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Subj:	Re: SYS$PRINT serving multiple devices, is it possible?

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Date: 8 Apr 91 18:29:48 GMT
From: csus.edu!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!news.cs.indiana.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!news.iastate.edu!VAXF.IASTATE.EDU!GVROD@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu  (R Eldridge, VAX Systems)
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
Subject: Re: SYS$PRINT serving multiple devices, is it possible?
Message-Id: <1991Apr8.182948.1054@news.iastate.edu>
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mike@UC780.UMD.EDU (Mike Santangelo) writes:
>Is it possible to set up SYS$PRINT on a system to two
>physical devices such that user submitted PRINT requests
>are load-balanced between the both of them?  For example,
>say I have two identical serially connected printers off
>of a DMB32 or such, and I wanted user submitted print
>requests to print on either.  In other words, can the VMS
>queue manager handle two devices and physically print to
>whichever is first available (automagically)?  If so, how
>do I set this up?
>

I don't believe that SYS$PRINT can use two physical printers. It must point
to only one physical printer.

However, to effectively do what you request, create two queues, each one
pointing to one of the physical printer. Then define SYS$PRINT as a generic
queue that points to both of the two queues. The system will then print to 
either one of the queues, including printing to the second one if the first
one is busy. For example,

	$ initialize/queue/start/on=TTA1: PRINTER1
	$ initialize/queue/start/on=TTA2: PRINTER2
	$ initialize/queue/generic=(PRINTER1,PRINTER2) SYS$PRINT

You will, of course, have to change the first two initialize/queue commands 
to reflect the physical connections at your site, plus any other qualifiers
that your site will use.


rod eldridge             gvrod@isuvax.bitnet or gvrod@isuvax.iastate.edu
iowa state university    (515)294-7498