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Monitor print queues on Windows 2003 R2 Server

Votes:

0

We have some print queues hosted on a couple of Windows 2003 R2 servers which frequently stop processing jobs and stop with a "paused" job at the front of the queue and a load more jobs stuck behind it.

We'd like to use PRTG to monitor the queue length and alert if it gets over a certain value and stays there for too long. Two issues here; 1. how do we create that sensor to read the queue length / errors etc? 2. how do we prevent these sensors from going to alert immediately that a job sits in the queue?

We don't want this to trigger every time someone prints a large document and the queue length goes up temporarily for say 5-10 mins... however we do want to know if it stays up for say 15-20 minutes.

print prtg windows

Created on Sep 23, 2010 3:15:51 PM



3 Replies

Accepted Answer

Votes:

1

PTF PrintQueue

With PTF PrintQueue you can monitor a printqueue and return the number of jobs in the queue. With the optional -t parameter you can choose to only count jobs that reside in the queue for langer than xx minutes. Using the -r switch, the sensor goes in a warning state when the queue or printer reports a problem.

-s=printserver -q=printqueue [-t=time] [-u=username] [-p=password|passhash]

-s=    The ip-address or hostname of the printserver.
-q=    The name of the printqueue.
-t=    Optional the minimum time the job has to be in the queue in seconds.
-r     Optional switch to set the sensor in a warning state when the queue or printer reports a problem.
       (Door open, Manual feed required, Offline, Out of memory, Out of paper, Paper jammed, Toner low and more)
-u=    Optional Domain\Username.
-p=    Optional Password or PassHash.

Note: This sensor targets the .NET Framework 3.0

The sensor can be downloaded from this page.

Created on Sep 24, 2010 6:59:19 PM

Last change on Oct 4, 2010 2:06:23 PM by Torsten Lindner [Paessler Support]



Votes:

0

I would like to use this custom sensor for our installation, but I get the following error message: "Ausnahme beim Erstellen des PrintServer-Objekts. Win32-Fehler. Zugriff verweigert"

The Demo sensors all work and the PrintQueue.exe file gives me the correct response when executed on the Server. Any idea what is causing this?

Created on Nov 24, 2010 12:35:49 PM



Votes:

0

Hi Florian,

As your PRTG server by default runs on the system account, it is not likely that this account has enough privileges to query the print queue. When you run the .exe manually you are logged in as a different user with enough privileges to query the print queue. To overcome this problem, use the -u= and -p= parameters to supply credentials with enough privileges to query the print queue.

Regards,

Gerard

Created on Nov 24, 2010 4:29:43 PM




Disclaimer: The information in the Paessler Knowledge Base comes without warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk. Before applying any instructions please exercise proper system administrator housekeeping. You must make sure that a proper backup of all your data is available.