Printing to windows print server

[Obi-Wan]

We've got an AIX 5.2 box that has queues defined for several dozen
network printers defined (each is a standalone printer with its own IP).
Due to several business reasons, we'd like to move the administration
of these printers over to our existing Windows 2003 print server.
We've got all the queues setup on Windows, and we can print to them
just fine from a linux box, so we know that much is working. However,
we can't get the AIX box to forward jobs. The Windows box's monitoring
software doesn't indicate that anything ever got sent, although the
AIX box seems to think it went OK.

We've correctly entered the Windows hostname, queue name on Windows,
and queue name on AIX. Which LPD type should we be using (SysV/BSD/
AIX3+4/AIX2)? Any other well-known gotchas that we should watch out
for? We've had both our AIX and Windows experts working on this, and
neither can figure out what's going wrong? Below is a copy of the
debug file for a print request. The AIX box is rxtfc2. The Windows
box is print1. The AIX queue name is e_rx_spare2_ps. The Windows
queue name is e-rx-daw.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

------------------------- Achilles tendon - cut here -------------------------
rembak[1585388] main: Fri Mar 10 11:19:28 2006
rembak[1585388] main: /usr/lib/lpd/rembak -T60 -D /tmp/spare2 -S print1.lincoln.bryanlgh.org -P e-rx-daw -N /usr/lib/lpd/bsdshort /var/spool/qdaemon/tQ5ieqa
rembak[1585388] main: backend=1.
rembak[1585388] hookup: Try to connect, current time=1142011168.
rembak[1585388] sendjob: sendjob starts, jobname=/usr/rxtfc/misc/bdmtemp/009318111.40768.75110.lab, current time=1142011168.
rembak[1585388] sendjob: datafn[0]=dfA641rxtfc2, fakedfn=dfA641rxtfc2.
rembak[1585388] makecontrolfile: Entering makecontrolfile.
rembak[1585388] makecontrolfile: dfnames[0]=dfA641rxtfc2
/?^R0ak[1585388] getbsdinfo: bsd3=Hrxtfc2\10 Prxtfc\10
rembak[1585388] get_bsd_4file: bsd nc=1
/?^Q^?ak[1585388] get_bsd_4file: bsd strings: [N/usr/rxtfc/misc/bdmtemp/00931811 1.40768.75110.lab\10 ][N/usr/rxtfc/misc/bdmtemp/009318111.40768.75110.lab\10 ][N /usr/rxtfc/misc/bdmtemp/009318111.40768.75110.lab\10 ][N/usr/rxtfc/misc/bdmtemp/ 009318111.40768.75110.lab\10 ]
/?^R0ak[1585388] getbsdinfo: bsd3=Hrxtfc2\10 Prxtfc\10 fdfA641rxtfc2\10 UdfA641r xtfc2\10 N/usr/rxtfc/misc/bdmtemp/009318111.40768.75110.lab\10
rembak[1585388] gettmpr: Opening file /tmp//rembakQ1moMa.
rembak[1585388] gettmpr: File /tmp//rembakQ1moMa opened successfully, fd=8.
rembak[1585388] sendjob: ctrlfname=/tmp//rembakQ1moMa, fakecfn=cfA641rxtfc2.
rembak[1585388] sendjob: State machine starts.....
rembak[1585388] sendjob: State 1 - send the "Receive a Print Job" request.
/?^R?ak[1585388] sendreq: sendreq - sending lpd request [\2 e-rx-daw\10 ].
rembak[1585388] gotack: Reading ACK status.....current time=1142011168, timeout_ack=3600.
rembak[1585388] gotack: ACK status=0x0.
rembak[1585388] sendjob: state 3 - Send data file(s), dfcount=1.
rembak[1585388] sendjob: realfn=/var/spool/qdaemon/tQ5ieqa, fakefn=dfA641 rxtfc2, filter=/usr/lib/lpd/bsdshort.
/?^Q0ak[1585388] sendreq: sendreq - sending lpd request [\3 365 dfA641rxtfc2\10 ].
rembak[1585388] gotack: Reading ACK status.....current time=1142011168, timeout_ack=3600.
rembak[1585388] gotack: ACK status=0x0.
rembak[1585388] senddatafile: Opening file /var/spool/qdaemon/tQ5ieqa.
rembak[1585388] senddatafile: File /var/spool/qdaemon/tQ5ieqa opened successfully, fd=9.
rembak[1585388] send_file_rembak: Reading 365 bytes from file, fd=9.
rembak[1585388] send_file_rembak: Writing 365 bytes to socket 7.
rembak[1585388] send_file_rembak: File sent.
rembak[1585388] ack: Send ACK.
rembak[1585388] send_file_rembak: waiting for ACK.
rembak[1585388] gotack: Reading ACK status.....current time=1142011168, timeout_ack=3600.
rembak[1585388] gotack: ACK status=0x0.
rembak[1585388] sendjob: State 2 - send control file, ctrlfname=/tmp//rembakQ1moMa, fakecfn=cfA641rxtfc2.
/?^Q@ak[1585388] sendreq: sendreq - sending lpd request [\2 94 cfA641rxtfc2\10 ].
rembak[1585388] gotack: Reading ACK status.....current time=1142011168, timeout_ack=3600.
rembak[1585388] gotack: ACK status=0x0.
rembak[1585388] sendcontrolfile: Opening file /tmp//rembakQ1moMa.
rembak[1585388] sendcontrolfile: File /tmp//rembakQ1moMa opened successfully, fd=9.
rembak[1585388] send_file_rembak: Reading 94 bytes from file, fd=9.
rembak[1585388] send_file_rembak: Writing 94 bytes to socket 7.
rembak[1585388] send_file_rembak: File sent.
rembak[1585388] ack: Send ACK.
rembak[1585388] send_file_rembak: waiting for ACK.
rembak[1585388] gotack: Reading ACK status.....current time=1142011168, timeout_ack=3600.
rembak[1585388] gotack: ACK status=0x0.
rembak[1585388] sendjob: State 5 - end of job #641 (/usr/rxtfc/misc/bdmtemp/0093
18111.40768.75110.lab).
rembak[1585388] sendjob: Delete control file /tmp//rembakQ1moMa.
------------------------- Achilles tendon - cut here -------------------------

 

[Guest]

Do you have UNIX Print Services running on the Windows platform?

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/printservicesunix.mspx

 

[Hajo Ehlers]

Obi-Wan wrote:

Extract : Printing from AIX to Windows

You would like to read:
Technote: Remote Printing using the LPR/LPD Protocol
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1pTechnote0357

Some generic trouble shooting tips:

Since the AIX box shows on the first look no communication problems and
you are using fqdn - could it be that your print queue point - because
of wrong /etc/hosts or dns - to a different print server ?

If not get a clear view where the problem is !
1)
So verifify that your print queue REALLY points to the MS BOX. - For
testing i would use the IP-Nummer of the MS Box

2) No preprocessing on the AIX side. Keep it simple !
Meaning: Not that the data stream will changed somehow and thus
misinterpreded by the MS print spooler &| printer

2.1 ) Send an plain ascii file for testing
2.2 ) send an postscript text file for testing

3) On the MS Box create a queue which shell write to file ( In case the
job gets some how reseted by the printer itself )
Meaning: To remove the printer as a possible problem cause

4) Setup printing from the AIX to the Linux Box
Meaning: Does the AIX remote printing works with another Unix system
..

5) Setup on the AIX Box a remote queue which pointed to the machine
itself. ( Of cause you should attach a printer to the AIX box and
create a local queue again
AIX
Meaning: Does the printer system works on the AIX box or not

With these test and the above technote you should be able to find out
where the problem is located.

BTW: Give your AIX and MS experts an trainning

hth
Hajo

 

[Obi-Wan]

You would like to read:
Technote: Remote Printing using the LPR/LPD Protocol
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1pTechnote0357

Well, after much experimentation involving a Linux box as both a client
to Windows printing and a server to AIX printing, we finally found our
problem. The AIX side was setup properly all along (as described in
the above document). Our problem was on the Windows print server (go
figure). Thanks to a typo on my part I accidentally discovered that I
could print from AIX to one of our Windows printers, but not several
others (which I had been intending to test).

It turns out that in order to work under Windoze, we had to check
both the "spool jobs locally" and the "advanced settings" box in the
Windoze queue configuration. Skipping either of those boxes would
result in Windoze accepting the print job from AIX, but then not doing
anything with it. I'm not sure why, since the Linux client could
print to those printers regardless of these two check boxes.

Anyway, I wanted to make sure that the solution got archived for any
others that may run into this problem. We can now happily turn over
print job administration to our operations staff (using the Windows
print server) without having to give them privileged access to our
AIX server.