How do you create an external destination in HP Output Server? I wanted to deliver a print to a destination, that executes an external command on the job. Here's the configuration that works:

I named by logical destination external, which points to queue qexternal and the physical destination is called pdexternal.

The logical destination:

-template-version              : $Date: 2002/03/01 02:35:32 $
-template-component            : false
-managing-server               : jqm_06
-disabled                      : false
-form-feed-default             : false
-maximum-tries-default         : 30000
-printer-name                  : external
-destination-type              : file
-queue-supported               : qexternal
-template-type                 : standard-template
-retention-period-default      : 0
-descriptor                    : test external delivery pathway
-input-document-formats-supported: literal,
                                 ps,
                                 pdf,
                                 text,
                                 frame,
                                 hp-pcl,
                                 afp
-template                      : false
-template-classification       : static-template
-printer-realization           : 0

-template-version              : $Date: 2002/01/04 17:24:14 $
-queue-name                    : qexternal
-managing-server               : jqm_06
-disabled                      : false
-template-type                 : standard-template
-descriptor                    : test external delivery pathway
-queue-warning-threshold       : 50
-scheduler-assigned            : Pd-FIFO
-template                      : false
-template-classification       : static-template
-logical-printers-assigned     : {external, 'available'}
-message                       : Enabled
-physical-printers-registered  : pdexternal
-job-order                     : 

-template-version              : $Date: 2002/03/12 19:59:09 $
-template-component            : false
-managing-server               : dsm_06a
-ghostscript-program           : !{dazel-install-directory}!/bin/gs
-disabled                      : false
-form-feed-default             : false
-deliver-program               : /appl/hpos/external.sh
-printer-name                  : pdexternal
-queue-supported               : qexternal
-template-device-name          : generic
-file-overwrite-default        : true
-template-type                 : standard-template
-character-set-default         : iso-latin-1
-physical-device-type          : external
-descriptor                    : test external delivery pathway
-medium-default                : iso-a4-white
-font-directories              : !{dazel-install-directory}!/lib/
                                 FONTS/Soft_Horizons
-template                      : false
-character-sets-supported      : iso-latin-1,
                                 ascii
-template-classification       : static-template
-file-base-directory           : /tmp
-printer-realization           : 1
-printer-connection-mode       : external
-ps-init-directories           : !{dazel-install-directory}!/lib/PS
-fifo-directory                : /appl/hpos/fifo
-write-only-device             : true
-deliver-arguments             : !{fifo-directory}!/!{job-identifier}!

#!/bin/ksh

{
echo
echo "Process:"
echo $$
echo "Parameters:"
echo $0 $*
echo "Who am I?"
whoami
} >> /appl/hpos/external.out

file=$2
base=`basename $file`
cp $file /appl/hpos/fifo/$base.$$
mail user@domain.com < $file
fifo=$1
echo "-job-state-on-printer completed" > $1
exit 0

# pdpr -dexternal /etc/motd

As HP Output Server doesn't support hot backups, It is recommended to do monthly maintenance, in order to create a backup and keep things healthy. Assuming HPOS is installed in /appl/hpos and its data is stored in /data/hpos:

• Notify your users of the downtime.
• Stop any applications that use HPOS.
• Clear out any "hanging" jobs.
• Clear out the /data/hpos/var/tmp directory.
• For every log file in /data/hpos/var/log, issue:

  # cp /dev/null > $logfile

• Delete and recreate the JQMs:

  # config_server -d $jqm
  # config_server -t JQM $jqm

  JQM job databases tend to grow over time. By re-creating them, you can save lots on disk usage and I/O performance. You can do this step safely, as all information is stored in the CM. If you use a server-startup-order, you should also update this again after you've recreated the JQM:

  # config_server -u -x"-server-start-order xxx" $jqm

• Delete and recreate the DLMs:

  # config_server -d $dlm
  # nfig_server -t DLM $dlm

  This step may be required because sometimes a DLM produces errors, which you might see in JobTracker. These errors are solved by recreating the DLMs. Again, remember to set your server-startup-order, if you use it.
• Stop all HPOS daemons:

  # stop_server -t all

• Create a backup of the system.
• If available, download any service packs and install them now:

  # . /appl/hpos/etc/setup_env.sh
  # perl /appl/hpos/etc/patch.pl

  If this fails, just try it again, or you can restore your backup.
• Also upgrade any client systems to the same service pack. If necessary, also check the Windows client versions required.
• Start all daemons again:

  # start_server -t all

• Test if everything is working.
• Reboot your server to free up memory.
• Again, test if everything is working.
• Startup all applications again, that use HPOS.
• Notify your users that the system is available.
• Document any changes (e.g. Service Packs) and problems encountered.
• Store the software you've used somewhere safe.

#!/bin/ksh
# Save HPOS config config
. /appl/dazel/etc/setup_env.sh
rm -f /appl/hpos/dump-file
pdconfig -d -c /appl/hpos/dump-file

If a device like a printer box, jet-direct card or a Xerox Document Centre does not ping anymore from the HPOS server, it will result in connection timed out errors within HPOS. If this device however does ping from another location within your netwerk, you have a network issue, and its very likely that your network switch simply needs to learn the IP address and/or MAC address of the device. You can do this by sending a packet from the device to the HPOS server. But how do you get this device to send a packet itself, because a ping is not available?

For an Axis Box, go to the Network Settings (which is available from the Admin window). Now fill in the IP address of your HPOS server as the Primary DNS server and click on Ok. Ofcourse DNS resolving will fail (if your HPOS server isn't a DNS server), but quite immediately after clicking Ok, you will notice that the Axis Box will ping again from the HPOS server. If it pings again, change the primary DNS server in your Axis Box back to its original value.

The same can be done with other devices, like the Xerox Document Centre. Go to the TCP/IP properties (usually under Properties -> Connectivity -> Protocols). Set the IP Address Resolution to STATIC (if you're using DHCP) and update the primary DNS server to the IP address of the HPOS server. Then click on Reboot on the Status window, and you'll notice that it will ping again to the HPOS server. Again, change everything back to their original values, if the Document Centre pings.

Dazel is the former name for what is now known as HP Output Server (HPOS), part of the HP Output Management suite. Hewlett Packard (HP) bought Dazel Corporation in 2001.

HPOS is an output management system: its task is to centrally manage the output of complete enterprises, whether it is printed output, e-mail, fax, paging, web or file delivery, and so on. It provides a means for cross-platform management of output.

Currently, HPOS is supported on AIX, HP-UX, Sun Solaris, Windows 2000/2003 server and Linux (Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES and Suse Linux Enterprise Server). Also several add-on's are available, such as Output Managers for SAP or Oracle applications.

The most current version of HPOS is version 4.0. Support for versions 3.3 and 3.4 have ended in July 2007. The main difference between versions 3.5 and previous versions is, that version 3.5 uses a MySQL database to store its data, where older versions uses a proprietary flat file database (Velocis).

Version 3.5 of HP Output Server has been released in December 2005. A new accompanying course was also released. Version 3.3 has proven to be a very stable version. Version 3.4.1 was the first version to use MySQL for its database and has known some issues. Most customers have either stayed on version 3.3 or moved to version 3.5. With the release of 3.5, the support for 3.4.1 ended in 2006, and customers were requested to move to version 3.5.

For Windows users client software is available, known as HP Output Envoy. Also, for HPOS system administrators, an extended Envoy package is available, known as HP Output Explorer.

From July 2006 no more service packs will be released. Instead of SP's, Maintenance Releases will be made. This means that these will not only contain fixes, but also new additional functionality and new printer drivers. In March 2006 the Linux Server version was also released for Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 4.0 and Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP2. And in July 2006, a new WebGUI was introduced. First step in this, is to provide for a WebGUI for job management. Later on, the WebGUI will become a full administration GUI for HP Output Server. Probably the Windows HP Output Explorer tool will no longer be needed by then. In July 2006 also a sftp (Secure FTP) destination was made available, besides the already available regular FTP destination.



Advantages of using HP Output Server:

• Scalability of output management.
• Central management and monitoring of all output in the enterprise.
• Reliable delivery of output, including tracking information and confirmation of successfull completion.
• A single administrator is usually enough for large organizations; without Output Server more staff would be necessary; thus Output Server reduces costs of output management.
• Requires only one printer driver (Envoy) on a Windows client, which reduces testing efforts.
• Ability to transform output as required.
• Configurable to work with Oracle and SAP.
• Support for many devices, both HP and third-party.
• Accounting and auditing of output possible.
• Runs on several operating systems and accepts output requests from a variety of client sources.

What it does, is very simple: it creates a web page that shows an overview of the jobs which passed through HP Output Server.

What do you need to accomplish this?

• The Event Monitor (EM) of HP Output Server, which is usually running anyway in any HP Output Server environment.
• A subscription file, in which you register what events to react to.
• A Description file, which formats the incoming events into HTML output and writes it to a file.
• An HTML header file, used as an header for the webpage; this one is created automatically by the following:
• An original HTML header file, which is used to create the HTML header file.
• An HTML header update script, which updates the HTML header file, from the original HTML header file. It updates the date and number of succesfull jobs.
• An EPOD update script, which updates the webpage.
• Perl script web_server.pl, which is included in the HP Output Server distribution. This perl script is the (small) webserver (You can also use the Apache webserver, in case you have the WebGUI installed).
• An EPOD clear log script, to empty the EPOD log once a week.
• Start and stop scripts for this EPOD web monitor.

#epod.subs
ids_alljobs,..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.124.0,*
ids_alljobs,..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.121.0,*
ids_alljobs,..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.121.1,*
ids_alljobs,..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.121.2,*
ids_alljobs,..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.123.0,*
ids_alljobs,..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.123.1,*
ids_alljobs,..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.123.2,*
ids_alljobs,..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.123.9,*
ids_alljobs,..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.123.99,*

# epod.desc
# support file for HPOS Epod logging
# see also EPOD.SUBS for event subscriptions
# This file generates HTML coded logging and can be viewed with
# the web_server.pl script

# Initialize HP Output Server environment
# Change to wherever your setup_env.sh file is.
. /appl/hpos/etc/setup_env.sh

set itext $instance

does $instance

# all abort messages (blue)
match ..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.121.*
set itext <font color=Blue>
endmatch
# all error messages (red)
match ..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.122.*
set itext <font color=Red>
endmatch
# all warning messages (black)
match ..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.123.*
set itext <font color=Black>
endmatch
# all report messages (green = good)
match ..1.0.10175.1.0.0.6.124.0
set itext <font color=Green>
endmatch

enddoes

does $class
match ids_alljobs
fields subjob owner msg jobid destination jobname proctime completed count rdevice profmsg
exec echo "</table> <table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=100% border=0> <TR><TD valign=top width=200> <font color=Black size=1>" `date`"</font> </td><TD valign=top align=left> <font size=1> $itext $subjob $owner $msg $jobid $destination $proctime $completed $count $rdevice $profmsg $jobname" >> /appl/hpos/epod/epod.log
endmatch
enddoes

<!-- this html header is used by HPOS epod event logging -->
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="30">
<title>HPOS Epod Event Monitoring</title>
</head>
<table border=0 cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0 width="100%">
<tr bgcolor=#dcdcdc>
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%">
<table border=0 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0 width="100%">
<tr bgcolor="#dcdcdc">
<td align=left>
<b><font face=Arial color="#800080" size="+.3">
HPOS Epod Event Monitor</font>
<font face=Arial color="#800080" size=-3>
<!--kkkk-->
</font></b>
</td>
<td align=right>
<font face=Arial color="#800080" size=-3>
</font>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</table>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<font face=Arial size=-3>
<!--@@@@@@@@@@-->

# update-htmlheader.sh
# replace string <!--kkkk--> in file htmlheader for the number of jobs
now=`date`
nrjobs=`grep -i green /appl/hpos/epod/epod.log* | wc -l | awk '{print $1}'`
totjobs2=`cat /appl/hpos/totjobs | awk '{print $1}'`
let nrjobs="$nrjobs+$totjobs2"
cat /appl/hpos/epod/htmlheader.org | sed "s/<!--kkkk-->/$nrjobs jobs since 28-07-03. ($now)/g" > /appl/hpos/epod/htmlheader

#!/bin/ksh
unset result
result=`ps -ef | grep epodupd | grep -v grep | grep -v $$ | wc -l | awk '{print $1}'`
# check if i am running
if [ $result -gt 0 ]
then
exit
fi
let teller=0
while [ $teller -lt 100 ]
do
cat /appl/hpos/epod/htmlheader > /appl/hpos/epod/epodhtml2.log
tail -r -35 /appl/hpos/epod/epod.log >> /appl/hpos/epod/epodhtml2.log
mv /appl/hpos/epod/epodhtml2.log /appl/hpos/epod/epodhtml.log
sleep 3
let teller="$teller+1"
done

#!/bin/ksh
# Little script to clear the epod.log file
# base directory for this script
base=/appl/hpos
# number of succesfully completed files this week
complete=`grep -ci green $base/epod/epod.log | awk '{print $1}'`
# number of succesfully completed files before this week
compl=`cat $base/totjobs | head -1 | awk '{print $1}'`
# add those two
let total=0
let total="$total+$compl"
let total="$total+$complete"
# save the previous total
cp $base/totjobs $base/totjobs.old
# clear the log file
cp /dev/null $base/epod/epod.log
# write the new total to totjobs
echo $total > $base/totjobs

# Clear the epod log once a week on Sunday
0 0 * * 0 /appl/hpos/epod/clear_epod_log.sh 2>/dev/null

# epodstart.sh
# script to start epod eventmonitoring
# source environment
. /appl/hpos/etc/setup_env.sh
# kill any previous instance of epod
kill -9 $(ps -ef | grep dzl_epod | \
awk ' { print $2 } ' - ) >/dev/null 2>&1
kill -9 $(ps -ef | grep epod | \
grep web_server.pl | awk ' { print $2 } ' - ) >/dev/null 2>&1
# restart epod
/appl/hpos/lib/dzl_epod -s /appl/hpos/epod/epod.subs -d /appl/hpos/epod/epod.desc -Q -B > /appl/hpos/epod/epod.err 2>&1 &
cd /appl/hpos/epod
# start the webserver
perl ./web_server.pl -f /appl/hpos/epod/epodhtml.log &

# epodstop.sh
# script to stop epod eventmonitoring
# source environment
. /appl/hpos/etc/setup_env.sh
# kill any instance of epod
kill -9 $(ps -ef | grep dzl_epod | awk ' { print $2 } ' - ) >/dev/null 2>&1
kill -9 $(ps -ef | grep epod | grep web_server.pl | awk ' { print $2 } ' - ) >/dev/null 2>&1

Configuration: AIX 5.2, maintenance level 1 and Dazel 3.3, Service Pack 9.
Problem: sysdumpdev -e shows increasing usage of the system dump device. Eventually the dump device needed, grows to 1200 MB, after which the server becomes unresponsive and a reboot is the only solution.

Even though HP suggests using maintenance level 1 for AIX 5.2, try using maintenance level 2; after loading ML2, this problem is gone; it's an AIX bug with a memory leak in the TCP/IP stack, which is solved in ML2.