Displaying the status of NetSpool printer LUs

Use either (1) Infoprint Central or (2) the DISPLAY command to display the status of printer LUs.

Limitation: You cannot use Infoprint Central to start, stop, or display the status of NetSpool LUs if you start more than one NetSpool task. However, you can use Infoprint Central to do other functions.

The DISPLAY command returns these states:

• STARTED

  NetSpool selected this printer LU for processing. The printer LU is either in a session with a VTAM® application or is ready to accept a request from a VTAM application to establish a session.

• WAITING

  NetSpool selected the printer LU for processing, but has been unable to start the printer LU because it is not available. NetSpool periodically (every 60 seconds) attempts to start the printer, automatically starting it when it becomes available. You do not receive a message on the console when NetSpool automatically starts a printer LU at a later time.

  Because NetSpool periodically attempts to start printer LUs in the WAITING state, you might want to either start or stop a printer LU that is in the WAITING state.

  • To start a printer LU that is not active in VTAM, activate the printer LU with the VTAM VARY ACT command. When the printer becomes active, NetSpool automatically starts the printer LU.
  • To stop a printer LU, enter the LUNAME DEL command. Because NetSpool has not successfully started the printer LU, you do not need to first vary the printer inactive in VTAM.
  • To start a printer LU that is started by another NetSpool task, first stop the printer in the other NetSpool started task, using the VTAM VARY INACT command and the LUNAME DEL command. Then, activate the printer LU in VTAM. This NetSpool task automatically starts it.
• PENDING CLOSE

  NetSpool selected this printer LU for stopping because you entered the LUNAME DEL or LUNAME PURGE command. NetSpool will stop the printer LU after NetSpool creates an output data set with all data received before the LUNAME DEL or LUNAME PURGE command was entered.

  After the printer LU stops, it no longer is displayed when you enter the DISPLAY command for this NetSpool started task. At that point, you can restart the printer LU by activating the printer LU with the VTAM VARY ACT command and then adding the printer LU to NetSpool using the LUNAME ADD command.

The format of the DISPLAY command is:

F jobname.id,DISPLAY {LUNAME=luname | SELECTED | STARTED | WAITING | TRACE}

LUNAME=luname

Requests that NetSpool display the status for the printer LU. You see a message like one of these:

• luname IS NOT SELECTED.
• luname IS STARTED SESSION=ACTIVE PRINTERNAME=MYPRINTER LUTYPE=1 PLU=IMS001 EOFRULE=EB.
• luname IS WAITING.
• luname IS PENDING CLOSE.

SELECTED

Requests that NetSpool display the printer LUs that are selected for processing. The status of the printers is STARTED, WAITING, or PENDING CLOSE. The minimum abbreviation allowed is SEL.

STARTED

Requests that NetSpool display all printer LUs in the STARTED state. The minimum abbreviation allowed is STA.

WAITING

Requests that NetSpool display all printer LUs in the WAITING state. The minimum abbreviation allowed is WAI.

TRACE

Requests that NetSpool display all printer LUs that are being traced and whether internal tracing is active. For more information about tracing printer LUs, see z/OS Infoprint Server Messages and Diagnosis. The minimum abbreviation allowed is TRA.

Additional information for STARTED status:

When you use the DISPLAY command with LUNAME, SELECTED, or STARTED, you see additional information that can help you diagnose problems with NetSpool LUs, VTAM definitions, and VTAM application programs. The information can include:

• SESSION=status

  The indicator of whether the VTAM session with NetSpool is currently established (ACTIVE) or not established (INACTIVE). The session status can help you diagnose problems when you are not sure if a primary logical unit (PLU) has established a session with the NetSpool printer LU.

• PRINTERNAME=printer-definition-name or POOLNAME=printer-pool-definition-name

  The name of the printer definition or printer pool definition for this LU. The printer definition name can help you diagnose problems when you need to determine which printer definition contains the NetSpool items associated with the LU, such as end-of-file rules and formatting options.

• LUTYPE=lu-type

  The type of LU (0, 1, or 3). For active sessions, you see the current LU type. For inactive sessions, you see the LU type of the previous session. If a session has not been established, you do not see this information. The LU type can help you diagnose problems when you see a NetSpool data stream message or when you are trying to change the page format. NetSpool does not control page formatting for 3270 data streams (LU0 and LU3) or when netspool-formatting=none.

• PLU=plu-name

  The name of the primary logical unit. For active sessions, you see the current PLU name. For inactive sessions, you see the PLU name of the previous session. If a session has not been established, you do not see this information. The PLU name can help you diagnose problems when more than one VTAM application prints on the LU and a print request is in error.

• EOFRULE=rule

  The End of File rule that NetSpool is using (End-of-bracket (EB), End-of-chain (EC), End-of-session (ES), String, or Timer). The EOF rule can help you diagnose problems when jobs do not close on the spool or when print requests are separated into several jobs.

Example: In this example, NetSpool lists the status of all printer LUs selected for processing.

   F jobname.id,DISPLAY SELECTED

This is sample output from the DISPLAY command:

   API1008I Display of SELECTED LUs.
   API1002I LUPRT002 — LU IS STARTED SESSION=ACTIVE PRINTERNAME=MYPRINTER 
            LUTYPE=1 PLU=IMS001 EOFRULE=EB.
   API1050I LUPRT000 — LU IS PENDING CLOSE.
   API1002I LUPRT001 — LU IS STARTED SESSION=INACTIVE PRINTERNAME=YOURPRINTER
            LUTYPE=0 PLU=IMS002 EOFRULE=TIMER.
   API1003I LUPRT003 — LU IS WAITING.