Help needed Network Printer IP address change

[sh2108]

Hi there

Wonder if you can help me, we have a UNIX sever with several network printers set up - our support company set these up for us. For some reason a printer "lost" it's static IP and had one issued by DHCP - the reissued one was not the same as it had before and therefore network printing from the AIX system did not work. I contacted our support company who dialled in and put it right for us. However, it has now happened again on another network printer (after the power supply blew up!) and they won't support us anymore (they said they warned us this would happen and so won't help unless we pay an extortionate amount of cash). So I need help.

I don't know the first thing about UNIX so any instructions will need to be very specific. What I need to do is to change the IP address on the UNIX box to the one that has now been allocated to the printer. I know the IP address that has been allocated to the printer and I can get in to smit but after that I'm lost.

I know it should have been documented but it wasn't so any help would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks in advance

Suzanne

 

[RodKnowlton]

The AIX print system tracks remote printing hosts by their names, rather than dotted quad IP addresses.

Your system knows the printer that's changed addresses by a hostname. You can find this host name by running "smit pq_chque" and entering the name of the AIX queue that's supposed to print to the printer. The hostname is listed in the field "HOSTNAME of remote server."

Once you have the hostname, you need to make the necessary adjustment(s) so that it resolves to the new IP address when the printing subsystem looks it up. Using "smit chhostent", enter the hostname for the printer. If the screen that follows shows an address in the Current Address field that matches the old address of the printer, then your system is using /etc/hosts for lookups and you can just enter the new IP address of the printer in the field provided for it and you should be all set.

If the Current Address field is blank, or doesn't match the printer's old address, then you're probably using DNS for lookups, and someone other than me will have to walk you through that one.



Rod Knowlton
IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert pSeries and AIX 5L

 

[sh2108]

Hi Rod

Thanks for the info, I have checked the HOSTNAME of remote server and it is blank [] (I have checked it for the other printers that are working and it is blank for them also). Does that mean it's a total loss?

Suzanne

 

[RodKnowlton]

That sounds like a directly attached printer, which doesn't make sense with the IP reassignment problem.

Can you post the stanzas in /etc/qconfig related to the broken queue and its associated device?

Given a queue named "prnq", you should see something like:

prnq:
device = somedev
<possibly more "attribute = value" lines>

somedev:
<several "attribute = value" lines>

The two stanzas are usually, but not necessarily, one after the other in the order I've shown. If you can post them, it might shine some light on the problem.


Rod Knowlton
IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert pSeries and AIX 5L

 

[victorv]

hi,
if your printer server (adapter between eth-parallel)
has a jetdirect protocol, you will see in /etc/qconfig

/var/spool/lpd/..../hp@xyz#hpJetDirect#9100

look for xyz entry in /etc/hosts and change here

old.ip.addr xyz
to
new.ip.add xyz

 

[sh2108]

Hi guys

thanks for the info again - I do have a jet direct box attached to the priner so it was in hosts file that I needed to change the ip address. As I said I don't know the first about UNIX so it took me a while to figure out how to view what was in the file (doh!) - edit command didn't seem to work!! But I got there in the end, changed the hosts file and then restarted the queue.

THANK YOU.

Suzanne