AggreGate Network Manager printer monitoring tools include Printer Information widget and a number of alerts: Printer State, Printer Marker, Printer Cover Status and Critical Printer Event SNMP Trap. These tools use SNMP protocol to retrieve data from printers and support common printer monitoring tasks, like:
| • | display printer description, model, serial number, describing its capabilities, current state and other printer details |
| • | detect and get notified about problems, like paper jams, out of paper, overfull trays, etc. |
| • | get (beforehand) notifications about lack of resources: toner, photoconductive drum, developer, etc. |
At the same time it's not hard to extend these basic capabilities by creating custom printer monitoring tools for specific printer types and models with. These tools may use SNMP polling or handle printer events (by listening to SNMP Traps or Syslog messages sent by printers).
Refer to RFC 3805 for reference information on printer management and monitoring.
Configuration
Printer monitoring configuration includes environment specification (printer states, synchronization options) and a set of specific tools (Printer Information widget, and a few types of alerts) along with their settings.
Printer state is an important concept for printer monitoring, used by Printer State alert and Printer Information widget. AggreGate Network Manager detects printer state depending on the values of three SNMP variables: Device Status, Printer Status, and Printer Detected Error State. Their values are combined into a single printer state using Printer States table available in printer's Device Properties. The method of their combination can be modified for a particular printer device to reflect its specific features.
The the following printer states are defined by default:
Non-critical Printer States |
Critical Printer States |
|---|---|
Normal |
Jam |
Printing |
Cover/Door Open |
Off-line |
Input Tray Missing |
Standby |
Input Tray Empty |
Initial Power Up |
Output Tray Missing |
Warming Up |
Output Tray Full |
Input Tray Low |
Marker Supply Missing |
Output Tray Almost Full |
Marker Supply Empty |
Marker Supply Almost Empty |
|
Input Tray Missing |
|
Input Tray Empty |
|
Output Tray Missing |
|
Output Tray Full |
|
A critical state is one in which the printer is stopped and printing can not continue until the condition that caused it is eliminated. |
The default printer status table is automatically created for devices providing prtGeneralTable SNMP variable. It matches to the one described in Appendix E - Overall Printer Status Table of RFC 3805.
Synchronization Options
hrDeviceTable, hrPrinterTable, prtGeneralTable, and prtMarkerSuppliesTable SNMP variables are used for printer monitoring. Thereafter their synchronization options can be customized to better fit user's needs.