HELIOS Base User manual |
In the following we describe the structure of the HELIOS printer log file and server log file. Please refer to your UNIX manuals for a description of the "system messages" file. All three files can be inspected in the EtherShare Admin by choosing the appropriate item in the Lists menu.
Each entry in "HELIOSDIR/var/adm/printer.acct" (with the appendices ".0", yesterday to ".6", seven days ago) has the following format:
status (decimal):
3 general UNIX warning
2 PostScript output
1 UNIX info (e.g. Extended print information)
0 OK
-1 communications error
-2 PostScript error
-3 terminated job (e.g. killed signal)
-4 UNIX error (e.g. file not found)
pages (decimal): = endPage-startPage (determined by printer interrogation with the "pagecount.ps" query.
If status0, the line is followed by the error output of the printer, bracketed by the lines "Error output:" and "End error output". Also, if no printable data are sent to the printer (pages=0), then duration will be "0".
Note: Messages are only written to the printer log file if you checked the Accounting File switch when creating the printer queue with the EtherShare Admin.
The user name logged with each print job in the printer log file "HELIOSDIR/var/adm/printer.acct" (and the user to which error messages are sent as mail) is determined by interrogating the PostScript header of the job for the name in the "%%For" comment.
Under Macintosh System 7.x or later, the name in the "%%For" comment is automatically set to the "Owner Name" specified in the Network Identity section of Apple's File Sharing (Start/Stop) control field.
If the "%%For" comment or the name field is missing, all jobs will be allocated to "nobody" by default.
If a name is specified but cannot be found in the list of long or short names in "/etc/passwd", the specified (unknown) user name will still appear in the printer log file, but any error messages are sent as mail to "root" instead.
Note: If you check Save My Name Only or Save My Name and Password in the Macintosh Chooser, the name saved in the system may not be the same as the name in the File Sharing control field, since it is possible to overwrite the prompted name before saving it. The name stored in File Sharing is the one used by the log file.
The document title is determined by interrogating the PostScript header of the job for the name in the "%%Title" comment.
It may be possible for you to set these comments for UNIX and MS-DOS print jobs, too, in order to ensure that they also have complete records in the printer log file.
Each entry in "HELIOSDIR/var/adm/server.acct" (with the appendices ".0", yesterday to ".6", seven days ago) has the following format:
pe_status (decimal): UNIX process exit status (0 = OK; 1...127 = error exit, i.e. the program has been terminated; 128... = abnormal termination, ask your system administrator)
rusage (decimal array): = resource usage information. The structure is operating system dependent - see the description of "getrusage" in your UNIX documentation. Some of the resource usage fields are decoded and used by the EtherShare Admin in the Server Log File window.
This section describes optional tuning procedures which require substantial UNIX experience. With the exception of Other tuning tips (below), they should not be attempted by beginners.
If the HELIOS host has plenty of memory, it may be worthwhile adjusting some data structures inside the operating system to be larger than normal. This keeps more information in memory that otherwise may need to be continuously re-read from the disk. Modern operating systems adjust the data structure values depending on the available memory size. See your UNIX documentation for more information.
EtherShare contains highly-efficient AppleTalk router modules which do not present an excessive load on the host's CPU, even with heavy routing traffic. You can often improve network response by installing two or more network cards in your host, and arranging your network to share traffic between two separate network segments. This approach is particularly beneficial if you have installed the ImageServer product - in such cases we recommend installing a second network card to deal with printer/RIP traffic only, and thus separate it from workstation traffic. There is no theoretical limit to the number of network cards supported by the EtherShare router, but generally there are no gains to be made by installing more than 3 cards, except in the fastest hosts.
© 2002 HELIOS Software GmbH |