Background
Printer queues refer to a list of print jobs that are waiting to be processed for printing. When a printer encounters an error, the printer queues get stuck and when that happens, restarting it usually helps in resolving the problem. This process of restarting or clearing the printer queue on an operating system (OS) is called the OS Printer Queue Restart.
For tenants that require constant use of printers for critical workflows, IT-Conductor provides the solution for monitoring, alerting, and recovering the printer for uninterrupted printing.
Monitoring
IT-Conductor pulls printer statistics like status, request count, and request age.
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Users can drill down to any stats and change the timescale as required,
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Alerting
IT-Conductor generates alerts based on the values of collected stats.
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In the above configuration, the warning alert is generated if the average request count is more than 1 in the last 15 minutes and the alert is resent if after 15 minutes there are still jobs running.
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Similarly, in figure 5 configuration, the critical alarm alert is generated if the job has been running for more than 60 minutes (3600 seconds) and the alert is resent if after 60 minutes there are still jobs running.
Recovering
Due to several factors like many jobs in the queue, file size, and operating for a long time, the printer hangs and needs to be manually restarted. ITC has successfully automated this step using recovery action. We identified that the status of the printer could be any one of the following:
Idle
Printing
Disabled
In the above configuration, the recovery action is triggered when the printer's status goes to “Disabled“ and is relaunched if after 10 minutes it's still in “Disabled“ status.
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Simple ssh script that runs as ITC activity is called during recovery actionyou have the option to automate the process of restarting printer queues using IT-Conductor’s recovery action.
Pre-requisite Requirements
The printer(s) should be registered in IT-Conductor for monitoring. See OS Printer Monitoring for more details.
How to Automate OS Printer Queue Restart
When configuring printer alerts, the following command as shown in the SSH tab should handle the recovery action needed to restart a printer.
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The command in Figure 1 is a simple ssh script that runs as a recovery action when the condition configured is triggered.
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In Figure 2, the recovery action will be triggered when the printer is in a “Disabled“ state. If the printer remains in the “Disabled“ state for 10 minutes, the restart recovery action is triggered again until the status change to either “Idle” or “Printing”.