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HP Web Jetadmin - Managing Third-Party Printers in HP Web Jetadmin

During device discoveries, HP Web Jetadmin uses SNMP queries to gather information from the device.

If HP Web Jetadmin concludes that the device is a peripheral such as a printer, plotter, or multifunction device, it displays the device in the list of discovered devices. For HP Web Jetadmin to conclude that a device is a peripheral, the device must be able to answer a set of industry-standard questions.

A Management Information Base (MIB) is a set of objects that defines the types of SNMP queries that can be asked of a device. For example, the Standard Printer MIB (RFC 1759) is a generic set of objects to which most peripherals should be able to provide answers when queried. The Standard Printer MIB consists of objects that describe functionality and capabilities of the printer such as page counts and media types. Other common MIBs include MIB2 (RFC 1213) and the Host Resources MIB (RFC 1514). Device vendors also have a set of proprietary MIBs that contain information unique to their devices. HP Web Jetadmin must have knowledge of MIB objects in device plug-ins before it can send queries to devices using those MIB objects.

Devices must be able to answer queries defined in the common industry-standard MIBs for HP Web Jetadmin to discover the devices. Otherwise, there is not enough information about the device to warrant displaying it in the list of discovered devices. HP Web Jetadmin focuses on printer management, and it would be increasingly difficult to distinguish devices as printers unless they can answer a standard set of questions such as those defined in the Standard Printer MIB.

After HP Web Jetadmin discovers a device, the level of support that can be provided depends on the depth of queries defined in the respective device plug-ins.

Support

Support in HP Web Jetadmin can be quite extensive if the device can answer industry-standard queries. Quite a bit of HP Web Jetadmin functionality can be supported through standard queries such as basic status, configuration, alerts, reporting, and page counting.

HP Web Jetadmin attempts to support the following functionality for third-party devices using standard queries for basic support.

Device Page — Status Tab

  • Device and Information categories

    • Picture of a generic device, possibly vendor specific

    • Device Model, IP Hostname, IP Address, System Contact

  • Status category

    • Basic status (online/offline, toner low, toner out, media low, media out, paper jam, cover open, service requested)

    • Front panel display

  • Supply levels category

    • Input tray remaining levels

    • Supplies remaining levels

Device Page — Config tab

  • Device category

    • Contact Person

    • Control Panel Language

    • PJL Configuration

    • Company Name

  • Network

    • System Name

    • Proxy Server

Device Page — Alerts tab

  • General alerts only, polling only of SNMP Alert table and status OIDs

Device Page — Troubleshoot tab

  • Reset Device button

  • Embedded Web Server button

Device Page — Supplies tab

  • Input tray levels

  • Supplies levels

Device Page — Capabilities

  • Installed components such as input tray capacities, interpreter languages, duplexer, hard disk, total memory

Alerts

  • Polling only, no traps

  • Limited set of events

    • Service (online, offline, error, disconnected)

    • Supplies (paper out, toner low, toner out, other supplies low/out/replace)

    • Media Path (paper jam, cover open, output full)

Reports

  • Device Inventory

  • Supply Utilization

Columns

  • Serial Number

  • Contact Person

  • System Contact

  • System Location

  • System Name

  • System Up Time

Functionality Definitions

This section provides definitions for many of the supported features for third-party devices and the objects used for obtaining the information. The feature is supported if the device can answer the industry-standard query defined in these definitions.

  • Alerts: Polling at a specified interval is used to provide alerts that support the following types of events based on status queries that match certain conditions or prtAlerts table objects. Standard status queries can typically determine the following types of alert conditions:

    • Cover Open

    • Offline

    • Paper Jam

    • Printer Error

    Certified devices can process traps for real-time alerts when events occur for most events under the General category. Polling of remaining supplies levels to provide Supplies alerts at desired thresholds is also available for certified devices.

  • Bitmap and Icon: HP Web Jetadmin displays any predefined bitmaps and icons that were created in a device plug-in. Certified devices have a unique picture that matches the device, while basic support provides one generic picture per third-party vendor.

  • Capabilities: Capabilities such as installed languages, trays, and accessories are displayed on the Capabilities tab as supported by the device using objects such as prtInterpreterDescription and prtInputDescription.

  • Configuration: The following items are provided at a minimum for configuration, assuming that the device supports the following objects:

    • System Contact (sysContact)

    • System Location (sysLocation)

    • Control Panel Language (prtConsoleLocalization)

    • Contact Person (prtGeneralServicePerson)

    • System Name (sysName)

    Certified devices can provide extended configuration items using vendor-specific objects.

  • Control Panel Display: The current message on the printer front panel is displayed using prtConsoleDisplayBufferText.

  • Description: A description is displayed from the response to sysLocation.

  • Engine Cycle Count: Engine Cycle Count is a value stored on the printer that represents a cumulative total of pages printed for the life of the printer. Engine Cycle Count is displayed if a printer supports prtMarkerLifeCount. Page counts for mono, color, simplex duplex, fax, copy, and scan are only obtainable via proprietary queries and require advanced support such as qualified or certified.

  • IP Hostname: The IP hostname is displayed if the operating system can resolve an IP address to a hostname from a name server such as DNS or WINS using a GetHostByAddr call. System Name, which can be the hostname if the NIC registers it with a name server, is displayed if the device answers the sysName MIB2 object.

  • Model: The printer model name is displayed according to the response to hrDeviceDescr.

  • Serial Number: The serial number is a unique manufacturing identifier for the device. The serial number is a critical identifier item that HP Web Jetadmin uses to determine the uniqueness of a device along with other items such as the MAC address and IP address. Some functionality, such as Reports, is blocked in HP Web Jetadmin if the serial number cannot be obtained. Therefore, HP Web Jetadmin makes a strong effort to obtain the serial number from third-party devices. The most typical and widely supported object to extract for obtaining the serial number is prtGeneralSerialNumber.

  • Status: Device status, which indicates the current state of the printer (for example, online or paper jam), is displayed based on responses to standard objects such as hrPrinterDetectedErrorState.

  • System Contact: The system contact is displayed from the response to sysContact.

  • Storage: The presence of storage media such as a hard disk, flash disk, RAM disk, and installed RAM can be detected using hrDiskStorage objects. Additional storage information is provided on the Storage tab for certified devices.

  • Remaining Input Tray Levels: The approximate amount of paper remaining in a particular tray can be displayed by calculating a percentage based on responses to the Standard MIB objects prtInputCurrentLevel and prtInputMaxCapacity.

  • Remaining Toner Levels: The approximate amount of toner or ink remaining in the cartridge cavity is determined by calculating a percentage based on prtMarkerSuppliesLevel and prtMarkerSuppliesMaxCapacity.

  • Reports: Basic support includes only the Device Inventory report. Advanced support may include reports that make use of the various supported page count values, such as Accessories Inventory (capabilities), Supply Utilization (marker supply information), Device Utilization (page counters), and Hourly Peak Usage (hourly page counters).

Troubleshooting

Determining why a particular non-HP device supports the features that it does is usually a result of the device's ability to answer the queries HP Web Jetadmin sends.

Certified devices have known objects written in their device plug-ins and those objects have already been tested, so issues rarely occur on those devices. However, for qualified devices and those requiring basic support, HP Web Jetadmin is dependent on the device to answer industry-standard queries. Some devices support more gauges than others. You cannot always assume that all devices from a particular vendor support the same features. For example, one Xerox model may support the control panel display, while another Xerox model does not. The following are common explanations for why particular items may not appear for devices.

Common issues and resolutions when managing third-party printers with HP Web Jetadmin

Issue

Resolution

A gauge may be present for a consumable, but the gauge is hashed out instead of containing a remaining percentage.

If a devices answers prtMarkerSuppliesDescription correctly, the gauge is present because HP Web Jetadmin knows the consumable exists. However, if the device cannot answer either prtMarkerSuppliesMaxCapacity or prtMarkerSuppliesLevel correctly, the percentage cannot be calculated and HP Web Jetadmin displays hashes instead to indicate an unknown level.

A paper tray gauge does not indicate a remaining percentage.

While a device answers the prtInputType query to indicate a tray is present, the device may respond to the prtInputMaxCapacity and prtInputCurrentLevel queries with either valid values or an indication that at least one sheet remains. If the device returns valid values, a calculation is presented. If the device does not provide valid values, HP Web Jetadmin displays either Empty or Not Empty, depending on whether the device indicates at least one sheet remains.

The control panel displays Not Supported or Unknown.

Not Supported indicates the device did not respond to the prtConsoleDisplayBufferText object. Unknown may indicate that the devices recognizes the prtConsoleDisplayBufferText object, but did respond with any text.

The model name for the device appears to be a much longer name than the true name of the device.

HP Web Jetadmin relies on hrDeviceDescr to display the model name. Properly truncated model names are generally provided in proprietary objects. HP Web Jetadmin does not know how to truncate a response to hrDeveiceDescr if it contains too many characters. For example, if a Lexmark printer responds with Lexmark X652de 7932M8R LJ.MN.P092, HP Web Jetadmin does not know where to truncate the string.

No consumable gauges are present for items such as toner and fuser.

A device must answer prtMarkerSuppliesDescription correctly, otherwise HP Web Jetadmin does not know that the consumable exists and cannot display a gauge.

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