Setting timeout values

To change the default timeout values, set these fields in the printer definition:

• Connection timeout: The maximum amount of time that IP PrintWay™ waits while attempting to connect to the printer. If the printer is turned on and the network is operational, IP PrintWay connects to the printer in a few seconds. However, if the printer is powered off, IP PrintWay waits for the connection timeout period.

  While waiting to connect to the printer:

  • The IP PrintWay basic mode FSA cannot process any other print jobs. However, other IP PrintWay basic mode FSAs can process other print jobs.
  • IP PrintWay extended mode can process other print jobs.

  Guidelines:

  • The default value of 30 seconds is suitable for most printers.
  • Do not specify a low connection timeout value because IP PrintWay might not be able to connect to the printer in the specified time due to network traffic.
  • Increase the connection timeout value if IP PrintWay reports a timeout error when the printer is turned on. (IP PrintWay writes a message with TCP/IP ERRNO of 60).
  • IP PrintWay basic mode: Do not specify a high connection timeout value because the IP PrintWay basic mode FSA cannot process any other print jobs during this period.
• Response timeout: The maximum amount of time that IP PrintWay waits for a response from a printer after sending data to it. When the response timeout value expires, IP PrintWay either resends data (if retries are requested) or fails the print job.

  If a printer is ready and its buffer is not full, most printers respond to IP PrintWay immediately. However, if a printer requires operator intervention (for example, the printer is out of paper), most printers do not respond until the printer becomes ready. In addition, if you select one of the PJL options in the printer definition (see Tracking the number of printed pages (extended mode)), most printers do not respond until the printer finishes printing the document.

  While waiting for a response from the printer:

  • The IP PrintWay basic mode FSA cannot process any other print jobs. However, other IP PrintWay basic mode FSAs can process other print jobs.
  • IP PrintWay extended mode can process other print jobs.

  The default response timeout value is 10 minutes. The maximum value you can specify is 31 days, which is the maximum time that TCP/IP allows IP PrintWay to wait for a response.

  Guidelines:

  • Do not set the response timeout value too low, especially if you print large documents on printers that have small buffers or that print slowly. For example, a response timeout value of 30 seconds might cause IP PrintWay to retry the transmission before the printer has finished printing its buffer.
  • A high response timeout value gives an operator more time to correct a problem before IP PrintWay resends data to the printer (if retries are requested) or fails the print job. For example, you might want to specify a response timeout value of 3 days if your printers are unattended over a long weekend.
  • IP PrintWay extended mode: If you select one of the PJL options in the printer definition (see Tracking the number of printed pages (extended mode)), most printers respond only after the printer has finished printing the document. Therefore, the response timeout value should be long enough to allow the largest documents to finish printing.
  • IP PrintWay extended mode: A high response timeout value does not affect printing to other printers. However, if you specify a high response timeout value for many printers, IP PrintWay can exceed the maximum number of MVS™ tasks that IP PrintWay extended mode (aopoutd daemon) can have active at one time. This can happen if IP PrintWay waits for responses from many printers at the same time.

    If you see the following message, which indicates that you are close to exceeding the maximum number of MVS tasks, ask your system administrator to increase the maximum number of MVS tasks in the AOPOUTD_MAXTHREADTASKS environment variable or the aopoutd-max-thread-tasks configuration attribute. For example, you might increase the number to 250.

    BPXI040I PROCESS LIMIT MAXTHREADTASKS HAS REACHED 85% OF ITS CURRENT CAPACITY
             OF 200 FOR PID=nnnnnn IN JOB AOPOUTD.

    For information about AOPOUTD_MAXTHREADTASKS and aopoutd-max-thread-tasks, see z/OS Infoprint Server Customization.

    Tip: The LIMMSG statement in the BPXPRMxx member of SYS1.PARMLIB controls whether z/OS® UNIX® issues message BPXI040I. The default is that z/OS UNIX does not issue BPXI040I messages. You can change the LIMMSG value dynamically using the SETOMVS command.

  • IP PrintWay basic mode: If you want to specify a high response timeout value, ask your system administrator to define an IP PrintWay FSA to JES that selects print jobs for this one printer only. If an IP PrintWay FSA selects print jobs for several printers, when one printer with a high response timeout value does not respond for a long time, printing to the other printers can be delayed until the operator corrects the problem and the printer becomes ready.
  • Email protocol: IP PrintWay ignores this field.
  • VTAM® protocol: If the printer is waiting for intervention, Infoprint Central cannot delete a print job until the printer responds or the response timeout value expires. Therefore, if you set a high response timeout value, the operator might not be able to delete the current print job in a timely manner.