Printing in Heterogeneous Computer Environment At

The number of registered hosts at reaches 3500 while the number of print queues approaches The spectrum of used computing environment is very wide: from and PC’s, through SUN, and machines to the IBM mainframe. In 1994 we used 18 tons of paper. We present a solution for providing print services in such an environment for more than 3500 registered users. The availability of the print service is a serious issue. Using centralized printing has a lot of advantages for software administration but creates single point of failure. We solved this problem partially without using expensive software and hardware. The talk provides information about the central print spooler concept. None of the systems available on the market provides ready to use reliable solution for all platforms used by We discuss concepts for installation, administration and monitoring large number of printers. We found a solution for printing both on central computing facilities likewise for support of stand-alone workstations.