I have several large Sharp copiers in my K12 school district that have presented me with a problem for some time now when used with iPrint.
Every time one of the copiers is due for field maintenance, in order to replace supplies like the drum or the fuser web, it stops accepting print jobs. What happens is that our iPrint server queries the copier for its status via SNMP, and the copier reports back that it has critical supply errors. The iPrint server, appropriately, stops sending print jobs to the copier.
Because the copiers automatically email the copier company to schedule a service visit when they are due for a scheduled maintenance, the copier company has the machines set to ignore the supply life errors and keep accepting copy and print jobs. The problem is that people can keep walking up to the machine and making copies, but they are not able to print because iPrint stops sending jobs due to the critical errors being reported.
I can disable SNMP for a particular printer agent, which allows print jobs to be sent on to the copier, but then I lose the ability to see any problems that occur. Also because the printer is always assumed to be online and functioning with SNMP turned off, any printed jobs are released from the iPrint queue to the copier's local queue, where they can then end up getting lost if someone turns the copier off while trying to clear a jam or fix any other sort of problem.
Perhaps my real issue is that this ends up looking like an IT problem because it appears to end-users that our print server obviously isn't working when, in fact, our systems are responding appropriately to the (not quite) critical errors being reported by the copier. If an end user can walk up and make a copy, but they can't print from their computer, it is perceived to be a problem with the network, not the copier.
Our copier vendor's salesman and service people have made it known on more than one occasion that none of their other customers have this problem. They have also mentioned that none of their other customers run iPrint. Even though I feel that the root cause of this is Sharp's SNMP reporting, switching to another brand of copier or a different vendor is not an option at this time due to a political factor.
I see two potential solutions:
1. Allow individual printer agents to be configured to ignore and potentially hide specific SNMP alerts when determining the status of a printer. This could be done by specifying a combination of severity (1.3.6.1.2.1.43.18.1.1.2), and either alertCode (1.3.6.1.2.1.43.18.1.1.7) or alertDescription (1.3.6.1.2.1.43.18.1.1.8) from the Printer-MIB.
2. Allow either individual printer agents or the entire iPrint server to be configured to pause input on a print queue if the printer is determined to be offline and, ideally, have the iPrint Client display an informative error to the end-user that contains the alertDescription (1.3.6.1.2.1.43.18.1.1.8)information received from the printer.
Ultimately, this would remove a potential source of perceived network problems, either because users assume that the problem is a network issue, or because vendors tell decision makers that other customers running competing products don't have this issue.
The first proposed solution, having to do with being able to block specific SNMP alerts, would also fix an issue of our copiers and most of our non-HP printers constantly showing up as being out of paper when people select their printer. Many devices respond with an "Input Media Supply Empty" warning via SNMP if any paper tray, even the manual feed, is empty. This out-of-paper status then appears to end users when they select a printer.
by: Cory C. | over a year ago | Administration
Comments
EXACT same problem in our organization.
I am pretty sure there is an option you can add to your load string to ignore the critical status, but I don't have the documentation in front of me right now. The enhancement may just need to be better documentation.
Same problem here