UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Hello. I recently upgraded to a new Power 8 server and running AIX 7.1.
I migrated from an IBM P520 and AIX 5.5.

My application on the P520 works best if I direct print, it doesn't work well with spooling. My IBM rep set up the new Power 8 server with spooling which is causing an issue.

My IBM rep can not figure out how to set up a serial printer and direct print on the new Power 8 server.

My software company is hesitant to get involved on the hardware side, and told me that they think I need a "digiport" device to accomplish serial printing. It needs to assign a TTY address to each printer.

My IBM rep said that he doesn't think I can print serial on new servers like this one.

Does anyone in the group know what external or internal device or software that I can purchase to be able to print serial with TTY devices?

Thank you...

You dont say much about your printers... I dont see why direct printing would be better than spooling and where do you make a difference, I used to have a HP system with serial port printers, changing system all I needed what to define new queues, and at a point I had both as old printers were serial and new were network...
So what printers are you using and why cant they be network?
If you have to use serial ports, then ask IBM if the interface exist, then you would need a multiplexer box to connect your printers ( standard were 8, 16, 24 ports, I still have in my junk 2 16 ports but I doubt they work for you...)

Basically I have custom forms for several applications. I have 2 different invoice formats and each has a custom form, then I have 2 different statement formats, and 2 different delivery ticket formats. All in all, I have 6 custom forms.

When we eliminated spool printing on the old system that was direct connected the printer would "locked" so that when a custom print job was completed the user could change the forms back to the standard green bar paper before the next job was sent to the printer. Thus saving our custom forms from getting some one else's report printed onto it.

The new printer that is IP based and spooled just lines up the jobs and prints them as fast as the printer can handle the jobs and does not wait between jobs. Thus wasting custom forms...

My old server used serial direct connected printers. The old system used AIX ver 5.5 on an IBM P520 server and I had 2 each IBM6400 printers (serial connected). The new server is an IBM Power 8 with IBM 6400 printers (set up with Ethernet cards) and AIX ver 7.1.

A manual intervention ("lock") for each print job can probably be enforced in a PPD for the print queue.
Perhaps the printer has a "hand feader" that can be selected as "input tray" in the PPD.
Also the printer console might provide a "lock" that cannot be reset by the next print job.

You have everything from IBM - try the IBM support!

Get two ethernet to serial adapters and Amazon.com: ONETAK TCP/IP Ethernet RJ45 to Serial RS232 RS485 RS422 Converter Adapter Adaptor: Electronics

You should be able to send data directly to the printer using 'netcat' in place of the program that currently sends the print file to the serial port.