[124] in Enterprise Print Delivery Team
Testing IPM
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Whitson)
Thu Mar 9 14:43:43 2000
To: printdel@MIT.EDU
From: Mike Whitson <mwhitson@MIT.EDU>
Date: 09 Mar 2000 14:43:40 -0500
In-Reply-To: "David F. Lambert"'s message of "Wed, 08 Mar 00 08:30:23 EST"
Message-Id: <n91bt4oudxv.fsf@dragon.mit.edu>
Here's my thoughts on this. If nobody objects, I'll turn this into a
less flamacious version and send it off.
"David F. Lambert" <LAMBERT@mitvma.mit.edu> writes:
> > #1 Accept PS data from SAP running on VM (?) and print on a IP60
> >TCP/IP attached printer (600 DPI).
The SAP application servers are Digital Unix boxes, right? Does any
part of SAP actually run on the mainframe?
Is "IP60" another name for one of the IBM printers we already have, or
a new one we would need to demo?
> > - Question how does the SAP PS data get to IPM? (LPR?) You
> >would probably feed IPM like you feed the HP's today.
Ugh. So their idea of "SAP integration" is that IPM runs an lpd
server, and SAP prints to it? That's what the Athena print system
does right now. If that's all the integration there is, give me some
protocol specs and a PS->IPDS filter and a couple weeks, and I'll have
an LPRng filter that does the same thing.
And given that their hype of driving channel-attached printers turns
out to be less feasible than their advertising likes to point out
(requires a MCA-bus RS6k, which are not only AIX boxes, they're *old*
AIX boxes), that's a benefit that's rapidly going out the window.
> > - Installed IP60 requires 10/100BaseTX Ethernet attachment
> >feature #4165 ($750) field installed.
Do we have this?
> > #2 Continue to print legacy systems output (IPDS) on the IP60 from
> >VM. (Today this prints via 370 channel connection to the
> >3827, 3160 and 4245's .)
> > - This path would be replaced by connecting IPM to VM via the
> >network and send IPDS data via SNA to IPM's PSF Direct feature.
Waitasec, won't this require SNA support on our routers? I was under
the impression that Netops really didn't like supporting anything
other than IP.
> >The PSF Direct feature would convert the datastream from SNA to TCP/IP (low
> > overhead) and forward to the TCP/IP attached IP60. The 3827
> >won't play unless a Micro Channel RS/6000 is used and a 370
> >channel card is purchased for EACH printer requiring a Bus &Tag interface.
> > The 4245's won't play at all as Line Printers aren't supported
> >via IPM. 6400's would be an alternative as they are TCP/IP
> >addressable and IPM capable. (I recommend TCP/IP printers as 370 Channel
> >cards are $$ and limit the purchase of RS/6000s to less economic
> >models.)
So. Channel-only printers are useless with IPM unless we get an old,
used RS6k with MCA channel cards. (Sigh. And I was hoping they would
just use the same PCI channel cards that they use in the NT version of
IPM.)
> > - IPM server requires eNetwork Communications Server V5 to
> >support SNA
"eNetwork Communications Server"? I presume this is a
buzzword-compliant name for an SNA stack/module for AIX.
> > #3 Accept PS/PCL data targeted to a subset of HP's to be defined on
> >IPM and used for testing.
Fair enough. All kinds of nasty little screw cases to test here.
> > - This test would be used to demonstrate accounting features of
> >IPM and use of the to GUI's to define and control the network type
> >printers and show security features. The datastream would be "passthrough"
> >and not involve a transform on IPM (low resource consumption) Could
> >also handle any datastream type but others may involve a
> >transform. (Higher resource consumption)
Given how little SAP integration they imply, the selling strength of
IPM will IMHO be its robustness and admin/operator interface.
> > The first Low speed printer feature includes license to drive 20
> >printers. Additional blocks of low speed printers are added in
> >groups of 40 up to a max charge of 220 printers. I would recommend the 1st
> >group (20 HP printers) for our testing based on what I understood
> >yesterday. Realizing this number could grow to 500+ in
> >production.
So we pay by the printer? Joy, joy.
> > #4 Would you want to generate AFP resources (Pagedefs and Formdefs)
> >on the AIX platform?
> >
> > Page Printing Formatting Aid (PPFA) is available as an option for
> >IPM.
I'd guess that depends on what we're doing. Presumably we would, and
it sounds like a decent resource to have.
> > #5 Do we want to look at DCE during this test period?
No. DCE is not useful to us.
> >Have I missed anything? Please send me a note with additions and/or
> >subtractions and I will modify!
> >
> >
> >Current thoughts on IPM server configuration:
> >
> > 5745-E42 InfoPrint Manager V3.2 (beta not a guarantee)
> > Base Code
> > Client Code
> > 1st Low Speed attachment feature (20 low speed printers
> ><100ppm)
> > PPFA
> > 5765-D20 eNetwork Communications Server for AIX V5.0 (SNA for AIX)
> > 5639-I35 Distributed Communications Environment
No DCE.
> >Note: MIT to locate an RS/6000 capable of driving test configuration. (May
> >borrow my 43P but it offers limited perf.)
I guess we're working on this. E40 doesn't have one; I have a very
old one sitting at home (the kind that was in Athena clusters around
1993-1994).
For the record, I'm not even willing to consider IPM as a replacement
for the Athena printing system until it speaks Kerberos.
-mike
