cups-polld uses 99% cpu time

[angelb]

> Michael De Vlaminck wrote:
> > angelb wrote:
> >>> Hello,
> >>>
> >>> I've configured a cups printsystem with 2 servers and about 200 clients
> >>> connecting via cups 1.1 and samba.
> >>> The clients are configured to poll the 2 servers for printers. But one
> >>> server cups-server is the main server. The other one cups-backup is the
> >>> backup server. But cups isn't running on cups-backup due to issues with
> >>> the accounting system we use.
> >>> So the clients poll there printers from cups-server and get a 'unknown
> >>> host' error.
> >>> We went "live" this morning and by now we had about 10 complaints that
> >>> the cups-polld process uses 99% cpu time. After taking a closer look it
> >>> seems like it was the poll process which polls cups-server (the one
> >>> that
> >>> is running) is the one uses that much cpu time.
> >>>
> >>> What can be the cause of this?
> >>>
> >>> thanks in advance
> >>>
> >>> Michael De Vlaminck
> >>
> >>
> >> Quick fix: upgrade or install CUPS 1.2.1
> >>
> >> I've also ran into the same issue and CUPS 1.2 appears to have the
> >> fix.
> >>
> >> Good luck.
> >>
> >> Angel
> >>
> >>
> > is there also a way do fix it without upgrading?
> >
> > thx
> > Michael
> > _______________________________________________
> > cups mailing list
> > cups at easysw.com
> > http://lists.easysw.com/mailman/listinfo/cups
>
> Or perhaps instead of polling the server you should relay the
> printer packets to the subnets of the clients and have
> them listen for the packets. Just a thought.
>

It doesn't matter whether you're using polling, browsing, or relaying,
the clients will still have to process the incoming packets. It is in
that process that causes CPU to spike specially in a large environment.

I've never really had problems with 200+ printers on a client but when
we have more than 500, you'll see a significant CPU use. If you have
more than 1000+ printers, then you'll in for it big-time; you may have
to poll only once-a-day preferrably when the system is most idle.

I'm putting a lot of faith into CUPS 1.2 but at the moment, my testing
hasn't gone well. Clients(AIX and Solaris) polling crashes while
polling the server. I've submitted an STR but I hope it's just an error
in my configuration...well soon see.

Like most users, I was hoping there was a fix to this in 1.1 but it's
addressed only in 1.2....correct me if I'm wrong.

Angel