NT users to be able to identify their own jobs, you must enable the banner page option in StreetTalk Explorer, and disable the Windows NT separator page for the corresponding queue. StreetTalk print jobs fail to print correctly if both the StreetTalk banner page and the Windows NT separator page are enabled.
For Postscript printers, if you configure a banner page, do not enable banner page first. Print the banner page after the job. If you configure the banner page to print first, non-ASCII jobs fail to print correctly, printing out PostScript instructions in ASCII format.
Defining Output Strings for Print Jobs
Define output strings to control printer activity between print jobs, between multiple files in a job, and between the banner page and data in a job. Because a print job can contain multiple files, you can specify output strings before and after each file, as well as before and after the entire print job.
By default, only the post-banner string is defined. This post-banner string contains a form-feed character (\f) to ensure that each new job is printed on a new sheet of paper.
You can define the following output strings for each StreetTalk print service:
Pre-banner string - A string sent before the banner page.
Post-banner string - A string sent after the banner page.
Pre-job string - A string that immediately precedes the first pre-file string. If no pre-file string is defined, the pre-job string immediately precedes the file data.
Post-job string - A string that immediately follows the last post-file string. If no post-file string is defined, the post-job string immediately follows the file data.
Pre-file string - A string that immediately precedes the file data. If the print job contains multiple files, this string immediately precedes each file.
Post-file string - A string that immediately follows the file data. If the print job contains multiple files, this string immediately follows each file.
If you disable printing of the banner page, banner page strings are not sent to the printer.
The possible uses of output strings depend on the capabilities of the printer. Most printers understand escape sequences, and can distinguish such commands from the data to be printed. Typically, you use the printer output strings to specify these escape sequences. However, an output string can contain any string. You could specify an output string that prints "I'm in my office!" in 28-point font on a separate page before each job. The strings you specify are fixed, that is, the same strings are always sent in the same places (for example, before or after a print job, before or after banner pages, or before or after individual files jobs that contain multiple files).
Typical uses for an output strings include:
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Ejecting or flushing pages between jobs ![]()
Resetting printer fonts, paper size, orientation, tray selection, and so forth, between jobs ![]()
Ejecting pages between multiple files within a job ![]()
Changing the printer language mode (for example, Postscript to HP) between a banner page and the job data
To specify these escape sequences, you place non-printing control characters (ESC, line-feed, form-feed, and so on) in the output strings. You represent control characters by preceding standard, printable, ASCII characters with a backslash (\) or caret (^). For example, \E represents for ESC. Characters not preceded by a backslash or caret are interpreted as printable characters (except for the backslash and caret characters). Always enter the alphabetical characters that represent an escape sequence in lowercase, except for the \E for ESC and *F*F for hexadecimal FF (255 decimal).
Refer to the documentation for your printer for specific information about how to use output strings.
Numeric characters not preceded by the octal or hexadecimal indicators are sent to the printer as decimal numbers.
Note: For Postscript jobs, output strings can only include valid Postscript commands.
Table 9-2 shows how to represent common printer control characters in an output string.
Use | Characters Specified |
ESC | \E |
Backspace | \b |
Form Feed | \f |
Line Feed | \n |
Carriage Return | \r |
Tab | \t |
Octal Numbers | \### (# from 0-7) |
Hexadecimal Numbers | \x### (# from 0-9, a-f) |
Control Characters | ^* (* from a-z) |
Backslash | \\ |
Caret | \^ |
Null | *0*0 |
Hexadecimal FF | *F*F |
Laser printers usually require a form feed after a job to force the last page of the job to print.
Example: Specifying Printer Control Characters
\EE - Sends ESC E.
\r\n - Sends carriage return and line-feed.
\124 - Sends 124 octal, equivalent to 84 decimal.
^c - Sends CTRL-C.
To Specify Print Queue Options and Output Strings
1. From StreetTalk Explorer, open the Options property sheet for the print service.
2. Do the following:
- Select the appropriate checkbox to enable a banner page or printer string option.
- Enter the appropriate string in the field that corresponds to any enabled printer string.
3. Do one of the following:
- Click OK. The property sheets for the service close.
- Click Apply. The Apply button is dimmed. Proceed to another task or click OK to finish.
You can add, remove, and modify paper formats for a StreetTalk print service. Each VINES paper format is associated with a Windows NT paper form. By default, a new print service has one paper format, Standard, corresponding to the Windows NT paper form, Letter. Modify formats to associate a VINES format with a different Windows NT paper form.
Add formats to let Banyan clients use alternate paper forms configured for a Windows NT printer. Refer to your Windows NT documentation for information about adding paper forms. Each print service supports a maximum of five paper formats.
Remove formats for a print service if a Windows NT paper form becomes unavailable. This can occur if you replace the printer specified for the queue and the new printer does not support a format configured for the print service.
If you delete a paper format while jobs are waiting to be printed, you need to modify the settings of those jobs that used the deleted format.
The following sections explain how to add, remove, and modify formats for a StreetTalk print service.
1. From StreetTalk Explorer, open the Formats property sheet for the print service.
2. In the New Formats section, enter the format name in the VINES text box.
3. From the NT Form drop-down list box, select the Windows NT paper form to associate with the new format.
4. Click Add. The new format appears in the VINES Format window.
5. Do one of the following:
- Click OK. The property sheets for the print service close.
- Click Apply. The Apply button is dimmed. Proceed to another task or click OK to finish.
1. From StreetTalk Explorer, open the Formats property sheet for the print service.
2. From the VINES Format window, select the format to modify. The format name appears in the VINES text box in the New Formats section.
3. From the NT Form drop-down list box, select the Windows NT paper form to associate with this format.
4. Click Add. The new format appears in the VINES Format window.
5. Do one of the following:
- Click OK. The property sheets for the print service close.
- Click Apply. The Apply button is dimmed. Proceed to another task, or click OK to finish.
1. From StreetTalk Explorer, open the Formats property sheet for the print service.
2. From the VINES Format window, select the format to remove. The format name appears in the VINES text box in the New Formats section.
3. Click Remove. The selected format no longer appears in the VINES Format window.
4. Do one of the following:
- Click OK. The property sheets for the print service close.
- Click Apply. The Apply button is dimmed. Proceed to another configuration task, or click OK to finish.
Changing the Print Queue for a Print Service
Change the Windows NT print queue for a service if you no longer want jobs sent to the service to be printed on the current printer.
To Change the Print Queue for a Print Service
1. From StreetTalk Explorer, open the Queue property sheet for the print service.
2. Specify a new print queue by doing one of the following:
- Select a queue name from the NT Print Queue drop-down list box.
- Enter a queue name in the NT Print Queue text box.
The Windows NT queue specified must be an existing queue to which the Windows NT Server can print.
3. Do one of the following:
- Click OK. The property sheets for the print service close.
- Click Apply. The Apply button is dimmed. Proceed to another task, or click OK to finish.
You can view the number of active and total sessions for the print service, and the StreetTalk names of those users who have active sessions.
Active sessions - Reflects the number of users who currently have jobs in the print queue.
Total sessions - Reflects the number of successful sessions established between users and the print service.
To View the Number of Sessions for a Print Service
From StreetTalk Explorer, open the Summary property sheet for the print service. The number of active and total sessions are listed. To view the StreetTalk names of those users who have active sessions, refer to "To View the StreetTalk Names of Users Who Have Jobs in the Queue," which follows.
To View the StreetTalk Names of Users With Jobs in the Queue
From StreetTalk Explorer, open the Users property sheet for the print service. The window displays the StreetTalk names of users who have active sessions.
Troubleshooting the Print Service
This section presents problems you may encounter and provides possible solutions. In addition, it describes the print service job status messages and log error messages that you may see.
Refer to Chapter 11 for a complete description of how to use SETPRINT to troubleshoot print jobs.
If the print service exhibits poor performance (for example, jobs printing slowly or failing to print) attempt to resolve the problem by checking the following:
1. Do multiple print services have the same printer as a destination?
The various print services are competing for the printer. Limit the number of print services and monitor performance to determine what is best for your network.
2. Do many users send jobs to the same printer?
Add printers to accommodate the needs of your users.
3. Does the Windows NT print queue print jobs originating from other clients before printing jobs it receives from StreetTalk print services?
As explained in "Print Job Priority" in Chapter 7, jobs sent by Windows NT users may gain priority over jobs sent by StreetTalk print services. If this happens, consider creating a separate Windows NT print queue for use only by your StreetTalk print services, and assigning it a scheduling priority higher than that of other print queues on the server.
Rejected Jobs
When an internal error, or a Windows NT access violation occurs, SETPRINT reports a status of Rejected for print jobs. If jobs are consistently rejected, call your technical support representative.
Postscript Jobs Printing ASCII
For Postscript jobs, you cannot include a banner page or output strings that do not include valid Postscript commands. If the banner page is turned on, it causes a Postscript job to print in all ASCII instead of Postscript.
To print Postscript jobs from DOS, Windows, or OS/2 workstations to non-PAP-compatible Postscript printers, applications must add the Postscript information to the job.
Commands Not Working
Check the format of the command you are entering. If the service name contains spaces, you must enclose the entire name in double quotation marks. Otherwise, the command will not work. To avoid this problem, do not use spaces in print service names.
If the name of a print service causes a job status message to be longer than 80 characters, the print service truncates the message. In messages where both the print service and a destination are named, only the destination name appears.
This section discusses how to correct problems indicated by status messages that a print service generates. Status messages are preceded by the number assigned to the job in the queue. Check the Control Printer/Jobs menu in SETPRINT for details about the specific job that matches the message.
Paper Format is Not Available - Destination with a paper format matching the job's requirements is unavailable. Follow these steps:
1. Use SETPRINT to check the job paper format and the formats currently available.
2. If necessary, change the paper format of the job or destination, or move the job to a different print queue. The service will re-queue the job.
Job Rejected on [print service name] by [destination name] - Print service encountered a severe problem, such as an error on the destination or corruption of the job. Follow these steps:
1. Cancel the job.
2. Call your Banyan technical support representative.
Job Completed With Status 0 on [print service name] - Job completed, but not normally. The user may have canceled the job, or the service may have been shut down while the job was printing. Status code 0 indicates that there was no problem with the printer itself. No corrective action is necessary.
Job Completed on [destination name] - Normal job completion. No corrective action is necessary.
Job Dequeued From [print service name] - Job has been canceled and removed from the queue. Resubmit the job.
The print service displays error messages to indicate system problems that affect printing. These error messages may appear in the following locations: the 25th line of a DOS workstation, the VINES message box of an OS/2 workstation, at the DOS prompt, or in a log file.
Each print service error message is preceded by the prefix VPS, indicating that the problem is related to the print service, followed by a number, which identifies the specific error. For example:
VPS502 Print queue specified does not exist.
Use the the VNSERR command to obtain more information about print service error messages.
Using VNSERR to Interpret Error Messages
To obtain more information about print service error messages, use the VNSERR command. The VNSERR command displays an explanation of the message.
From the command prompt, enter:
VNSERR error-code
where error-code identifies the specific service message. For example, to access help for the message VPS502, type:
vnserr vps502
To print the help text for all print service error messages at LPT1, type the following command:
vnserr /p:vps
LPT1 must have been assigned with the SETPRINT command.
For a complete description of the VNSERR command, see your Command Reference.