LRS VPS Printer Replacment

[zos reader]

Hi,

We are planning to replace LRS VPS Printers to other Vendor product, I am
not aware of other vendor products in Market.

Can you all share your thoughts please.

Thanks..

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[Edward Finnell]

Several years back John Anderson started an ISVCOSTS list to help explore these types of questions. It has transmogrified into a SHARE offering at www.share.org/isvcosts Unfortunately does not accept gmail, hotmail, ISP or Vendor subscriptions. Don't know which browsers it supports not Edge that's for sure.

In a message dated 12/14/2017 3:20:25 AM Central Standard Time, zos.r...@GMAIL.COM writes:

 
Can you all share your thoughts please.

[Sankaranarayanan, Vignesh]

Hi,

Think this vendor has a product too - http://www.syzygyinc.com/SyzSPOOLz.htm

– Vignesh
Mainframe Infrastructure

MARKSANDSPENCER.COM
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[Jackson, Rob]

We successfully replaced VPS with NPF, which is included in CommServer. It's not quite as robust as VPS, but considering the price, it works beautifully.

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSLTBW_2.2.0/com.ibm.zos.v2r2.halp001/toc.htm



-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of zos reader
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2017 4:20 AM
To: IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: LRS VPS Printer Replacment

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[Dana Mitchell]

Here's another vote for IBM's NPF. It does indeed work, the only rough bits is the sort of un-intuitive way you set up printers and different types of output. Between the bare bones ISPF panels, a slightly altered NPF exit from CBT tape to support different forms and seperator pages, and a home written REXX to summarize the configuration options, we make do and it does the job for our small number of printers.

Dana

On Thu, 14 Dec 2017 13:58:43 +0000, Jackson, Rob <RWJa...@FIRSTTENNESSEE.COM> wrote:

>We successfully replaced VPS with NPF, which is included in CommServer. It's not quite as robust as VPS, but considering the price, it works beautifully.
>
>https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSLTBW_2.2.0/com.ibm.zos.v2r2.halp001/toc.htm
>
>

[Carroll, William]

Another vote for NPF. I have the same exact situation as Dana. Works well. We do CICS , Mainframe, Network, printing all through the same devices. Not one issue for over 2 years.

Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Dana Mitchell
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2017 9:38 AM
To: IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: [External Sender] Re: LRS VPS Printer Replacment

Here's another vote for IBM's NPF. It does indeed work, the only rough bits is the sort of un-intuitive way you set up printers and different types of output. Between the bare bones ISPF panels, a slightly altered NPF exit from CBT tape to support different forms and seperator pages, and a home written REXX to summarize the configuration options, we make do and it does the job for our small number of printers.

Dana

On Thu, 14 Dec 2017 13:58:43 +0000, Jackson, Rob <RWJa...@FIRSTTENNESSEE.COM> wrote:

>We successfully replaced VPS with NPF, which is included in CommServer. It's not quite as robust as VPS, but considering the price, it works beautifully.
>

>https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.ibm.com_suppor
>t_knowledgecenter_en_SSLTBW-5F2.2.0_com.ibm.zos.v2r2.halp001_toc.htm&d=
>DwIFaQ&c=d60WtbP-TE8UTVlwaGeUew&r=0OYrvv-xAtC8gopEzih2fGqhAF71aLLPILdkm
>_E4qhE&m=Eggqe4V6j4HDzCSzZYCekJPNDALqHQkFg8c7hiJdAxY&s=STdAp-9OQtbRaDbu
>7bcaVVSkcwOJt49B7tcA1vcoRLw&e=

>
>

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[John McKown]

On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 8:42 AM, Carroll, William <
Carr...@grangeinsurance.com> wrote:

> Another vote for NPF. I have the same exact situation as Dana. Works
> well. We do CICS , Mainframe, Network, printing all through the same
> devices. Not one issue for over 2 years.
>

​I got NPF working and it did well. However, it was (is still?) hard to
administer. So hard that the VTAM person (we actually still had SNA 3270
nodes via Visara controllers) decided that it was unacceptable. We went
with MacKinney's JQP. It was easier to administer than NPF (but not as easy
as VPS); reliable (we still use it); and relatively inexpensive.​



>
> Bill
>
>

--
I have a theory that it's impossible to prove anything, but I can't prove
it.

Maranatha! <><
John McKown

[Porowski, Kenneth]

Another vote for MacKinney's JQP.

[Pew, Curtis G]

On Dec 14, 2017, at 8:49 AM, Porowski, Kenneth <ken.po...@CIT.COM> wrote:
>
> Another vote for MacKinney's JQP.

We’ve been happy with it too.

--
Pew, Curtis G
curti...@austin.utexas.edu
ITS Systems/Core/Administrative Services

[Nims,Alva John , Al]

Ditto on JQP here at the University of Flordia.

Al Nims
Systems Admin/Programmer 3
UFIT
University of Florida
(352) 273-1298

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Pew, Curtis G
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2017 10:16 AM
To: IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU

[Jesse 1 Robinson]

This question has been floated here also. The main concern is that in our VPS implementation--decades old--the user can control the output format via printer name. So DEST=prt-name-D will print double-sided; prt-name-L will print landscape; and so on. We have built lots of code to support this option, and users expect it. Do these other products have some similar capability?

.
.
J.O.Skip Robinson
Southern California Edison Company
Electric Dragon Team Paddler
SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager
323-715-0595 Mobile
626-543-6132 Office ⇐=== NEW
robi...@sce.com

[Dana Mitchell]

For each NPF printer, I have multiple forms set up with routing records that point to different PCL exits to control size, and orientation. It could easily be done with different destination names too.

Dana

On Thu, 14 Dec 2017 16:42:53 +0000, Jesse 1 Robinson <Jesse1....@SCE.COM> wrote:

>This question has been floated here also. The main concern is that in our VPS implementation--decades old--the user can control the output format via printer name. So DEST=prt-name-D will print double-sided; prt-name-L will print landscape; and so on. We have built lots of code to support this option, and users expect it. Do these other products have some similar capability?
>

[Jesse 1 Robinson]

Thanks for all the responses. I compiled a list of the products mentioned together with 'ratings' and comments. I was surprised at the volume of NPF endorsements; I didn't even know about it. A lot of us choose a product for a particular purpose and stop window shopping, never realizing that the landscape is constantly evolving.

.
.
J.O.Skip Robinson
Southern California Edison Company
Electric Dragon Team Paddler
SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager
323-715-0595 Mobile
626-543-6132 Office ⇐=== NEW
robi...@sce.com

<snip to the bone>

[Tony Harminc]

On 14 December 2017 at 18:18, Jesse 1 Robinson <Jesse1....@sce.com> wrote:
> Thanks for all the responses. I compiled a list of the products mentioned together with 'ratings' and comments. I was surprised at the volume of NPF endorsements; I didn't even know about it. A lot of us choose a product for a particular purpose and stop window shopping, never realizing that the landscape is constantly evolving.

There are also several potential solutions to this general problem on
the CBTTAPE site, either on the main "tape" or on the JES2 "mods"
tape. Naturally these are unsupported, and may or may not work on
current levels of JES2, but certainly the price is right. And some of
them are not unsophisticated solutions at all.

Tony H.

[Steve Beaver]

How many printers are on your system? The system I had had 1400 printers

Sent from my iPhone

Sorry for the autocorrect issues

[Wendell Lovewell]

Hello "zos"!

MacKinney Systems' JQP will meet your needs at a very affordable price. Please give us a call!

Wendell Lovewell
MacKinney Systems
417-882-8012

[Jesse 1 Robinson]

All I want for Xmas is the answer to the question of how many. ;-) We have over 12K (!) VPS definitions, but...

1. Many of those are multiple entries for the same physical device with varying format attributes like double-sided, landscape, two-up, etc. For example, one device I picked at random has 13 entries representing various attributes.

2. We have added innumerable printers over the decades. I was never 'the VPS guy', but I suspect that very few if any obsolete entries were deleted.

.
.
J.O.Skip Robinson
Southern California Edison Company
Electric Dragon Team Paddler
SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager
323-715-0595 Mobile
626-543-6132 Office ⇐=== NEW
robi...@sce.com

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Steve Beaver
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2017 6:17 PM
To: IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Subject: (External):Re: LRS VPS Printer Replacment

How many printers are on your system? The system I had had 1400 printers

Sent from my iPhone

Sorry for the autocorrect issues

> On Dec 14, 2017, at 19:34, Tony Harminc <to...@HARMINC.NET> wrote:
>
>> On 14 December 2017 at 18:18, Jesse 1 Robinson <Jesse1....@sce.com> wrote:
>> Thanks for all the responses. I compiled a list of the products mentioned together with 'ratings' and comments. I was surprised at the volume of NPF endorsements; I didn't even know about it. A lot of us choose a product for a particular purpose and stop window shopping, never realizing that the landscape is constantly evolving.
>
> There are also several potential solutions to this general problem on
> the CBTTAPE site, either on the main "tape" or on the JES2 "mods"
> tape. Naturally these are unsupported, and may or may not work on
> current levels of JES2, but certainly the price is right. And some of
> them are not unsophisticated solutions at all.
>
> Tony H.

[Keith Smith]

LRS provides a report of printer use, if you are collecting the SMF, If you
don't have 13 months of data then make sure to sample month end, quarter
end and year end processing dates... if not, you may miss some limited use
printers.

On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 11:56 AM, Jesse 1 Robinson <Jesse1....@sce.com>

--
Keith Smith
Engineer-Enterprise Sys Sr.-IT Capacity & Performance
Shaw Industries Inc.
Subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway
616 E Walnut Ave
Mail Drop 072-04
Dalton, GA 30721
Email: Keith...@shawinc.com Office: 706.532.3244

Please consider the environment before printing.

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[Cieri, Anthony]

LRS also provides several PCMDxxxx keywords that can reduce the need for multiple definitions for the "same" printer. These keywords provide various methods of "injecting" printer commands to control pagination, duplex, fonts etc. For example:

PCMDSTRT=(FPS13266,FPS13266,&WRITER), PRINTER COMMANDS AT START
PCMDEND=(FPS13266,FPS13266), PRINTER COMMANDS AT END

Also, VPS user exit 7 (VPSSUE07), if ENABLEed, is the exit responsible for SMF recording. By default, VPS records SMF type 6 records for printer activity.

Hth
Tony

[Roger Bolan]

You should also look at Infoprint Server. It's a component of z/OS.

I don't know what the LRS VPS definitions look like, but I see another post
here that mentions 12K definitions. If you can read those with code, Rexx
perhaps, and parse them, you could create a text file of pidu create
commands to create the equivalent definitions for the Printer Inventory.
PIDU = Printer Inventory Definition Utility.

The documentation is in the IBM Knowledge Center.
You can go here:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter
and just search for pidu

or go here to see all the Infoprint Server related books, including in PDF
format.
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLTBW_2.3.0/com.ibm.zos.v2r3.aps/aps.htm


--Roger

[PINION, RICHARD W.]

I personally like IP Print Server over NPF. But it is a cost item, as in not
free as in NPF.

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Roger Bolan
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 4:14 PM
To: IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: LRS VPS Printer Replacment

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[Jackson, Rob]

Not sure whom you were asking, but I can answer for our formerly-VPS, now-NPF shop. We have 65 active physical printers, covered by 174 definitions.



-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jesse 1 Robinson
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 11:56 AM
To: IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: LRS VPS Printer Replacment

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[Warren Brown]

Hey Rob

[Gilson]

Jesse:

In order to map all the printers are in use from all of 12k defined
in your VPS system you can use a very simple program that comes with the
VPS library that lists all the reports and printers in use but, for make
use of it, you need to record SMF register 6.

I can send you the source code we have used with some modifications
in order to filter by printer names ore sufix name.

I hope it helps you.

Regards,

Gilson Cesar

------ Mensagem original ------
De: "Warren Brown" <war...@att.net>
Para: IBM-...@listserv.ua.edu
Enviado(s): 15/12/2017 19:35:40
Assunto: Re: LRS VPS Printer Replacment

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[Barkow, Eileen]

I am curious as to why you want to replace VPS with another product, at least one which you would have to pay for anyway.
I know that Mckinney has a competing product which is probably cheaper than VPS, but
LRS support has always been great (when they get paid on time) and it may not be worth the effort to replace it.
Especially if a lot of customized code has to be written.

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of zos reader
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2017 4:20 AM
To: IBM-...@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: LRS VPS Printer Replacment

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[Longnecker, Dennis]

I did the VPS -> JQP/VVP swap out around 2003. Have about 1500 printers defined in JQP/VVP.

I find the support really good with the JQP and VVP products. I tried NPF first, but the administration would have been really hard for my help desk people.

The only reason I did the swap out in the first place was cost. First it was the cost for CPU upgrades, but I am also seeing savings in the yearly costs.

Dennis

[zos reader]

We have more than 4000 printers and due to costing we are planning to
migrate to other..

Thanks all for your inputs..!!!

On Tuesday, December 19, 2017, Longnecker, Dennis <

[Alan Hein]

I have been reading the manuals and I have not understanding how LPR/LPD
relates to NPF.
How does the LPR/LPD environment relate to the NPF environment. In relation
to the JES2 capture point.
Ultimately I want the following to end up on a network printer: //SYSUT2
DD SYSOUT=B,DEST=U300
I do have output from the above DD making it to the NPF VSAM QUEUE dataset
in a Z status.
I have the LPSERVE started task running, but I do not think that I have the
LPDATA configured correctly.
I assume to accomplish getting my above output to a network printer, then I
would configure a REMOTE service?
If so, is the REMOTE service associated with a value in the NPF ROUTING
VSAM dataset? And if so, which values both in the LPDATA and the ROUTING?

Thank You!
Alan

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