AIX

I'd seek for help on how to create a bunch of printers in AIX 6.x or equal or above in one go – say like I have 35 printers to create in 4 different AIX Nodes every month – I currently create it manually like below:-

How can I automatic this creation on all the 4-5 Nodes – not actually automatic at least to manage using a robust script – help is highly appreciated.

Code:

/usr/lib/lpd/pio/etc/piomkjetd mkpq_jetdirect -p 'hplj-5si' -D pcl -q 'mainoffprt01' -D korimg -q ' mainoffprt01ps' -h ' mainoffprt01' -x '9100'

Create a script to do it... Here is one way.

Code:

#!/bin/sh

PRT=`cat prt.add`
for prt in $PRT
do
  /usr/lib/lpd/pio/etc/piomkjetd  mkpq_jetdirect -p 'hplj-5si' -D pcl -q $prt -h $prt -x '9100'
done

Save that as addprinters.sh, and give it execute permissions. chmod u+x addprinters.sh

Now when you want to add multiple printers, do the following:
add each of the printers into the /etc/hosts file (queue name + IP address)
edit prt.add and paste the queue name(s) in there.
finally, run the addprinters.sh script. It will add all of the printers in there, one at a time, all in one go.

As you said you want this done on 4 nodes, that would complicate this script a little, and you'd have to add in extra functionality.

So you could instead create a file and enter in the new info (for importation into the /etc/hosts file) which contains the queue names and IP address. Then just add that into the /etc/hosts file like so. (cat mynewprinters.txt >> /etc/hosts)

Then add this to your script to run before the 'for prt in $PRT' line. To put on the other nodes, simply scp (Secure Copy) the files (prt.add and mynewprinters.txt) to the other nodes, and then run the script on each node (assuming they have the updated addprinters.sh script there already, otherwise, scp that file over to). You could use ssh keys on each server to accomplish this task.

Hopefully I didn't muddy the waters too much now.

PS. You could use rsync to auto-update all the other nodes at the same time too!

okay - before I implement this script I would like to understand the format or contents / lines to be in "prt.add" ? just the queue names or with ip address - I know it should have only queue names right?

Correct. The prt.add file contains one queue name per line.