Subject: Re: too many lpNet processes

From: [email-masked] (Casper H.S. Dik)
Date: 21 Oct 1993 08:57:15 GMT

[email-masked] (Vibhavasu Vuppala) writes:

>Hi,

>Env : sparc-10, 2.2, mandatory patches, 101025-07

>There are about 50 lpnet prodcesses running on the print server. lpshut
>make them disappear but they come back after starting the LP sceduler.
>It is creating a process for each client we have.

This is due to the timeout you have said in the /etc/lp/Systems file.

To get rid of the lpNet processes, you'll need to put a"

<printserver>:x:-:s5:-:0:10:-:-:

in the /etc/lp/Systems file on each of your print clients.

This makes the clients drop the connection when the work is done.
We also noticed that the print service became more reliable once we used
a ``never'' timeout on the server and a 0 timeout on the clients.

Casper

---

From: [email-masked] (Richard Elling)
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 22:06:39 GMT

In article [email-masked], [email-masked] (Vibhavasu Vuppala) writes:
>Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I kinda doubt there are 50.  By default lpsched will croak if you have
too many printers (the magic number seems to be about 48) and do an
lpstat.  It opens a file descriptor for every printer and since the
default file descriptor limit is 64, it will crash unceremoniously.
You can fix it by increasing the file descriptor limit in the 
/etc/init.d/lp script as follows:
	ulimit -n 256
	[ -f /usr/lib/lpsched ] && /usr/lib/lpsched

This really ought to make it into one of the lp patches, better yet
change lpsched so it doesn't leave bunches of open files, or at least
doesn't crash when it can no longer open more files.

For my own network, I'd rather not have so many printers -- what a waste
of money.  Alas, every time I recommend saving $200k/year by not buying
more printers I get shouted down :-(

---
 Richard Elling, Manager of Network Support, Engineering Administration
 Auburn University     [email-masked]     kb4hb.ampr.org
 Where is Auburn?  Go to Margaritaville, take a right, and go until you
 have to ask yourself where in the hell you are.

---

From: [email-masked] (Vibhavasu Vuppala)
Date: 22 Oct 1993 13:46:47 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Richard Elling) writes:
|> In article [email-masked], [email-masked] (Vibhavasu Vuppala) writes:
|> >Env : sparc-10, 2.2, mandatory patches, 101025-07
|> >
|> >There are about 50 lpnet prodcesses running on the print server. lpshut
|> >make them disappear but they come back after starting the LP sceduler.
|> >It is creating a process for each client we have.
|> >
|> >Any help will be greatly appreciated.
|> 
|> I kinda doubt there are 50.  By default lpsched will croak if you have
|> too many printers (the magic number seems to be about 48) and do an
|> lpstat.  It opens a file descriptor for every printer and since the
|> default file descriptor limit is 64, it will crash unceremoniously.
|> You can fix it by increasing the file descriptor limit in the 
|> /etc/init.d/lp script as follows:
|> 	ulimit -n 256
|> 	[ -f /usr/lib/lpsched ] && /usr/lib/lpsched
|> 

no, the problem lies with the number of clients and not the printers.

each client initiates a connection with each printer server which results
in a lpNet on the client as well as the server side.
the clients do not drop the connection since timeout in /etc/lp/Systems
is set to "n" (never timeout). So the server has an lpNet for each client
and the clients have an lpNet for each printer.

this can be solved by having the timeout as 0 in /etc/lp/Systems.

- vasu
PS : 50 printers !! I am frustrated to death with just one !!