Sequential; Fail-Safe Printing

Michael Sweet mike at easysw.com
Mon Mar 20 16:31:49 PST 2006


John P wrote:
> We use CUPS in a mode where there are 4 Linux servers hosting
> text-based terminal emulation and text-based printing is done via a
> single CUPS server.  Although this CUPS server has redundant hardware
> components, it remains our single-point-of-failure.  If we upgraded
> to the mission-critical/enterprise software would it support the
> following scenario:
> 
> 1) Document Number 1234 is sent to CUPS server A with a destination
> of PRINTER_17.
> 
> 2) Document Number 1235 is sent to CUPS server B with a destination
> of PRINTER_17 also.
> 
> I need some way to guarantee that document 1234 prints before
> document 1235 no matter the load on the two CUPS servers.  This is
> very similar to printing checks where the document output contains a
> number that must match the pre-printed number on the paper stock.
> 
> Can this be handled by any of the current ESP products?

No, since you have two independent paths to the same printer, the
order of jobs will be undefined.

The best way to handle things for this scenario is to setup the
second server as a hot backup, either by reassigning the IP address
or by leaving all of the queues in the "stopped" state (starting
them only if the first server goes down...)

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products           mike at easysw dot com
Internet Printing and Publishing Software        http://www.easysw.com




More information about the cups mailing list